After two days of gloom and rain, the $25k Legends Long Beach USTA Pro Circuit resumes this morning with the final round of qualifying and opening matches of the main draw. Needless to say, the schedule at El Dorado Tennis Center is jam packed today with those in search of their first title of 2018 – and one player seeking his second trophy of the young season.
Karue Sell, the singles and doubles champion last weekend in Los Angeles, meets Switzerland’s Yann Marti in the first round later today. Sell, the Brazilian out of UCLA now residing in Redondo Beach, will not seek a second doubles title in Long Beach.
The main draw seedings have been shuffled some, with the addition of multiple new wild card entries in the top 10. Austin Krajicek, the current #264 in ATP world rankings, is the top seed at Long Beach, following by (2) Marcos Giron (Thousand Oaks), (3) Kaichi Uchida of Japan, and (4) Jan Satral, the original top seeded competitor this week.
Southern Californians in the draw include UCLA’s Martin Redlicki, Alexios Halebian (Hollywood), USC Trojan Logan Smith (Carlsbad), Evan Zhu (Irvine) of UCLA, and #8 seed JC Aragone (Yorba Linda). All will see action on Wednesday when the main draw kicks off following final matches of the qualifier.
News & Notes
The nation’s top collegiate recruit, San Diego’s Brandon Nakashima, withdrew from his final qualifier match today after winning in the first two rounds of the advance bracket… Marcos Giron, the #2 seed from Southern California, was the winner in last year’s USC/Los Angeles Pro Circuit event. He is ranked inside the top 300 and last won a Futures event in China last May… Luke Bambridge (GBR) and Hans Hach (MEX) are top seeds in the doubles draw again this week. The tandem reached last week’s Pro Circuit final in Los Angeles, falling to Sell/Redlicki in straight sets. Former USC Trojan Deiton Baughman is the top seeded local, teaming with Kaichi Uchida as the #3 seeds.