Gauff, Korda named Team USA Players of the Month - May

If this May on clay was any indication of what to expect in the years ahead on the European red dirt, several Americans, led by Team USA Players of the Month Coco Gauff and Sebastian Korda, made sure to raise some eyebrows.

Overall, the 17-year old Gauff went 9-2 in singles on red-clay matches in the lead-up to the French Open, including a run to the semifinals in Rome, and won her second career WTA singles title at the 250 event in Parma, Italy, her first WTA clay-court title. She and Caty McNally also reunited their ‘McCoco’ doubles team to win the doubles title in Parma, their third WTA doubles title together.

The 20-year-old Korda took to those same courts the following week and became the first American man since 2010 (Sam Querrey, Belgrade) to win a singles title on European clay. That came on the heels of 23-year-old Reilly Opelka’s run to the Rome semifinals, his first appearance in a Masters 1000 semifinal.

More highlights from Americans on tour in May: 

• Former Arizona State Sun Devil Desirae Krawczyk won her sixth WTA doubles title at the 250 in Strasbourg, France, and rose to a career-high No. 17 in the world.
• Former NCAA doubles champions at USC, Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria reunited to win the doubles title at the WTA 125 in Saint-Malo, France, their sixth pro doubles title together and first at a WTA-level event.
  
• Former Wimbledon girls’ singles champion Claire Liu beat Madison Brengle to win the singles title at the W100 in Charleston, S.C., her second consecutive title on Har-Tru green clay. McNally also won the doubles title there.
  
• Former USTA girls’ 18s national champion Katie Volynets won the singles title at the USTA Pro Circuit W100 in Bonita Springs, Fla
  
• A number of former men’s college stars won doubles titles on the Challenger circuit: Tennessee Volunteer Hunter Reese at the 125 in Oeiras, Portugal; Michigan Wolverine Evan King at the 50 in Biella, Italy; SMU Mustang Nathaniel Lammons , first at the 80 in Biella, Italy, and again with former Texas A&M Aggie Jackson Withrow at the 100 in Heilbronn, Germany.
  
• Former NCAA singles champion UNC Tar Heel Jamie Loeb reached the singles final at the USTA Pro Circuit W25 in Pelham, Ala.
  
• Former junior star Zane Khan won his third ITF-level singles title of 2021 at the M15 in Jerusalem.
  
• Players to win ITF World Tennis Tour 25-level doubles titles: former Virginia Cavalier JC Aragone (Pensacola, Fla.); former Georgia Tech star Rasheeda McAdoo (Salinas, Ecuador); Catherine Harrison (Naples, Fla.).
  
• Players to win ITF World Tennis Tour 15-level doubles titles: Former TCU Horned Frog Reese Stalder [2] (Heraklion, Greece; Ramat Hasharon, Israel); former US Open girls’ doubles finalist Dalayna Hewitt and Chiara Scholl (Monastir, Tunisia);  former Wake Forest stars Emma Davis [1] and Anna Ulyashchenko [2] (Monastir, Tunisia); former Winthrop Eagle Lauren Proctor (Monastir, Tunisia); former TCU Horned Frog Alex Rybakov and former USTA boys’ 18s doubles champ Martin Damm (Valldoreix, Spain); former Minnesota Gopher Felix Corwin (Ramat Hasharon, Israel).