Pegula, Korda named Team USA  Players of the Month - March

No matter the time zone, continent or quarantine rules, Jessica Pegula and Sebastian Korda continued to succeed in March, much as they have all of 2021.

Korda, who was also named Team USA’s Player of the Month for January, started his month with a victory over 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic, in Acapulco. The 20-year-old Bradenton, Fla., native then impressed at the ATP Masters 1000 Miami Open with a run to the quarterfinals—earning his first  Top-10 win, over Diego Schwartzman—to rise to a new career-high No. 65 in the rankings.

Read More: Coach Dean Goldfine on Sebastian Korda

The 27-year old Pegula also carried the momentum of her breakout year through March, going 12-3 in singles and reaching the semifinals of the WTA 500 in Doha, Qatar, the quarterfinals at the WTA 1000 in Dubai and the Round of 16 at the WTA 1000 Miami Open. The Buffalo, N.Y., native beat former World No. 1 Karolina Pliskova three times in March and rose to a new career-high No. 32 in the world.

Further highlights from Americans on tour in March include: 

• Taylor Fritz beat consecutive Top-15 opponents David Goffin and Denis Shapovalov to reach the semifinals at the ATP 250 in Doha, Qatar, his first ATP semifinal since facing off against Rafael Nadal in the 2020 Acapulco final. 
• Former Wimbledon girls’ Finalist Ann Li reached her second WTA semifinal of the year at the WTA 250 in Monterrey, Mexico, to reach a new career-high ranking of No. 67. Caroline Dolehide and Asia Muhammad won the doubles title in Monterrey, Dolehide’s first WTA doubles title and Muhammad’s sixth. 
• Top-ranked doubles American Nicole Melichar won her ninth career doubles title at the WTA 500 in Doha, Qatar. 
• Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria, the 2013 NCAA doubles champions at USC, reached the doubles final at the WTA 500 in St. Petersburg, Russia, their second WTA finals appearance together (Acapulco 2018).
• Former Arizona State Sun Devil Desirae Krawczyk reached her second WTA doubles final of the year at the WTA 250 in Guadalajara, Mexico. 
• Former French Open boys’ champion Bjorn Fratangelo won the singles title at the ATP Challenger 80 in Cleveland, Ohio—his fourth Challenger title and first since 2018—over former USTA Boys’ 18s national singles champion Jenson Brooksby. Former college standouts Alex Lawson (Notre Dame) and Rob Galloway (Wofford) won the doubles title there, Galloway’s 10th Challenger doubles title in the last three years and Lawson’s third since 2018
• Nate Lammons (SMU) and Jackson Withrow (Texas A&M) won the doubles title at the ATP Challenger 125 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, Lammons’ ninth and Withrow’s eighth. 
• Former USC standout Danielle Lao outlasted 2017 Wimbledon girls’ champion Claire Liu to win the singles title at the USTA Pro Circuit W25 event in Newport Beach, Calif., her first singles title since 2015. Former doubles world No. 3 Vania King paired with Maegan Manasse, once the top-ranked collegiate singles player at Cal-Berkeley, to win the Newport Beach doubles title. 
• Players to win ITF World Tennis Tour 15-level singles titles: Former Florida Gator Oliver Crawford (Pune, India); Emilio Nava (La Nucia, Spain); Zane Khan, 2 (Indore, Indonesia; Lucknow, India).
• Players to win ITF World Tennis Tour 15-level doubles titles: Former TCU Horned Frog Alex Rybakov and former USTA Boys’ 18s junior doubles champion Martin Damm (Opatija, Croatia); Princeton Tiger Zoe Howard (Gonesse, France); former UNC Tar Heel Jessie Aney (Antalya, Turkey).