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Team USA in Review: July 2018

Pat Mitsch | August 07, 2018


July was a month in which two giants of the game grabbed the world’s attention, as Serena Williams and John Isner each added to their legacies.

 

Williams, in only her fourth tournament since returning from giving birth to her daughter, reached her 30th Grand Slam singles final at Wimbledon, becoming the third-oldest (36) Grand Slam finalist in the Open Era (since 1968).

 

The 6-foot-10 Isner, meanwhile, reached his first Grand Slam semifinal at The All-England Club, a match that would become the second-longest in Grand Slam history, as he fell to Kevin Anderson in a 6-hour, 36-minute match that included a 50-game fifth set. Isner then won his fifth title at the BB&T Atlanta Open two weeks later – beating Davis Cup teammate Ryan Harrison in the final for the second straight year – to join Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi as the only American men to win a single tournament five times.

 

Other Grand Slam highlights from Americans in July include:

  •  Jack Sock and Mike Bryan won the Wimbledon men’s doubles title. It was Mike’s 17th Grand Slam doubles title and his first without Bob, while it was Sock’s second Wimbledon doubles title.
  •  Nicole Melichar reached the Wimbledon women’s doubles final and won the mixed doubles title, her first Grand Slam championship.

 

More Tour-level highlights:

  • Steve Johnson won his fourth ATP singles title at the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, R.I., where Tim Smyczek reached his first ATP semifinal.
  • Nicholas Monroe won his fourth career ATP doubles title, and first since 2015, at the BB&T Atlanta Open, over Harrison and Rajeev Ram.
  • Desirae Krawczyk, a former Arizona State Sun Devil, won her first WTA doubles title, at the International event in Gstaad, Switzerland.

 

Challenger and Pro Circuit-level highlights:

  • Bradley Klahn, the 2010 NCAA singles champion out of Stanford, won his first Challenger singles title since 2014 – after which multiple back surgeries nearly ended his career. He also won the doubles title there with Robert Galloway.
  • Former USTA Girls’ 18s national champion Gail Brodsky, now a 27-year-old  mother of two, beat former Cal-Berkeley All-American Maegan Manasse to win the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit singles title in Ashland, Ky.
  • Nineteen-year old Sofia Kenin beat two-time NCAA champion Nicole Gibbs to win her third $50,000-plus title at the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Berkeley, Calif. Gibbs won the doubles title, with Asia Muhammad.
  • Jessica Pegula reached the singles final and won the doubles title at the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Honolulu.
  • Ulises Blanch won his first Challenger singles title at the €43,000 event in Perugia, Italy.
  • Former Notre Dame doubles All-American Alex Lawson won his first Challenger-level doubles title at the $100,000 event in Granby, Canada.
  • Austin Krajicek, an NCAA doubles champion at Texas A&M, won his third Challenger doubles title of the year at the $75,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Winnetka, Ill.
  • Allie Kiick (Bastad, Sweden) and JC Aragone (Kelowna, Canada) won $25,000 singles titles.
  • Eighteen-year old Elyisa Bolton won her first pro singles title at the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Evansville, Ind.
  • Michigan Wolverine Kate Fahey won her first pro singles title at the $15,000 event in Dijon, France.
  • Sam Riffice ($25,000; Tulsa, Okla.), Ulises Blanch ($25,000; Montauban, France), Sekou Bangoura ($15,000, Kamen, Germany) all reached Futures-level singles finals.
  • Players to win $25,000 doubles titles: Ohio State senior Martin Joyce (Champaign, Ill.); former Harvard Crimson Nicholas Hu (Chinese Taipei); Nick Chappell and Alec Adamson (Iowa City, Iowa); Emil Reinberg (Tulsa, Okla.); Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Kelowna, Canada); Ulises Blanch (Montauban, France); 
  • Players to win $15,000 doubles titles: Connie Ma (Evansville, Ind.); University of Michigan teammates Kate Fahey and Chiara Lommer (Les Contamines-Montjoie, France); JP Fruttero (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia); Junior Ore (Pittsburgh); Elli Mandlik (Curtea de Arges, Romania).

 

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