Sixteen UTR Pro Tennis Tour Players Pick Up US Open Wild Cards

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This week, the US Open announced wild card entries for the 2021 tournament, and a flurry of UTR Pro Tennis Tour players will be heading to New York.

Sixteen players that have competed on PTT this year will appear in the professional and junior events later this month. Play in New York begins with qualifying on August 24 followed by the main draw starting on August 30 and the junior Grand Slam kicking off on September 6.

UTR Pro Tennis Tour Players with US Open Wild Cards

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The Men

Of the 17 men’s wild cards announced for the main draw and qualifying, six have played UTR PTT events this year, picking up valuable match play and prize money.

Fast-rising star Jenson Brooksby (UTR Rating 15.29*) will compete in the US Open main draw. In his first year as a pro, this summer the 20-year-old Californian reached the semifinals of the ATP 500 in Washington, D.C. and the final of Newport. He began his breakthrough season in a different Newport, Newport Beach in California, where he won the PTT Men’s $25K Hard 1.

Zach Svajda (UTR Rating 14.14) earned a US Open main draw wild card thanks to his title USTA Boys 18s National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., while finalist Ben Shelton (UTR Rating 14.00) will play in qualifying. Svajda made his UTR Pro Tennis Tour debut at the Naples Clay 2 in January, while Shelton’s first tournament after winning the team NCAA title for Florida was the UTR Pro Tennis Tour Men’s $25K in Bradenton, Fla., where he finished in second place.

Stefan Kozlov (UTR Rating 14.36) and Govind Nanda (UTR Rating 13.99) will also appear in the men’s qualifying draw. Nanda reached the semifinals of a PTT event in Newport before the dual-season for his junior year at UCLA began. Max Purcell (UTR Rating 14.57) played three UTR Pro Tennis Series events last summer in Sydney, winning one. He's been given a wild card into the main draw thanks to a reciprocal agreement with Tennis Australia.

The Women

Of the 17 women’s wild cards, four are PTT stars, including USTA Grils 18s National Championships finalist Reese Brantmeier(UTR Rating 11.17), who made the third round of Wimbledon earlier this summer. The 16-year-old from Wisconsin was a finalist at the PTT Naples Women’s $25K Clay 1 in January.

Joining her in qualifying is Vicky Duval (UTR Rating 11.61), who won the PTT Naples Women’s $25K Clay 1 in January, and Hanna Chang (UTR Rating 11.43), who won the PTT Newport Beach Women’s $25K Hard 1, also in January.

Katie Volynets (UTR Rating 11.97) is one of the main draw wild cards. She competed in the PTT Newport Beach Women’s $25K Hard 1 in January, reaching the semifinals. Earlier this summer, Volynets made her Wimbledon debut after winning three rounds of qualifying. The Californian 19-year-old has played the US Open once before, in 2019, after she won the USTA Girls 18s National Championships.

The Juniors

Six PTT players picked up wild cards into the junior US Open, including Tatum Evans, Kyle Kang, Sarah Hamner, Ariana Pursoo, Colton Smith, and Nicholas Heng.

Hamner was a finalist at the PTT Atlanta Women’s $25K Hard 4 at the end of July. Her next event was the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s National Championships, where she finished in fifth place to earn the wild card into the US Open.

Kang has played eight PTT events this year including five in a row leading into his fifth-place finish in Kalamazoo.

Evans won the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 16s National Championships last week and earned a wild card into the main draw of the junior event. She played two PTT events in Bradenton this summer.

*UTR Ratings as of 3 p.m. August 20, 2021.