2022 Mercer Tennis Classic: Second Seed Udvardy Advances, Randy Stephens Tennis Center Night
MERCER UNIVERSITY - John Drew Smith Tennis Center - OCT 17 - OCT 23, 2022
USTA Pro Circuit 60K Event
MACON, Georgia, (October 19,
2022) The first round in singles and doubles are now complete. Macon this week
with the Mercer Tennis Classic held Oct. 17-23 at the John Drew Smith Tennis
Center off I-75 in Macon.
Singles winners on Wednesday included
Americans, Grace Min, Emma Navarro, Whitney Osuigwe and Akasha Urhobo.
Tournament No. 2 seed, Panna Udvardy of Hungary narrowly avoided
an upset, by taking out Whitney Osuigwe’s sister Victoria in three sets.
Udvardy is having a great year, spending most of it in the top 100. The native
of Kapsovar, Hungary recently reached the singles final at the WTA 125 event in
Lasi, Romania.
Former Macon champ, Kateryna Bondarenko shows
some flashes of the form that has made her a Macon favorite as she downed young
American Katrina Scott in straight sets.
Excitement was building throughout the day for
the night match featuring Taylor Townsend. Townsend was a finalist in doubles
at the 2022 US Open and is one of the tennis playing moms on the WTA Tour.
Townsend was featuring a tough foe in Hiroko Kuwata of Japan.
Townsend jumped out to a quick lead on a nice
cool Macon night. Kuwata struggled with Townsend’s pace to go down two breaks.
Townsend closed out the first set with a barrage of forehands.
More of the same in the second set as Townsend
closed it out.
Also of note on Wednesday. A Net Therapy clinic
was held at 5pm in the afternoon.
A plaque honoring the Randy Stephens Tennis
Center was presented by Randy Stephens to Mallory Jones of Macon.
Panna UDVARDY (HUN) [2] def Victoria OSUIGWE
(USA) 6-2 6-7(6) 6-3
WS Whitney OSUIGWE (USA) def Victoria HU
(USA) 6-2 6-1
WS Olivia LINCER (POL) def Salma EWING (USA)
2-6 7-5 6-0
Anna ROGERS (USA) def Maria MATEAS (USA)
7-5 1-6 6-4
Followed by WS Katie VOLYNETS (USA) [4] Tamara
BARAD ITZHAKI (ISR) 6-0 6-2
WS Akasha URHOBO (USA) def Dia EVTIMOVA (BUL)
6-3 6-1
WS Grace MIN(USA) def Alana SMITH (USA) 6-4 6-4
WS Ariana ARSENEAULT (CAN) def Carolyn ANSARI
(USA) 6-2 6-2
WS Kateryna BONDARENKO (UKR) def Katrina SCOTT
(USA) [6] 7-5 6-3
WS Emma NAVARRO (USA) [5] def Riya BHATIA (IND)
6-3 6-0
WD Thaisa Grana PEDRETTI (BRA) / Nadia
PODOROSKA Shatoo MOHAMAD (USA) / Rhiann NEWBOR6N 6-2 6-2
WD Anna ROGERS (USA) / Christina ROSCA (USA)
[1] Victoria OSUIGWE (USA) / Whitney OSUIGWE 6-2 6-2
WS Lisa ZAAR (SWE) Bianca Jolie FERNANDEZ (CAN)
6-3 6-1
WD Madison BRENGLE (USA) [3] / Maria MATEAS
(USA) Akasha URHOBO (USA) / Mia YAMAKITA (USA) 6-1) 6-1
WD Alexandra OSBORNE (AUS) [2] / Adriana REAMI
(USA) Salma EWING (USA) / Alana SMITH (USA) 6-7(3) 6-4 [10-7]
WS Taylor TOWNSEND (USA) [7] Hiroko KUWATA
(JPN) 6-1 6-0
Play resumes on Thursday.
Player field notes:
Brengle has been ranked as high as No. 35 in
the world
Emma Navarro, from Charleston SC, is up to a
career high ranking of 127
Most of these players played either the main
draw or qualifying of the 2022 US Open
New for 2022 are three evenings of night
matches during the week. (Please check the order of play each day for specific
matches and times.)
Tuesday October 18 - Macon Night, High
Performance Clinic
Wednesday October 19 - Honoring Randy Stephens
Tennis Center for USTA Facility Award
Thursday October 20 - Mercer University Night
Now in its tenth year, the Mercer Tennis Classic will once
again feature many of the best women tennis players in the world. It is the
second biggest professional tournament in the state of Georgia in terms of
prize money (ATP World Tour 250 event - Truist Atlanta Open in July, is the
largest). It is also the longest running professional women’s tennis tournament
in the state of Georgia. The event has been showcased on the Tennis Channel.