Oct 19, 2022

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.