WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., August 19, 2004 – The USTA has announced that Brian Baker (Nashville, Tenn.) Alex Bogomolov, Jr. (Miami), Amer Delic (Jacksonville, Fla.), KJ Hippensteel (Roanoke, Va.), Scoville Jenkins (Atlanta), Wayne Odesnik (Weston, Fla.), Rajeev Ram (Carmel, Ind.) and Bobby Reynolds (Acworth, Ga.) have been awarded men’s singles main draw wild card entries into the 2004 US Open Tennis Championships, which will be played August 30 - September 12 at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. The US Open Men’s Singles Championship is presented by Lincoln Mercury.
Baker, 19, earned a career-high ATP Entry Ranking of No. 181 last week after sweeping the singles and doubles titles at the USTA Challenger in Denver, his first challenger title. He won his first ATP match this spring in Memphis and also reached the second round at the tour event in Newport, R.I. Baker began the year by winning his first professional singles title at the USTA Futures in Tampa. He is the leading men’s prize money winner on the 2004 USTA Pro Circuit and has posted a 23-9 record on the USTA Pro Circuit this year.
Bogomolov, Jr., 21, is currently No. 110 in the ATP Entry Ranking. He began 2004 by qualifying for the main draw at the Australian Open and played eventual champion Roger Federer in the first round of the main draw. Bogomolov reached the quarterfinals of an ATP event for the first in his career earlier this summer in Newport, defeating James Blake in the second round. He reached the final of the USTA Challenger in Calabasas as a qualifier.
Delic, 22, earned a career-high ATP Entry Ranking of No. 238 last week. He reached the final of two USTA Pro Circuit events this year, finishing runner-up at the USTA Challenger in Dallas as a qualifier and winning the USTA Futures in Auburn, Calif. Delic was awarded a main draw wild card into the 2003 US Open after winning the NCAA singles title as a junior at the University of Illinois.
Hippensteel, 24, earned a career-high ATP Entry Ranking of No. 205 after reaching the final of the USTA Challenger in Denver, his fourth final appearance of the year on the USTA Pro Circuit. He made his ATP debut at San Jose as a qualifier, defeating Dmitry Tursunov in the first round. He won his fourth career pro singles title at the USTA clay court futures in Tampa.
Jenkins, 18, earned the wild card as the winner of the USTA Boys’ 18s National Championship. He defeated Scott Oudsema in the best-of-five-sets final on Sunday to become the first African-American to win the event since it began in 1916. He is currently ranked No. 6 in the ITF World Junior Rankings, having reached the semifinals at Wimbledon earlier this summer. In the last year, he won two ITF Grade 1 junior titles, the Eddie Herr Championships and the Astrid Bowl.
Odesnik, 18, is currently No. 479 in the ATP Entry Rankings. The No. 1 seed at the USTA Boys’ 18s National Championship in Kalamazoo last week, he lost to Jenkins in a third-set tiebreak in the quarterfinals. Odesnik defeated current No. 29 Joachim Johansson in the first round of qualifying at Indian Wells in March.
Ram, 20, is currently No. 300 in the ATP Entry Rankings. He reached the second round of the ATP event in Indianapolis for the second consecutive year. On the USTA Pro Circuit, he was runner-up at the Little Rock, Ark. Futures and reached the quarterfinals of the Tallahassee Challenger and two other Futures.
Reynolds, 22, earned a career-high ATP Entry Ranking of No. 306 two weeks ago. He reached the semifinals at the USTA Challengers in Aptos, Calif., and Tallahassee, Fla., and the USTA Futures in McAllen, Texas. Reynolds recently completed his first full year on tour after turning professional as the No. 1 player in college tennis in May 2003 following his junior season at Vanderbilt.
In addition to the eight US Open men’s singles main draw wild cards, the USTA also announced the nine men who have been awarded wild card entries into the US Open Qualifying Tournament, which will be held August 24-27 at the USTA National Tennis Center.
Seven of the nine qualifying wild card recipients are under 20 years of age.
Players receiving US Open qualifying wild cards are: Brendan Evans (18, Key Biscayne, Fla.), Chris Guccione (19, Melbourne), Lesley Joseph (23, Rock Hill, S.C.), Mykyta Kryvonos (17, Flushing, N.Y.), Alex Kuznetsov (17, Richboro, Pa.), Scott Oudsema (18, Portage, Mich.), Phillip Simmonds (18, Reston, Va.), Todd Widom (21, Coral Springs, Fla.) and Donald Young (15, Fairburn, Ga.).
# # #
The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. It owns and operates the US Open, the largest annually attended sporting event in the world and, in 2004, launched the US Open Series which links 10 summer hard court tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns the 96 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S., and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games. A not-for-profit organization with more than 675,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, from the grass roots to the professional levels. For more information on the USTA, log on to usta.com.