Wichita Tennis Open spotlights young men’s pro players

The Wichita Tennis Open’s main draw gets under way Tuesday at Wichita State’s Coleman Tennis Complex, providing an opportunity to see some of tennis’ up-and-coming men’s players.

The main draw of 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams comes from all over the globe, tournament director Nick Taylor said. The finals are Sunday.

It’s a good way to see some high-quality tennis and catch some standouts on the way up, he said. The highest-ranked player in the field is Darian King of Barbados, who is 219th in the world. The highest-ranked American is Mitchell Krueger of Fort Worth, who is 303rd.

“They just don’t have as high of a ranking,” he said. “These guys are good – really good.”

Qualifying for the main draw began Saturday, and first-round play will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday. There is no admission charge.

This will be the first time Wichita has been a stop on the U.S. Tennis Association’s Men’s Pro Circuit, Taylor said, although it had been a stop on the women’s tour until 2006. The tournament is hosted by the Maureen Connolly Brinker Tennis Foundation of Kansas, which hopes to make it an annual circuit stop.

Taylor said the tournament is more than a showcase for up-and-coming players, but also is a way for established players to improve enough to be ranked highly enough for larger tournaments. Rankings are part of the process that dictates where a player can go.

“If they do well here, their world ranking will go up, and they’ll get into bigger-level tournaments,” Taylor said.

A good example is women’s player Sloane Stephens, who is now on the Women’s Tennis Association tour and was a French Open semifinalist in 2013.

In addition to the international flavor in the field, there are also local players. Sam Beren, 18, a 2015 Collegiate High graduate who will attend Harvard this fall, is in the field as a wild card. Collegiate’s Easton Ewy and Connor Devlin lost in qualifying matches over the weekend.

Former Shocker player David Cavalcanti, who’s from Brazil, won three qualifying matches to earn one of eight spots in the main draw. His first-round match is Wednesday.

In doubles, former WSU player Thiago Santos is in the field, as is former Shocker Sergio de Vilchez, who will play alongside Beren. Their first-round match is at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

This story was originally published June 29, 2015 at 10:54 AM with the headline "Wichita Tennis Open spotlights young men’s pro players."