New Yorker Chirico to Represent U.S. at Pan American Games
The USTA has announced the three men and three women named to represent the United States at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, July 10-26. World number 63 Lauren Davis, world number 111 Louisa Chirico, and world number 112 Sachia Vickery were named to the women’s tennis team. The men’s tennis team will be comprised of Dennis Novikov, Jean-Yves Aubone and Gonzales Austin.
The players will compete in men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles, and mixed-doubles. USTA National Coaches Brad Stine and Kathy Rinaldi will coach the men’s and women’s teams, respectively.
►Davis, 21, of Boca Raton, Fla., peaked at number 43 in the world last July after advancing to the third round of the Australian Open and Wimbledon—her career-best Grand Slam results. This year, she reached the semifinals of the Australian Open tune-up event in Auckland, New Zealand, as well as the second round of the Australian Open, losing to Venus Williams. Davis also reached the quarterfinals in Charleston, with a win over then-Top 10 player Eugenie Bouchard, and competed on the U.S. Fed Cup team for its World Group Playoff tie in Italy in April. Last year, Davis advanced to the fourth round in Indian Wells and made her Fed Cup debut against Italy in the World Group Quarterfinal, winning the dead doubles match with Madison Keys in Cleveland, where Davis grew up.In 2013, she reached two WTA quarterfinals, in Monterrey and Quebec City, and won the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Midland, Mich. Davis peaked at number three in the ITF World Junior Rankings in 2010, when she won the Orange Bowl and reached the final of the Easter Bowl. Davis, who has trained at the Chris Evert Academy in Boca Raton, Fla., now works at the USTA Training Center adjacent to the Evert Academy.
►Chirico, 19, of Harrison, N.Y., made her Grand Slam singles main draw debut at the 2015 French Open after winning the Har-Tru USTA Pro Circuit Wild Card Challenge, which awards a French Open wild card to an American player based on his/her results on the USTA Pro Circuit. Chirico finished the wild card challenge by winning the singles title at the $50,000 event in Dothan, Ala., and by reaching the final at the $50,000 event in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla. As a junior player, Chirico reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon and French Open juniors and the quarterfinals of the junior US Open, all in 2013, to finish the year in the Top 10 of the ITF World Junior Rankings. In 2012, she teamed with Taylor Townsend to lead the U.S. to the Junior Fed Cup title in Barcelona. Chirico won her first USTA Pro Circuit singles title that same year at the $10,000 event in Sumter, S.C. This year, she competed in qualifying at the Australian Open, reached the final of the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Midland, Mich., and qualified for the WTA event in Acapulco, Mexico.
►Vickery, 20, of Miramar, Fla., is ranked a career-high of 112th in the world. She won the first two USTA Pro Circuit singles titles of her career earlier this year at the $25,000 Florida events in Plantation and Sunrise, and also reached her second career WTA quarterfinal at the Wimbledon tune-up event in Nottingham this month. Vickery earned a main-draw wild card into the 2014 Australian Open by winning the USTA's Australian Open Wild Card Playoff. She also competed in qualifying for the U.S. Open, French Open and Wimbledon in 2014, and she reached the quarterfinals at the Emirates Airline U.S. Open Series event in Stanford. In 2013, Vickery won the USTA National Girls’ 18s singles and doubles titles, earning wild cards into the main draws of the singles and doubles events at the 2013 U.S. Open. At the Open, she won her first-round match in her Grand Slam debut, defeating Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in straight sets. As a junior, Vickery ascended to sixth in the ITF World Junior Rankings.
►Novikov, 21, of San Jose, Calif., was the 2012 USTA Boys’ 18s national champion in singles and doubles. Those victories earned him wild card entries into each main draw at the 2012 U.S. Open, where he became just the second USTA Boys’ 18s champ in 15 years (the other being Jack Sock) to advance to the second round in singles; he defeated 2013 Wimbledon semifinalist Jerzy Janowicz in the first round. Novikov, born in Moscow, completed his sophomore year at UCLA in 2013 and turned pro that summer. He won his first career USTA Pro Circuit title soon afterward, at the $10,000 Futures in Amelia Island, Fla. He also had a strong 2014, winning three USTA Pro Circuit doubles titles and claiming four ITF singles titles. This year, he won his second USTA Pro Circuit singles title at the $15,000 Futures in Calabasas, Calif., and captured his sixth and seventh USTA Pro Circuit doubles titles. He is ranked 192nd in the world.
►Aubone, 27, of Miami, won nine USTA Pro Circuit doubles titles over the last three years. In 2014, he won his first USTA Pro Circuit singles title in six years at the clay court $10,000 Futures in Pittsburgh. Aubone played for Florida State University, where he was the first player in the school’s history to earn All-America singles honors twice. As a junior player, he represented the U.S. in Junior Davis Cup competition and reached the singles semifinals of the 2004 USTA Boys’ 18s National Clay Court Championships. He spent this March competing in ITF-level events in Israel, reaching a doubles final. He is ranked 469th in the world.
►Austin, 22, of Miami, graduated from Vanderbilt this year, where he earned four All-America honors in singles and doubles—in the process becoming Vanderbilt’s first four-time All-American. He also holds the record for single-season and career doubles victories, with Ryan Lipman (30 single-season doubles wins in 2014 and 36 career doubles wins).
The Pan Am Games are held every four years in the year immediately prior to the Olympic Games, and tennis has been contested at the Pan Am Games since the event’s inception in 1951. Americans who have won the gold medal at the Pan Am Games include Althea Gibson (1959, singles), Arthur Ashe (1967, mixed doubles), Patrick McEnroe (1987, men’s doubles), Pam Shriver (1991, singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles), Paul Goldstein (1999, singles), andIrina Falconi (2011, singles).
