Special Feature
Former College Stars, Juniors Take BNP Paribas Open Challenge
by Rick Limpert, 21 March 2015
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It's one of the longest of longshots in tennis.
Winning six or seven straight matches to reach just the "qualifying" stage of an ATP or WTA tennis event is considered a longshot. Thousands now try it each summer with the USTA's U.S. Open National Playoffs, and a couple hundred more try it each year in Indian Wells, Calif., as the people behind the BNP Paribas Open host the BNP Paribas Open Challenge.
The Challenge serves as a pre-qualifier, where the winner of the men's and women's divisions get a wildcard into the BNP Paribas Open qualifying events for the main draw.
These pre-qualifying events feature a wide assortment of players. The draws are mainly dotted with former top college players with world rankings of 300+ and juniors from California and neighboring states looking to see how their games stack up with the former college stars and veteran pros that are looking to regain form and climb back up the rankings.
This year, the "Challenge" ran March 2-7 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden and featured familiar names like former Ohio State All-American Chase Buchanan, UCLA star Clay Thompson, and journeyman pro and former U.S. Open Junior semifinalst, Mischa Zverev of Germany.
The loaded women's field not only featured former American college stars like Jacqueline Cako of Arizona State and Lauren Embree of Florida, but also former top juniors and rising pros in Samantha Crawford, Jessica Pegula and Julia Bosserup. Throw in a couple veterans like American, Alexa Glatch, and the Rodionova Sisters along with Mayo Hibi of Japan, who is a former winner of the U.S. Open National Playoffs, and anything and everything was bound to happen in the California desert.
On the men's side the word "upset" was used almost daily during the run of the pre-qualifier - including when Zverev ousted Buchanan in straight sets in one of the semifinals. The other semi had Ukrainan pro, Artem Smirnov, upending 21-year old American, Mico Santiago.
Zverev went on to defeat Smirnov 6-4, 6-2 in the finals to earn a spot in the BNP Paribas Open qualifying draw.
On the women's side, it was "March Madness", a term usually reserved for college basketball in the Unites States.
