BNP Paribas – Locals Compete For Wild Card Spots
The BNP Paribas Open’s pre-qualifier allows for 140 players, 91 men and 49 women to compete for 2 remaining wildcard spots in the tournament. The BNP Paribas Open qualifying draws begin on March 7 for the women and March 8 for the men.
The women?s draw is headlined by Sally Peers, from Australia, ranked No. 158 in the world. She qualified for the US Open last year reaching the second round, and this year she received a wildcard into the Australian Open. She is joined in the field by a group of other up-and-coming players including Julia Boserup, Krista Hardebeck, Megan Falcon, Asia Muhammed, Yasmin Schnack and Brittany Augustine.
On the men?s side the field is led by Roman Borvanov, from Moldova,who qualified for the ATP World Tour event in San Jose last month. In addition, Daniel Kosakowski, the No. 1 singles player at UCLA, and Brian Battistone, who participated in the US Open doubles tournament in 2010, join Borvanov in the field.
A cadre of local players will be competing in the event including Bruno Araujo, Sergio Avina, Chris Bastardi, Kyle Bastardi, Nick Cummins, Caerwyn Evans, Stefan Farrar, Jack Felich, Christian Fischer, Johnathon Florez-Cohen, Phil Holbrook, Brad Joelson, Aidan Koross, Adon Kronk, Cris Michel, Daniel Milliken, Leonardo Oricchio, Will Prim, Dalibor Ptak, Jimmy Roberts, Alvie Sanchez,Alex Sandri, Rodrigo Schaefer, Andy Scorteanu, Ian Suwara, Jad Toukan, Brittany Blalock, Kaiulani Boyer, Desirae Krawczyki, and Regina Suarez.
Two local men that found themselves playing deep into the pre-qualifier were Rancho Mirage native A.J. Bartlett and teaching pro Marcin Rozpedski. For these two, the home court advantage is certainly something special. “It’s been great, I’ve really enjoyed playing out here the last few years,” said Bartlett. “It’s just been nice to have people around and people you know in there watching and cheering for you every time you hit something good.”
“It’s a beautiful thing,” explained Rozpedski. “Local kids playing great tennis, we love the area, we love the people. My members are always coming out from the lakes. All of the friends and family come out, I’m sure A.J.’s family and friends are out here too, it’s just nice.”
Matches will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 2 ? Friday, March 4 and Saturday, March 5 at 11:00 a.m. The women?s final will be on Sunday, March 6 at 11:00 a.m. followed by the men at 1:00 p.m.
