Tacoma’s 126th Open to feature most talented, deepest pool of tennis players ever

WHEN

Monday-Sunday. The first two days include men’s qualifying singles, with the main draw for singles beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Main draw for doubles begins at 11 a.m. Thursday.

WHERE

Tacoma Lawn Tennis Club

SCHEDULE

Monday: Men’s qualifying singles, 4:30-8:30 p.m.

Tuesday: Men’s qualifying singles, 2-8:30 p.m.

Wednesday: Main Draw Singles, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.

Thursday: Main Draw Singles and Doubles, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Friday: Main Draw Singles and Doubles, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Saturday: Semifinals, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Sunday: Finals, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

PURSE

Total purse is $30,000. Singles champions earn $4,000, doubles champions collect $2,000 and mixed doubles title earns $800.

2016 CHAMPIONS

Women’s singles: Jacqueline Cako (Brier)

Men’s singles: Henry Craig (Wichita, Kansas)

Men’s doubles: Henry Craig/Samir Ifikhar

Women’s doubles: Jacqueline Cako/Davina Meza

Mixed doubles: Jacqueline Cako/Joel Kielbowicz

WHO

Men’s: There’s a lot of stars on the men’s side. This is the deepest, most talented pool of tennis players the PNW Open has ever seen. Top-seeded Francisco Bahamonde, a 20-year-old from Argentina, was ranked No. 344 in the world in 2016 after winning two Futures singles titles. Now he’s ranked No. 637 and is hoping to take a title from Tacoma in his first trip here. But there’s also Alexios Halebian of Hollywood, California. The 23-year-old lefty is the No. 2 seed and is ranked No. 553 in the world. In 2012 he was in the finals of the USTA 18s National Championships in Kalamazoo. The No. 3 seed is University of Virginia senior Collin Altamirano. He was selected to the NCAA All-Tournament team at No. 4 singles and No. 3 doubles this past season. And that slides 2013 PNW Open champ Kyle McMorrow to a No. 4 seed after the former UW No. 1 singles player once reached top-10 status in the ITA rankings. Also watch out for 17-year-old Jenson Brooksby of Carmichael, California. He’s rated a blue chip prospect and ranked No. 1 nationally by tennisrecurting.net. And both Connor Curry of Texas Tech and Jake Douglas of UW were considered five-star recruits, too.

Women’s: Jacqueline Cako of Snohomish County is currently in China competing in the Jiagxi International Women’s Tennis Open. So there will be a new champion this year. Might it be 20-year-old Dasha Ivanova, the No. 1 seed from Beaverton, Oregon? In 2014, she reached a career-high junior ITF ranking of No. 32 in the world and after turning professional, she is now ranked No. 592 for singles and No. 378 for doubles. Two-time PNW Open champion Gail Brodsky of Zaporozhye, Ukraine, is the No. 2 seed. She’s been to higher stages than this – competing as a wild card in the 2008 and 2009 US Opens. She was once ranked No. 182 in the world in singles and now balances competing with teaching at Northwest High Performance Tennis in Kirkland. University of Oregon senior Alyssa Tobita is the No. 3 seed and was a five-star recruit out of Hawaii. No. 5 seed Kenadi Hance is a rising junior at UW and former five-star recruit out of Torrance, California.

For more information, visit thetltc.com/pnw-open.

This story was originally published July 24, 2017 at 9:17 AM with the headline "Tacoma’s 126th Open to feature most talented, deepest pool of tennis players ever."