News

The USTA Missouri Valley, Southern and Midwest Sectional Qualifying Tournaments of the 2012 US Open National Playoffs have all been completed, advancing the final 12 players to the US Open National Playoffs — Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Doubles Championships in August. Please see below for final results.

USTA Missouri Valley

Men’s Final – In Prairie Village, Kan., former Clemson All-American Clement Reix, 28, defeated Kansas City teaching professional Chris Smith, 6-2, 6-3, in the men’s final. Reix, who lives in France and is married to this year’s Missouri Valley women’s runner-up Sherazad Benamar, has been previously ranked as high as No. 250 in the world and played in qualifying at the 2011 US Open. He will spend the summer preparing for the US Open National Playoffs – Men’s Championship by playing various ITF-level events in Panama, Colombia and Canada.

Women’s Final – In the women’s final, Mary Weatherholt—who grew up in the Kansas City area and currently plays tennis for the University of Nebraska—staged an epic comeback against No. 2 seed Sherazad Benamar, of France. After splitting the first two sets, Weatherholt found herself down triple-match-point at 3-5, before fighting back and rattling off four straight games to win the match, which lasted just over three hours, 3-6, 6-0, 7-5. Weatherholt, 20, finished with a 30-11 singles record this year at Nebraska—her 30 wins were tied for second on the Cornhuskers’ single-season list, trailing only her 36 wins as a freshman in 2008-09. For her efforts, Weatherholt was named Big Ten Player of the Year and earned her first trip to the 2012 NCAA Women’s Singles Championship. An outstanding student, she carries nearly a 3.9 GPA as a business administration major and was honored with the ITA Central Region Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship Award.

Mixed Doubles Final – In the mixed doubles final, Blake Boswell, 25, and Madison Westby, 16, both of Tulsa, defeated Luke Beling and Ingrid Neel in a tight 6-2, 5-7, [10-8] final. Boswell played for Boise State and then transferred to the University of Oklahoma to play tennis. In high school, he led his team to two Oklahoma state championships. Westby, who is six feet, won the Class 6A Oklahoma high school state singles title as a freshman. She plays in national tournaments around the country.

USTA Southern

Men’s Final – In Alpharetta, Ga., Adam Lee, 20, of Auckland, New Zealand, defeated Danie van der Heever, 7-5, 6-4, to capture the men’s title. Lee plays for Wake Forest University. He peaked at No. 91 in the world in the ITF World Junior Rankings, winning the 2009 New Zealand 18-and-under singles championship. He earned his first ATP ranking point at a New Zealand ITF event in 2010 just before coming to the U.S. to play for Wake Forest.

Women’s Final – After receiving All-American singles and doubles honors in 2012 at the University of Tennessee, 22-year-old Natalie Pluskota, of Newnan, Ga., captured the women’s singles title, defeating fellow collegian Mary Anne Macfarlane, of the University of Alabama, 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-4. The two ITA All-Americans faced off in a match that spanned nearly three hours. Pluskota graduated from Tennessee this year and won two matches at the NCAA tournament, becoming the fifth player in UT history to advance to the round of 16. In high school, in addition to lettering in tennis three times, she was a four-year letterman on the basketball team and lettered once in cross country. She also served as captain for both the tennis and basketball squads for one season.

Mixed Doubles Final – WTA player Lindsay Lee-Waters, 35, of Alpharetta, Ga., and Marcus Hurtig, 32, of Woodstock, Ga., prevailed over Pluskota and her fellow University of Tennessee product Hunter Reese, 6-4, 7-5. Lee-Waters, a mother of two, holds 31 USTA Pro Circuit career titles (20 in doubles), which is second all-time. Lee-Waters first broke into the Top 50 in singles in 1995, when she qualified for Wimbledon and upset Pam Shriver in the opening round. Since taking time off in 2000 to give birth to her first child, a daughter, Lee-Waters has played primarily on the USTA Pro Circuit. Lee-Waters has also competed in 13 US Opens, either in the qualifying or main draw, advancing to the second round in 1995 and 2004. She competed in women’s doubles at Wimbledon this year with Megan Moulton-Levy and reached the quarterfinals. Hurtig, an Atlanta teaching pro, earned a Top 10 national ranking in Australia as a junior player.

USTA Midwest

Men’s Final – In Cincinnati, Chris Wettengel, 30, of Bentonville, Ark., cruised past Raleigh Smith 6-1, 6-1. Wettengel will now compete in his third US Open National Playoffs – Men’s Championship. Wettengel, a former standout at the University of Minnesota, holds two USTA Pro Circuit doubles titles and held a career-high ranking of No. 548 in 2007. He is the only man to win three US Open National Playoffs Sectional Qualifying Tournament titles.

Women’s Final – Former US Open National Playoffs champion Alexandra Mueller, 24, of Abington, Pa., will make a return trip to the Playoffs championships after defeating Veronica Corning, 6-2, 6-0, in the women’s final. Mueller won the inaugural US Open National Playoffs in 2010, defeating former world No. 51 Alina Jidkova, 6-0, 6-3, in the final, to earn a wild card into the 2010 US Open Qualifying Tournament. In all, Mueller has captured three USTA Pro Circuit singles titles—one each year from 2009 to 2011. Mueller first made waves in 2003, when she won the $10,000 ITF event in Mont Tremblant, Canada, at age 15, and she also played on the U.S. Junior Fed Cup team. She competed in the doubles main draw of the US Open in 2004 and 2007.

Mixed Doubles Final – WTA veteran Lilia Osterloh, 34, of Columbus, Ohio, and Josh Osswald, 37, of Covington, Ky., defeated Elyse Steiner and Filip Ram in a tight 6-2, 4-6, [10-6] final. Osterloh has been competing on the WTA tour for more than a decade, finishing in the year-end Top 100 each year from 1999 to 2001 and again in 2007. She achieved a career-high ranking of No. 41 in April 2001 after reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2000. She won USTA Pro Circuit singles titles at the $75,000 event in Pittsburgh in 2005 and the $50,000 event in Waikoloa, Hawaii, in 2006; overall, she has reached nine USTA Pro Circuit singles finals since 1996. She is one of just four women to have won both the NCAA singles title (at Stanford) and USTA Girls’ 18s Championships. Osswald formerly played on the USTA Pro Circuit and is now an aspiring musician.

The winners or top available finishers from each of the 13 sectional qualifying tournaments now advance to the US Open National Playoffs – Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Doubles Championships, to be held during the New Haven Open at Yale, an Emirates Airline US Open Series women’s event, in August. The US Open National Playoffs mixed doubles champions receive a main draw wild card into the 2012 US Open, while the men’s and women’s singles champions earn a wild card into the US Open Qualifying Tournament held the week prior to the US Open.

Recap videos from all events can be followed on www.USOpen.org/NationalPlayoffs.

US OPEN NATIONAL PLAYOFFS SECTIONAL QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT — FINAL RESULTS

USTA Missouri Valley

Clement Reix

Mary Weatherholt