“Wimbledon is where heart can exceed fitness, desire can overcome flaws and life long dreams transcend pressure.” Quote from twitter.com/tennistough

15 US Men and 8 US Women crossed the white lines to compete in the most emotionally intense qualifying tournament of the year for many tennis professionals.  Many players grow up watching Wimbledon on TV and if they can win three qualifying rounds, they will secure entry inside the Wimbledon gates next week.

288 tennis professionals, most ranked outside of the top 100, competed this week for 12 spots in the Women’s singles draw, 16 spots in the Men’s singles draw and 4 spots in each doubles draw.

Dent in California

Taylor Dent, Rajeev Ram, Michael Yani, Jesse Levin and Melanie Oudin claimed their entry into the main singles draws.

Men’s Wimbledon Qualifying:

Michael Yani, world ranking of #258, could not explain the excitement he was feeling after his 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Prakash Amritraj.  After leading 4-2 in the final set, Amritraj broke back to 4 all, but Yani broke again and took the match on his third match point.

Lefty American, Jesse Levine, defeated Matthias Bachinger  6-2, 7-5, 6-2.  Levine hopes that Federer will call on him again for lefty practice as The Fed has done before.

Rajeev Ram advanced over Andrea Stoppini of Italy 6-4, 7-5, 6-3

Dent advance over Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-3, 7-5, 6-7(7).  After major operations on his back with 23 hours a day of bed rest, Taylor Dent announced his back is no longer the issue, now he needs court time.

Women’s Wimbledon Qualifying:

Melanie Oudin advanced into the main draw defeating Kristina Kucova 3 & 0.  Oudin lost her final doubles qualifying match and Lepchenko missed her chance to qualify in doubles as well.

Madison Brendle was defeated by Tatjana Malek 0 & 3

Shenay Perry won 2 of the last four games, but world #79 Viktoriya Kutuzova took the first ten games and the match 0 & 2

Abigail Spears was eliminated by Sesil Karatantcheva 3 & 5

Lindsay Lee-Waters was defeated by Aiko Nakamura 3 & 3

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