After cancer, Vicky Duval gets US Open qualifying wild card
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) Vicky Duval received a wild-card entry for U.S. Open qualifying, a week after she returned to competition following a yearlong recovery from Hodgkin lymphoma.
The 19-year-old based in Bradenton, Florida, won two singles matches at a $25,000 tournament in Landisville, Pennsylvania, last week, her first action since reaching the second round of Wimbledon as a qualifier in June 2014. Shortly after that, Duval announced she had been diagnosed with cancer.
Duval made a splash at the 2013 U.S. Open, beating 2011 champion Sam Stosur in the first round.
She is among 16 players whose wild cards for qualifying at Flushing Meadows were announced Tuesday by the U.S. Tennis Association. Qualifying rounds are played Aug. 25-28; the main draw for the U.S. Open starts play Aug. 31.
The USTA also announced eight men's and eight women's main-draw wild cards, including for 2001 champion Lleyton Hewitt and Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
The 34-year-old Hewitt, who also won Wimbledon in 2002, has said he will retire after the Australian Open in January. He is a former No. 1 player who is now ranked 162nd and got his wild card via a reciprocal agreement with Tennis Australia, which will give a wild-card entry to an American player for its Grand Slam tournament next year.
The other men's wild cards went to Americans Ryan Harrison, Jared Donaldson, Bjorn Fratangelo, Austin Krajicek, Ryan Shane and Frances Tiafoe, along with Pierre-Hughes Herbert of France.
Mattek-Sands has been ranked as high as No. 30 but is currently 99th. She has won two Grand Slam doubles titles this year.
The other women's wild cards went to Americans Louisa Chirico, Samantha Crawford, Nicole Gibbs, Sofia Kenin, Jamie Loeb and Sachia Vickery, along with Oceane Dodin of France.
