TENNIS Serb aims high at USTA event
Filip Krajinovic’s climb back up the ATP world tennis rankings continues this week at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock.
The 22-year-old Serbian tennis player was ranked as high as No. 170 in the world four years ago, before seeing his ranking plummet to as low as 509 last June. But reaching the final five events, losing in each, he’ll take a No. 223 ranking into this week’s USTA Pro Circuit Tour de Paul at Pleasant Valley.
Krajinovic is the No. 1 seed in the tournament’s main draw that begins at 10 a.m. today. He’ll play Joshua Milton of Great Britain in a first-round match after the qualifying round finals are completed today.
The other seeded players include No. 2 Danile Smethurst, a 23-year-old from Great Britain; No. 3 Chase Buchanan, a 22-year-old from Columbus, Ohio; No. 4 David Rice of Great Britain; No. 5 Nicolas Meister of Trabuca Canyon, Calif.; No. 6 Jason Jung of Torrance, Calif.; No. 7 Dimitar Kutrovsky of Bulgaria; and No. 8 Edward Cone of Great Britain.
Buchanan, who won the USTA boys 18s national championship in 2009, won Futures events in Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia in 2013, but is looking for his first tournament victory in his home country.
Meister is a former UCLA All-American who won two Futures events in Mexico last year. Jung, who played at the University of Michigan, is coming off one of his best pro tournaments. He reached the final of a Futures event last month in Calabas, Calif., before losing in three sets.
Trent Brandon, a senior at Arkansas Baptist High School in Little Rock, will compete in the doubles main draw with Matthew Kandath, a former Stanford player at 1 p.m. today.
The doubles semifinals are scheduled for Friday, while the singles semifinals will be Saturday. Both finals matches will be Sunday.
- Troy Schulte
BASEBALL Hog pitchers earn SEC honor
Arkansas’ Jalen Beeks and Chris Oliver shared the SEC’s pitcher of the week honors Monday with LSU’s Aaron Nola following the Razorbacks’s 2-1 series victory over then-No. 1 South Carolina last weekend.
Beeks (5-1, 1.05 ERA) threw his second complete game of the season in Friday night’s 4-1 victory, allowing 4 hits and 1 unearned run, while striking out a career-high 9. Oliver (3-3, 1.99) allowed no runs and 4 hits with a career-high 10 strikeouts in 8 innings during Saturday’s 7-0 victory.
Sports, Pages 21 on 04/08/2014