San Diego’s Haley Giavara long hoped to be playing in the Cymbiotika San Diego Open WTA 500 tournament this week.
Instead, the hometown player was denied a wild-card qualifying entry even though she has a strong collegiate resume and higher ranking — No. 509 — than three players who received such berths.
Main draw play begins Monday in the tournament that pledges “an unwavering commitment to San Diego tennis” at the Barnes Center following weekend qualifying without Giavara, a recent Cal grad and two-time All-American.
“I’m beyond disappointed that I wasn’t selected for the wild card,” said Giavara, a graduate of Serra High School (now Canyon Hills). “It hurts a lot. There’s all the dedication and hard work I’ve been putting in, all just this summer, just my whole life.”
Tournament director Ryan Redondo declined to comment on the issue. Instead, the tournament issued a statement saying it followed protocol in selecting the four wild-card entries for qualifying.
One wild-card bid automatically went to Clervie Ngounoue (No. 494) of Washington, D.C., who won the USTA Billie Jean King Girls 18s National Championships at the Barnes Center in August.
San Diego’s Alyssa Ahn (No. 1,201) received another one, a year after she won the 16s championship. The others were given to Long Beach’s Eryn Caayatano (No. 741), a USC graduate student; and Morocco’s Yasmine Kabbaj (No. 590), who transferred to San Diego State this year for her junior season.
Ngounoue won twice in qualifying to reach the main draw. The others lost their first matches.
Giavara does have a wild-card qualifying berth in the higher-level BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells next spring due to leading the standings in this year’s SoCal Pro Series.
“(Tournament officials) denied San Diego tennis fans the opportunity to watch their best player play in a professional tournament,” said Ken Giavara, Haley’s coach and uncle. “It’s such a disservice to the city of San Diego. They want to see her here.”
Haley Giavara helped warm-up fellow pro Varvara Lepchenko ahead of Saturday’s qualifying and then accepted autograph requests from fans.
Roughly 100 posts questioning Haley Giavara’s exclusion appeared on the San Diego Open’s Instagram page; all have since been been deleted.
Hui wins U.S. Open juniors
San Diego's Katherine Hui has won the U.S. Open Juniors girls tennis championship.
The Santa Fe Christian High grad, bound for Stanford, beat Tereza Valentova, of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 6-4 for the title on Saturday.
“It was my last junior tournament, so I wanted to make the most of it,” said Hui, 18, who reached the final of USTA Billie Jean King Girls 18s tourney at the Barnes Center in August.
Hui didn’t lose a set on the way to U.S. Open Juniors crown.
