2013 BB&T Atlanta Open Qualifying Preview
Steen Kirby, TennisEastCoast.com

I’ll have live coverage of the BB&T Atlanta Open all week here on TEC and @nolesfan2011 on twitter for the second year in a row. Play starts this morning with main draw qualifying.

First Section:

Top seed Matt Ebden, who lost in the 2nd round of Bogota and made the quarterfinals in Atlanta last year, is the top qualifying seed. He’s opening with doubles specialist Santiago Gonzalez. The winner of that will take on a pair of former Georgia Tech players, Juan Carlos Spir or Dean O’Brien in Round 2.

6 seed Yuichi Sugita, who lost in the 2nd round of the Binghamton Challenger, opens with doubles specialist Andre Sa. Years ago, Sa was solid in singles, reaching the 2002 Wimbledon quarters. The winner of Sugita/Sa will play an Aussie, either Chris Guccione or Mark Verryth. Gooch qualified in Bogota before losing in the 2nd round.

This section should come down to Ebden or Guccione.

Second Section:

Tim Smyczek, the 2 seed, will take on promising young Aussie Luke Saville, while a quality NCAA matchup between Georgia Bulldog Nate Pasha and Virginia Cavalier Mitchell Frank will take place below them.

A struggling Donald Young, seeded 7th, will face Catalin Gard, while Marcelo Demoliner of Brazil duels with Saketh Myneni of India, who has done well on the Futures circuit.

This section should belong to Smyczek.

Third Section:

Somdev Devvarman, seeded 3rd, will take on the unknown Patrick Davidson, who apparently has worked with former player Dominik Hrbaty. Jason Jung will take on Prakash Amritraj below them in the draw.

5 seed and Binghamton Quarterfinalist Mischa Zverev will take on Georgia Tech youngster Nathan Rakitt, while former Florida A&M player Takura Happy will face Jack Sock’s brother Eric Sock.

I would expect Devvarman to get out of this section.

Fourth Section:

4 seed Jimmy Wang will face Kevin King of Georgia Tech, while 24 year old futures player Tyler Hochwalt takes on former FSU Seminole Jean-Yves Aubone.

A struggling Robby Ginepri, still looking to get back on his feet in terms of playing time and performance, is seeded 8th. He’ll take on former Louisville Cardinal Andrew Carter, and if Ginepri and Jeff Dadamo, who plays High Schooler Christopher Eubanks in the opening round, advance to face each other in Round 2, it would be a rematch of a match Dadamo won in the Winnetka Challenger.

This is the most open and weakest section of the draw, and a lot depends on Ginepri’s form, but otherwise Wang should have the edge.