Eight players won four rounds of qualifying matches over the past three days to earn main-draw entry into the 22nd Annual Claremont Club Pro Classic, a $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit Men’s Futures Tournament taking place at the Claremont Club.
 
Former UCLA Bruin Karue Sell’s win moves him into the main draw, where he will next take on the tournament’s top-seeded Chris O’Connell of Australia on Wednesday. Sell has been teaching locally since finishing his fourth year after the 2015-16 season. He is currently coaching with the First Break Academy out of the StubHub Center in Carson.
 
Current USC sophomore Laurens Verboven of Belgium had the most impressive win on the day, upsetting the top-seeded player in qualifying Florian Lakat of France, 6-4, 7-5. Lakat is a former No. 1 player for Cal-Berkeley. Pasadena junior and 15-year-old Tristan Boyer also qualified, beating fellow SoCal junior player Jake Sands of Palisades, 6-1, 7-6 (4). Sands will play for Penn in 2018.
 
USC teammates Jack Jaede and Thibault Forget squared off in a final qualifying match with Jaede prevailing, 7-6(4), 6-4.
 
Another noted SoCal player Timothy Sah of San Diego, who will be starting school at Stanford University in two weeks, fell in his final match, as did UCLA senior Austin Rapp.
 
Monday’s Final Qualifying Singles Results
Laurens Verboven (BEL) def. Florian Lakat (FRA) [1] 6-4, 7-5
Tristan Boyer (U.S.) def. Jake Sands (U.S.) 6-1, 7-6(4)
Strong Kirchheimer (U.S.) [3] def. Gabriel Diaz Freire (ESP) [13] 7-6(1), 6-3
Alexander Cozbinov (MDA) def. Timothy Sah (U.S.) 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-3
Karue Sell (BRA) [5] def. Jody Maginley (ANT) [10] 7-5, 6-3
Nicholas Shamma (U.S.) def. Austin Rapp (U.S.) 6-1, 6-3
Francisco Dias (POR) def. Ajai Shekhera (U.S.) 6-4, 6-4
Jack Jaede (AUS) def. Thibault Forget (FRA) 7-6(4), 6-4
 
For more information, contact:
Steve Pratt, Tournament Press Aide, (310) 408-4555, stevep@bzapr.com