Blake, Sock Lead U.S. Men in AO Qualies

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Blake, Sock Lead U.S. Men in AO Qualies

By Erik Gudris

(December 18, 2012) -- Veteran pros and fresh faces make up the list of 13 American men who were accepted into the qualification round of next month's Australian Open.

Former world No. 4 James Blake and rising young star Jack Sock are among the most notable names of U.S. players accepted into qualification for the first Grand Slam of the year with matches scheduled to start on January 9th. The list also includes Steve Johnson, Denis Kudla, Alex Kuznetsov, Wayne Odesnik, Rajeev Ram, Tennys Sandgren, Ryan Sweeting, Michael Yani, and Donald Young.

Rhyne Williams was originally on the list, but after he won the Australian Open Wildcard Playoffs event in Norcross, Georgia this past weekend, he gained an automatic berth into the main draw. Bradley Klahn and Daniel Kosakowski are the respective second and third alternates.

Jesse Levine, who won last year's AO Wildcard Playoffs, is also on the list of players scheduled to compete in qualifying. But Levine, who was born in Ottawa and then moved to the U.S. as a teenager, recently made an appeal to the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to compete for Canada and their Davis Cup team. Levine will represent Canada in Melbourne next month and is expected to be granted his appeal though not in time for Canada's upcoming tie against Spain in February.

The list of U.S. women accepted into Melbourne qualifying will be released at a later date.

(Photo Credit: Australian Open)