9 Americans Headline Singles Qualifying Draw

Nine Americans will play qualifying at the Volvo Car Open, set to begin Saturday morning at the Family Circle Tennis Center.

Gates open at 9am for a 10am start across four courts around the grounds.

MORE: See the Full Draw | Saturday’s Order of Play

World No. 101 Kateryna Kozlova is the top seed, meeting German wild card Jasmin Jebawy in her opening match. Astra Sharma of Australia is the No. 2 seed.

Two rounds of qualifying will help pick the eight qualifiers, set to be added to the main draw, which gets underway on Monday.

Caroline Dolehide (pictured above), Francesca Di Lorenzo and Lauren Davis, seeded Nos. 6, 10 and 12, are the highest-ranked Americans in qualifying, Davis having been ranked as high as number 26 in the world.

Other Americans in action:
—Nicole Melichar, who won Wimbledon in mixed doubles last year
—Kennedy Shaffer, who played college tennis at Georgia
—Abigail Spears, who has won 21 doubles titles in her career
—Kayla Day, who, at 19, is a former junior US Open title winner
—Catherine McNally, just 17, who is the reigning doubles champ at both the French and US Open junior events
—Jessica Ho, a Pennsylvania native and former Duke player 

More names to watch in qualifying include Australian teenager Destanee Aiava, former French Open quarterfinalist Sesil Karatantcheva and Sofya Zhuk, a 19 year old Russian many believe can be a top player down the road.

The main singles draw will be made Saturday afternoon as defending champion Kiki Bertens returns to reclaim her title. Sloane Stephens, Caroline Wozniacki, Madison Keys and other top WTA stars are back again.