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Noah Rubin Qualifies for Australian Open Main Draw

Former Demon Deacon Noah Rubin receives a wild card into the Australian Open main draw for winning the Challenger in Charlottesville.

By GriffKurz

For once, Noah Rubin had no control over his fate. But by the end of yesterday's final in Champaign, the 19-year-old punched his ticket to the Australian Open main draw in January.

The 19-year-old earned the wild card for winning the Challenger event in Charlottesville, Virginia two weeks ago in dramatic fashion. The 2014 Junior Wimbledon Champion trailed the 2015 Junior French Open Champion Tommy Paul 6-3, 5-1. But he kept fighting and saved two match points en route to his first Challenger title 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-3.

After losing in the first round in Champaign, Illinois, fellow young American Taylor Fritz had a chance to usurp Rubin, ranked No. 339 in the world, for the USA's highly-sought-after bid to into the main draw in Melbourne.

In the final, Fritz lost in three sets to Henri Laaksonen from Switzerland 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. As a result, Rubin edged out Fritz for the most ATP points for an American in the three fall Challenger tournaments.The USTA grants this player an automatic entry into the Australian Open.

This will be Rubin's second Grand Slam main draw. The Long Island-native lost to No. 66 Federico Delbonis 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 in the 2014 US Open. We will keep you posted with Noah's results Down Under and as always #GoDeacs.