INDIAN WELLS, Calif.,
March 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/
-- Oracle Corp. CEO Mark Hurd,
along with tennis Hall-of-Famer Tracy
Austin, announced today that tennis professionals
Francesca Di Lorenzo and
Chris Eubanks are the recipients of
the second annual Oracle US Tennis Awards.
Eubanks and Di Lorenzo each will
receive a $100,000 grant to help
develop their tennis careers. The two young professionals were
selected by a six-member advisory council comprised of former
tennis professionals and executives. The Intercollegiate
Tennis Association, the governing body of college tennis, will
administer the grants.
"Chris and Francesca are terrific players and very deserving of
the awards,'' said Oracle's Hurd. "Our goal with these awards
is to help young players as they transition into professional
tennis.''
Di Lorenzo, 20, turned
professional last year after playing two years at Ohio State University, where she won the 2017 NCAA
women's doubles title. Di Lorenzo
finished the 2017 collegiate season as the No. 1 singles and No. 3
doubles player in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National
Rankings. She currently has a UTR of 12.26 and is ranked No. 258 on
the WTA tour.
"I can't tell you how much this means to me,'' Di Lorenzo said. "It's an honor to be selected,
and I guarantee that this will help me improve my game.''
Eubanks, 21, also turned pro last year after playing tennis at
Georgia Tech University from 2014-2017. Eubanks learned
tennis through a community program in Atlanta and last year received the ITA Arthur
Ashe Sportsmanship Award. He finished the 2017 college seasons as
the No. 8 singles and No. 30 doubles players. Eubanks currently has
a UTR of 14.9 and is No. 295 in the ATP rankings.
"Playing tennis professionally has been a dream of mine since I
was a kid,'' Eubanks said. "It's great that the people at
Oracle understand how hard it can be to move from college to the
pro circuit. This is a big help for my career.''
Eubanks and Di Lorenzo follow on
the heels of two other young players, Danielle Collins and McKenzie "Mackie''
McDonald, who received the inaugural awards last year at the BNP
Paribas Open. Collins won this year's Oracle Challenger Series in
Newport Beach and clinched a
wild-card berth into the BNP Paribas Open, where she won three
matches and made it to the round of 16. In the past year, she has
risen from No. 248 to No. 117 in the WTA rankings. McDonald had his
first Grand Slam match victory in the Australian Open, and made it
to the finals of the RBC Tennis Championships in Dallas last month. His ATP ranking has risen
to No. 142 from No. 257 a year ago.
Lindsay Davenport, on behalf of
the advisory council, congratulated Eubanks and Di Lorenzo and applauded Oracle for creating and
funding the awards.
"Chris and Francesca have such great potential and the advisory
board is confident these grants will help them reach it,''
Davenport said. "We're all grateful to Oracle for recognizing this
need among young players and are hopeful that other
organizations will step up to support American tennis.''
The Oracle US Tennis Awards Advisory Council includes:
- Lindsay Davenport: Former singles world No. 1; 1996
Olympic gold medalist, current Tennis Channel
analyst;
- Ilana Kloss: Former
singles world No. 19; commissioner of Mylan World Team Tennis.
- Peggy Michel: Three-time
grand slam doubles champion; played college tennis at Arizona State; current Assistant Tournament
Director & Vice President of Sales at the BNP Paribas
Open.
- Dr. Timothy Russell: CEO ITA; college educator for
three decades.
- Martin Blackman: General
Manager, USTA Player Development; played college tennis at
Stanford.
- Todd Martin:
Former singles world No. 4; CEO International Tennis Hall
of Fame and Tournament Director, Dell Technologies Hall of Fame
Open; played college tennis at Northwestern University.
About Oracle
Oracle offers a comprehensive and fully
integrated stack of cloud applications and platform services. For
more information about Oracle (NYSE:ORCL),
visit www.oracle.com.
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SOURCE Oracle