LAS VEGAS – Las Vegas tennis fans have a chance to watch several rising stars in the world of men’s professional tennis when the second annual Las Vegas Open starts main draw action today at the Fertitta Tennis Complex on the campus of UNLV.                                                                                                                

By winning the recent ATP Stockton Challenger, 18-year-old American Frances Tiafoe became the youngest player in the ATP World Tour Top 100 as his rankings sits at that exact spot. Tiafoe will be the No. 2 seeded player in Las Vegas behind world No. 83 Victor Burgos Estrella of the Dominican Republic.

“It’s a really great draw and there is some buzz around town about this year’s event,” said tournament director Jean-Francois Blais. “It’s great to see Frances on the rise and see him be able to crack the Top 100. He was on-site today and you can tell people are excited to see him play.”

Blais is a local club tennis player who said his night job is playing saxophone for the current Cirque du Soleil Zumanity show playing at New York, New York.

Tiafoe will open up play against Brydan Klein of Great Britain while Burgos Estrella opens against Grega Zemlja of Slovenia. In 2014, the 36-year-old veteran Burgos Estrella became the first Dominican to reach the top 100 in the ATP World Tour rankings. In 2012, Zemlja advanced to the third round of the US Open.

Tiafoe was awarded a wild card into the US Open and took the first two sets off American veteran John Isner in the first round, but eventually lost the match in a fifth-set tiebreak.

At 15 years old, Tiafoe became the youngest boys' singles champion in Orange Bowl history. At 17, he earned a wild card to play in the main draw of the French Open, becoming the youngest American to participate in the draw since Michael Chang in 1989.

Coming in as the No. 3-seed in Las Vegas is Pittsburgh native Bjorn Fratangelo, a one-time French Open Junior Boys’ singles winner. Also seeded are American’s Denis Kudla (No. 6) and Dennis Novikov (No. 7).

Current UNLV player Jakob Amilon has been granted a wild card in singles, as has Las Vegas resident Evan Song, currently ranked No. 727 in the world. Former world Top 50 player Alejandro Falla from Colombia is the final wild card in singles. Also granted a wild card in doubles is UNLV teammates Amilon and RuBen Alberts, from South Africa, as well as the local popular pairing of Dann and Brian Battistone.

One intriguing first-round matchup pits former Pepperdine All-American Alex Sarkissian against another former college tennis star, Sekou Bangoura from the University of Florida.

In an All-American first-round match, 19-year-old Tommy Paul will play former Texas A&M star Austin Krajicek.