ZooTennis

Yucatan Cup Underway; Rome Tennis Complex; Sock Plans to Play Orange Bowl

2009-11-23T20:57:00.003-05:00

With the Thanksgiving holiday this week, there are no tournaments in the U.S. either on the Pro Circuit or the ITF junior circuit. Instead the action shifts to Mexico, where the ITF Grade 1 Yucatan World Cup and the Puebla Challenger are being played this week. Americans Taylor Dent and Jesse Levine are the top two seeds in Puebla. For the complete draws, see the ATP website.

At the Yucatan Cup, which used to be after the Orange Bowl, but has been moved to the week before the Eddie Herr, there are the usual large contingent of American juniors in the draw. Kevin Krawietz of Germany is the top boys seed; he is followed by the Junior Tennis Champions Center trio of Denis Kudla (2), Mitchell Frank (3) and Junior Ore (4). Two British players who will not be in Mexico are Jack Carpenter and George Morgan, who were sent home from a Spanish training trip for misbehavior, according to this Daily Mail story.

Silvia Njiric of Croatia is the girls No. 1 seed, with American Ester Goldfeld, the winner of the South Carolina Grade 2 earlier this month, the second seed. Noel Scott and Annie Mulholland are the other U.S. girls seeded, at No. 6 and No. 14 respectively. Ohio's Lauren Davis, the US Open Junior quarterfinalist, is also in the field.

For complete draws, see the tournament website.

I can't recall if I posted an article about this proposed tennis complex in Rome Georgia before, but a 74-court facility is worth a second mention/update regardless. See this story about it from the Rome News-Tribune.

Thanks to Texas College Tennis blog's Granger Huntress for alerting me to this story in the Lincoln, Neb. Journal-Star about Jack Sock's Pro Circuit win yesterday in Amelia Island. He is retaining his amateur status to play high school tennis next year and college tennis the year after, the article says. It also says his next tournament is the Orange Bowl, so he must have received one of the wild cards, which have not yet been released.

A reader kindly informed me that I had the wrong link for the story on USTA coach Sarah Taylor. The correct link (which is fixed in yesterday's post now) can be found here.

Sock Wins Futures Title in Amelia Island; Giorgi Wins Toronto Challenger; Sarah Taylor Feature; Upcoming Holiday

2009-11-22T19:19:00.008-05:00

Wild card Jack Sock lost a set for the first time at the $10,000 Amelia Island Futures tournament this week, but it didn't cost him the match. The 17-year-old from Nebraska, who trains in Kansas City with Mike Wolf, defeated No. 2 seed Artem Sitak of Russia 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-3 to claim his first pro title. As I mentioned yesterday, it is only the fifth pro event he's competed in.

The USTA has already posted a story on the final match here. From the account, which was obviously from someone who was there, it sounds as if the final set was full of drama, but Sock was able to serve it out. Sock is currently listed as an alternate at the Orange Bowl. I assume that if he wants a wild card to play there, his request will be granted.

Another unseeded 17-year-old, Camila Giorgi of Italy, won the $50,000 Tevlin Challenger in Toronto, defeating Aniko Kapros of Hungary 4-6 6-4 6-0. I'm not familiar with Giorgi's game; she has not played a junior slam nor has she played at all outside of Europe until this event. The last junior tournament she played was the 2008 Italian Open, where as a wild card, she lost in the second round. Already ranked 285, this is her second challenger win since September. Definitely one to watch. For a brief story on her win, click here.

Sixteen-year-old Marianne Jodoin of Canada teamed with veteran Maureen Drake to take the doubles, when Sharon Fichman was forced to retire due to a rolled ankle. Fichman and Mashona Washington were the top seeds, while Jodoin and Drake were unseeded. For more on the doubles, see the Tennis Canada website story.

I wasn't familiar with the tennis career of new USTA National Coach Sarah Taylor, so I was happy to read this feature by Mic Huber of the Sarasota Herald Tribune. (There is a typo in it; Taylor reached 68 in the WTA rankings, not 6). It's good to hear of players who turn pro prior to attending college then return to school for a degree.

I've been working on Eddie Herr previews for the Tennis Recruiting Network for publication later this week, but posts for the next few days are likely to be brief, as we head south for Thanksgiving with family in North Carolina, and then on to the big Eddie Herr, Orange Bowl, Junior Orange Bowl trifecta.

Sock in Final; Patrick McEnroe Book in the Works; O'Neill to Georgia Tech; Tiley Responds

2009-11-21T17:05:00.003-05:00

Jack Sock has reached the finals of the Amelia Island Futures tournament after defeating Michael Venus today 7-6(5), 6-4. The 17-year-old from Nebraska will face No. 2 seed Artem Sitak, a 23-year-old Russian, in Sunday afternoon's final. For a trip down memory lane, check out this post of mine from 2005, when Sock had swept the USTA 12s Nationals.

At the Illinois Challenger, the unseeded Battistone brothers collected their first title at that level today, defeating No. 2 seeds Harsh Mankad and Treat Huey 7-5, 7-6(5). Two former Kalamazoo 16s champions Taylor Dent (96) and Michael Russell (94) met for the singles title, with Russell winning 7-5, 6-4. Here's how Taylor Dent, who is new to Twitter, but getting the hang of it quickly, just described it.

taylordent81
Well "@&$!! Went down today to Russel. He played as well as Murray did against me at the open. I'm excited!! Just a matter of time I believe

A full account of the two finals can be found at fightingillini.com.

Peter Bodo announced today on his TennisWorld blog that he and USTA Davis Cup Captain and Player Development head Patrick McEnroe will be collaborating on a book. Bodo writes:

"It won't be an autobiography, a la A Champion's Mind (the book I wrote a few years ago with Pete Sampras). Rather, it will consist of war stories, opinions, and hard-core tennis analysis. It will draw on Pat's experiences on the pro tour, as an ESPN and CBS commentator, head of the USTA player development and - of course! - his Davis Cup captaincy."

Yesterday I wrote about D-II champion Sona Novakova going to Baylor, today I discovered that Jillian O'Neill, the two-time junior college champion from Hillsborough (Fla.) Community College, has signed a National Letter of Intent to join Georgia Tech. For more on the 20-year-old from Nova Scotia, see the Georgia Tech website.

Craig Tiley of Tennis Australia may have asked for equal time from the Perth newspaper's Sunday Times, which last week headlined their article on Player Development there "changes needed." There are two stories featuring Tiley: one about the not employing The Big Five (not the five you would come up with, I'm pretty sure), and the second about why the move to more clay courts has taken so long. Short answer: ongoing maintenance costs.

Sock Reaches Semifinals at Amelia Island; Isner Prepares for 2010; Novakova to Join Baylor; Steve Johnson in College Spotlight

2009-11-20T20:34:00.007-05:00

Seventeen-year-old Jack Sock has reached his second Futures semifinal of the fall with a 6-4, 6-1 win today over No. 6 seed Adam El Mihdawy in Amelia Island, Florida. In Thursday's second round, Sock beat No. 4 seed Matej Bocko of Slovakia 6-3, 6-0; it was his second straight-set win over the 429th-ranked 25-year-old, who lives in the U.S.

With the points he receives from his three wins this week (he won his first round match from former Illinois player Roy Kalmanovich when Kalmanovich retired down a set), Sock will break into the ATP Top 1000, having played only five tournaments total on the professional circuit. In Saturday's semifinal, Sock will play former LSU All-American Michael Venus, who is also unseeded. The other semifinal features unseeded James Lemke, the former Pepperdine player who has reached the finals of the last two Futures, winning one, against No. 2 seed Artem Sitak of Russia, who defeated Alex Domijan 6-3, 6-4 in their quarterfinal contest today.

For complete results, see the Pro Circuit page.

Although the ATP season isn't even officially over--the top eight men are squaring off in London beginning Sunday in the World Tour Finals--the previews for 2010 are already beginning, especially in the press of Australia and New Zealand, where the year's first tournaments are held. The New Zealand Herald spoke with former Georgia star John Isner about returning to New Zealand early next year for the Heineken Open. When Isner played that tournament this year, he had to qualify; now he is at a career-high ATP ranking of 34. The story lays out his entire pro career, which is less than three years old, and there have been decided peaks and valleys in those 30 months.

There have been dozens of announcements this week about blue chip signings, and although none of them were from the Baylor women's program, they have every reason to be excited about a player who is joining them next fall. Sona Novakova, the two-time Division II champion from Armstrong Atlantic and this year's small college Super Bowl winner, is transferring to the Bears in 2010. Ironically, the 20-year-old from the Czech Republic drew current Baylor star Lenka Broosova in the first round of the Indoor this month, and they battled to a third set tiebreaker before Broosova secured the win. For the Baylor release, click here.

The USTA's Collegiate Spotlight features ITA Indoor Champion Steve Johnson of Southern California.

Book Review: Open by Andre Agassi

2009-11-19T18:05:00.004-05:00

As I neared the end of Andre Agassi's best-selling autobiography "Open", I had so many conflicting emotions that I thought it might help to do spreadsheet with one column for things I liked about the book and another for what I didn't like about it. It proved to be a useless attempt to organize my thoughts, because often the things I liked about it were the things I didn't like about it. In others words, my reactions are complicated and contradictory, and in many ways that mirrors the book itself.

Joel Drucker, in his excellent review of the book for the San Francisco Chronicle calls it a "confessional fairy tale," and it's hard to disagree. There are villains, heroes, foes to vanquish, heroines to woo, and it all ends happily ever after. Hanging your life story on a framework like that certainly helps to move it along, take it out of the mundane, daily diary mode, but it necessarily leads to portraying complex personalities only in the context of the roles you've assigned them.

Although I don't live with one, I have encountered some pretty scary tennis parents in the course of the past half dozen years, and yet none of them would come close to Mike Agassi if his son's portrayal of him in the book is accurate. If Nick Bollettieri is as greedy, thoughtless and selfish as he's painted here, it would be hard to imagine how he's managed to maintain the respect of the rest of the tennis world for so long.

As many other reviewers have noted, Agassi's longtime trainer Gil Reyes is cast in the hero's role, and if there's one negative thought or action assigned to him in the book, I don't recall it. And yet, after knowing his wife Steffi Graf for less than five years, it's she whom he calls "the greatest person I have ever known," at her induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

An autobiography, which is I guess what we call celebrity memoirs, must be selective; in the very eventful 30 years this one covers, Agassi can't possibly go into much depth on every personality and experience that changed his life. But contrast his treatment of the two most sensational excerpts released before publication: the crystal meth use and the premature balding. The only drug scene presented is the first; the others--"too many" being the only number he'll give--aren't referenced, and the process of getting off what is a highly addictive drug isn't discussed. Yet his obsession with his hair, which is comical in a way that drug usage can never be, is explored much more thoroughly, culminating with a head-shaving scene in wife Brooke Shield's Manhattan brownstone.

This brings me to the central question that I've had since I read those excerpts, and still have now that I've read the book. Why?

Why write a memoir that casts your father as a monster, your mentor as a charlatan, your sport as a prison, your ex-wife as an airhead, your colleagues as boobs, your trainer as a saint, your wife as a goddess?

What's to be gained? Most of us who care about tennis (whether Agassi himself is that category, I still don't know) have seen the change in Agassi over the years. We've constructed our own story about his life; we've been inspired by his second act, his philanthropy, while imagining as best we can how difficult it must be to grow up in the public eye. But once he gives us all these details, and tells that this time he's telling us the truth, unlike all those other times when he was lying to us, the inspiration fades.

It's a fascinating book about a complicated personality, and ghostwriter JR Moehringer deserves much of the credit for making it a compelling read. But it's hard to shake the feeling that, after three years out of the public eye, Agassi needed to get back in the spotlight. Like one of his legendary backhand returns, he hit that target perfectly.

DISCLOSURE: I was provided a free review copy of the book as a member of the US Tennis Writers Association.

Stanford Men Play San Quentin Inmates; LSU Team Gets Media Training; Abanda Barely Misses Upset in Toronto

2009-11-18T20:37:00.004-05:00

Six members of the men's tennis team at Stanford spent last Saturday morning just an hour north of Palo Alto, but it might as well have been a moon of Jupiter, so alien their destination would be to student-athletes on The Farm. Alex Clayton, Greg Hirshman, Matt Kandath, Bradley Klahn, Denis Lin and Ryan Thacher, along with head coach John Whitlinger, played tennis with inmates at San Quentin, the state prison housing California's death row.

The Stanford Daily spoke with Whitlinger and several of the players for this story, and the descriptions of their initial fears and the subsequent reality demonstrate the value of the experience. For more on how the tennis program got started, and the inmates and Marin Tennis Club members who also regularly participate in it, see this February 2009 story from espn.com.

While it wouldn't equate with entering a death row prison, the LSU men's tennis team had an opportunity Tuesday to learn more about the occasionally uncomfortable task of dealing with the media, according to this story from lsusports.net. I've always found the vast majority of college tennis players to be cooperative, candid and articulate, win or lose, but I applaud LSU for instructing their student-athletes in what's expected of them. I would love to see this training at all colleges, and at the USTA's National and Regional Training Centers too.

The $50,000 Tevlin Challenger in Toronto is getting more coverage than some WTA tour events with both Stephanie Myles and Tom Tebbutt keeping a close eye on the action. Tebbutt reports, in his Globe and Mail blog "Match Tough,", that 15-year-old Canadian Elisabeth Abanda had a match point on No. 7 seed Madison Brengle of the U.S. but didn't convert it, losing 6-2, 5-7, 7-5. The first round is now complete, with 2008 Orange Bowl finalists Christina McHale and Julia Boserup of the U.S. both advancing.

Myles, in her Montreal Gazette blog "Open Court," is very diligent about recognizing all tennis birthdays, and about following the Canadians on the tour.

New Junior Tennis Podcast; Australia to Study "Hot Spots;" Learning From the French System

2009-11-17T19:41:00.005-05:00

Andy Gladstone, Competitive Tennis Coordinator at USTA Florida, launched his new junior tennis podcast, called the G Cast, earlier this month, and he snared an impressive guest for his first episode, Patrick McEnroe. In the 26-minute podcast, which is available on iTunes, Gladstone asks McEnroe about his personal development as a junior, his vision for Player Development, college tennis, and what things he would change if he could just snap his fingers and have it done.

In the college tennis portion of the podcast, McEnroe presents what has been his consistent message--go to college unless it is obvious that you have the physical and mental maturity to succeed on the pro level at age 17 or 18, and are dominating on the international junior circuit. He also admits, for the first time that I'm aware of, that the USTA played a role in steering successful juniors away from college.

As for the finger snapping, he would like the USTA to have control of its own facility, which it does not have at the Evert Academy where the Boca Raton Training center is located, and would like to see changes in the Davis Cup format.

He repeatedly emphasizes the exchange and cooperation that the USTA is seeking with private academies and coaches; it sounds as if he is aware of the perceived arrogance and top-down approach that has caused resentment of the USTA in the past.

As reported in an Sydney Morning Herald article that had me immediately thinking of Daniel Coyle's The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How,researchers at Griffith University in Australia are looking for the Wagga Wagga effect, or why some regions or towns are hot spots for athletic excellence. Coyle discussed this effect in detail in The Talent Code, with Curacao, Russia and South Korea producing inordinate numbers of Little League baseball players, women's tennis players and women's golfers.

"...over the next three years researchers would study factors such as the family support for elite athletes, whether there was a strong club system, socio-cultural factors, psychological factors, how recruiters perceived talent, home-town advantage and whether the hot-spots have strong socio-capital."

Neil Harman of the Times has made no secret of his disdain for the current management of the LTA, and in an article published Sunday, he contrasts that with the French system, which is now being steered by Patrice Hagelauer, who once worked for the LTA.

There are four elements to the Hagelauer philosophy - regional, national, international and coach education. At regional level, he says - "whatever we do as a nation begins in the clubs and the coaching in the clubs, in every department. This is what I was trying to develop in the UK. The imperative aspect is the junior programme, that those who are in charge of the players at 8, 9 at 12. There can be no mistakes at that age. We need the right ideas, but also we need to listen. It is about building a pathway to excellence.

"Then we have the national programme, with 14 centres of excellent across the country and we have to make sure we take care of those with better management systems. Everybody needs to work together. At the international level there are currently 32 players - double last year's number - who are working at Roland Garros. We have seven players in the top 100, 11 in the top 200 and many other junior players working through the rankings (Note to the LTA: we are only talking singles players here, doubles does not figure). It is important that players like Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra, those with great experience, can mix with the younger ones, because they act as points of reference."

Is there enough of that mixing here in the U.S.? I actually believe it happens much more often than we hear about. Andy Roddick frequently invites top juniors to hit with him, not just at big tournaments, but at his home in Austin. Sam Querrey can be seen at Carson, and the mingling of top pros with juniors is common at Bollettieri's and Saddlebrook. With a country this size, it may not be realistic to expect everyone to converge in one spot, like Roland Garros, but I hope that the new National Center in New York can provide "points of reference" for the juniors there.

ITA Indoor Recap; Duke Women Get NCAA Rings; College Connections on Pro Circuit This Week; Comment Reminder

2009-11-16T19:14:00.002-05:00

My recap of the ITA Indoor Championships is posted today at the Tennis Recruiting Network, and with that, the fall college tennis season comes to a close for me. It will be two months before the spring season begins and it's three months until the next collegiate major: the Team Indoor championships. But many college players compete in Pro Circuit events throughout the fall, and the last two weeks, with Challengers in Charlottesville, Va., Knoxville, Tenn., and this week, with a Challenger in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., there are current and former college players filling up the draws.

The University of Illinois has four former players in the main draw: Kevin Anderson, Ryler DeHeart, Ruben Gonzales (a wild card) and Rajeev Ram, who just won the Aachen Challenger yesterday to reach a career-high ATP ranking of 78, making it unlikely he'll need to play in the Australian Open wild card tournament next month. Fighting Illini sophomore Dennis Nevolo was given a wild card into the main draw, where he'll play top seed Kevin Kim. Wild card Blake Strode, the 2009 NCAA semifinalist from Arkansas, advanced to the second round with a win over Vince Spadea today, and 2007 Kalamazoo champion Michael McClune defeated Alex Kuznetsov in first round play today. The final round of qualifying's winners include Tulsa's Arnau Brugues, Tennessee's Kaden Hensel, and former World Junior Champion Ricardas Berankis. The tournament's website provides some live scoring and results are updated regularly.

The Futures tournament in Amelia Island, another new location, and the third consecutive Pro Circuit event on clay, completed its qualifying today (it takes four days when there is a 128 draw) and nearly everyone qualifying has a college connection. Starting from the top--Vahid Mirzadeh currently at Florida State; Joey Burkhardt currently at Florida; Fred Saba committed to Duke for 2010; Nicolas Barrientos former D-II West Florida player; Tennys Sandgren possible spring 2010 enrollee at Tennessee; Robbye Poole formerly at Ole Miss; Denes Lukacs currently at Baylor. That's 7 out of 8, with the eighth being 19-year-old Richard Hampel of the Czech Republic, who isn't playing college tennis that I know of.

The wild cards in the main draw went to NCAA champion Devin Britton, former Florida Gator Tyler Hochwalt, Florida State freshman Connor Smith and Jack Sock.

For the complete draws, see the Pro Circuit page.

The women are not playing in the United States this week, but there is a $50,000 tournament in Toronto, the Tevlin Challenger, which features many Americans. Christina McHale is in the main draw, and there are several young Americans in the final round of qualifying. The tournament's website has complete draws.

When I spoke to Reka Zsilinszka at the ITA Indoor, she told me that the team would be receiving their national championship rings the following weekend at the Blue Devils football game with Georgia Tech. NCAA individual champion Mallory Cecil was also honored as a Honda award recipient. For more, see the Duke athletic website.

And finally, a couple of reminders. There have been several thoughtful comments about clay training that have not been published because they were left anonymously. Please use the name option, NOT the anonymous option, when posting a comment to facilitate discussion.

As we approach the holiday shopping season, please consider using the links at left for Tennis Warehouse, Amazon and OTZ Sports for purchasing from those sponsors. Revenue generated from these sales help offset the cost of my travel as I cover college and junior tournaments throughout the year.

McPhillips, Kontinen Win Grade 4 at Evert's; Orange Bowl Acceptances; Translating Junior Success to Pros--Is Australia Failing?

2009-11-15T16:52:00.003-05:00

Fifteen-year-old Kyle McPhillips won her second consecutive ITF today, defeating No. 7 seed Caitlyn Williams 6-2, 6-0 at the ITF Grade 4 tournament at the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton. She and Chanelle Van Nguyen, the fifth seeds, also won the doubles title, defeating sixth seeds Mary Clayton and Kate Fuller 6-3, 6-2. It's been a great two months for McPhillips, who in between her win at the ITF Grade 4 in Atlanta and this one reached the finals of a $10,000 Pro Circuit event near her home near Cleveland. McPhillips didn't lose a set in singles and in doubles, she and Van Nguyen needed a match tiebreaker only in the semifinals against No. 3 seeds Maria Belaya and Lauren Herring.

The boys singles champion also captured the doubles. Top seed Micke Kontinen of Finland beat unseeded American Robert Livi 6-1, 6-4 and teamed with Great Britain's Nick Jones for his second title. Kontinen and Jones, the top seeds, defeated No. 6 seeds Bjorn Fratangelo and Alex Robles 7-5, 6-3. Livi had several notable wins, defeating No. 2 seed Shane Vinsant in the quarterfinals and Marcos Giron in the semifinals. For complete results, see the TennisLink site. The U.S. ITF junior circuit is quiet the next two weeks--it's the junior off-season!--with the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl next up.

The acceptances for the Dunlop Orange Bowl have been released, and French Open champions and ITF junior world No. 1s Kristina Mladenovic of France and Daniel Berta of Sweden are entered, in hopes of securing the coveted year-end title. For the complete acceptances, 18s and 16s, see the usta tournament page.

In this weekend's Pro Circuit finals, Taylor Dent won in Knoxville, Conor Niland in Niceville and Varvara Lepchenko in Phoenix. Sekou Bangoura Jr. and Denis Kudla lost in the Niceville doubles final to top seeds Tigran Martirosyan and Artem Sitak 6-4, 7-5. For complete draws, see the Pro Circuit page.

A recent article in the Perth Australia Sunday Times examines, as the headline puts it, "Alarming number of Australian juniors fail in move to senior tennis ranks."

The opening paragraph continues:
Figures compiled by The Sunday Times show that from 53 of Australia's junior Davis and Fed Cup representatives over the past decade, 36 were at one stage ranked inside the world's top 100 juniors.

But only one from that group, Samantha Stosur, holds a similar senior ranking.

It's undeniable that Australian tennis has fallen on hard times this century. But I don't think these particular numbers are an indication of the failure of its systems. First, using this decade is dubious, as it's unrealistic to expect any of the 16-year-olds who competed in the Junior Davis and Fed Cups in the last half of the decade to be Top 100 in the professional ranks, as none would be older than 20. (As a comparison, the U.S. has two women (Oudin, King) and five men (Roddick, Querrey, Isner, Odesnik, Ram) who are currently in the Top 100 after having been in the Top 100 of the juniors this decade.) No one is currently denigrating the Spanish development system, disappointed that Pere Riba and Roberto Bautista, who led Spain to the Junior Davis Cup championship in 2004, aren't in the ATP Top 100.

Second, comparing a current ranking (Stosur's) with a career ranking (all juniors who "at one stage" where ranked in the Top 100 of juniors) is again stacking the deck.

And finally, there are only five years worth of players vying for a spot in the junior Top 100, while there are four times that many, all in a comparable stage of maturity, clamoring to break into the professional Top 100.

Paul McNamee, who unsuccessfully challenged Tennis Australia president Geoff Pollard in a recent election, believes the system is broken, and he thinks that Tennis Australia is responsible for the feeling that private coaches have that their best players are being "stolen" from them. He also mentions the lack of clay courts as another reason player development has failed to produce more champions in Australia.

Bangoura to Join Florida Gators in January

2009-11-14T19:02:00.003-05:00

Sekou Bangoura Jr., who turns 18 in four days, will end his ITF junior tennis career next month with appearances at the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl. In January, he’ll begin a new phase in his tennis development, joining Andy Jackson’s Florida Gators.

A blue chip recruit from Bradenton, Fla. who graduated in May of this year, Bangoura has had excellent results this fall, winning the ITF Pan-American Closed last month, and three main draw Pro Circuit matches at Futures tournaments in Birmingham and Niceville during the past three weeks. I spoke with him today by phone from Niceville, Fla., where he is preparing for the doubles final on Sunday before heading to the Futures tournament at Amelia Island next week.

“I’ve been a Florida fan since I’m born and raised there, and this way I can stay close to home,” he said. “My parents will get to come see me play matches, stay in touch, and it just felt like the right choice.”

Bangoura took only one official visit, to Florida, where he attended the Florida - Tennessee football game, but according to his father and coach, Sekou Bangoura Sr., there were a host of unofficial visits as the pair travelled to tournaments around the country.

“Illinois, Florida State, Notre Dame, Florida, Miami, all of them were along the way, University of South Florida, which is very close to home,” said Sekou Sr. “Kentucky was another one, and Georgia. We visited, eight, ten, but then he had to pick one.”

Choosing from among that distinguished group wasn’t easy.

“It was a tough decision,” said Sekou Sr., ‘but it’s like you’re in a tiebreaker in the third set, match point, and you’ve got to make a decision, slice or topspin. You’ve got to make a decision, and he’s turning into an adult, so he’s got to start making some of those decisions.”

Bangoura, who also excels in golf, piano and chess, said he’s interested in sports management as a possible career path in Gainesville. In tennis, he’s eager to win championships and improve his own game, while retaining the skills that have kept him at the top of his age division throughout his junior career.

“I definitely can improve my serve, try to come to the net more, and I definitely think that Coach (Andy) Jackson and Coach (Jeremy) Bayon can help me with that,” he said. “My strength is playing from the baseline, my speed, able to retrieve a lot of balls, wait for my opportunities. I’m excited to go, and hopefully I’ll get a little bit bigger while in the fitness program there, so it should be good.”

Although he is looking forward to college, Bangoura also had a more immediate focus—his first Pro Circuit final on Sunday, when he and Denis Kudla play top seeds Tigran Martirosyan and Artem Sitak.

“I’m definitely more excited than nervous,” Bangoura said. “Denis and I have been playing pretty well together. We played together back in the 12s, and this is the first time since. We click well together, so it should be good tomorrow.”

Before closing the book on the college recruiting chapter, Sekou Sr. wanted to convey his gratitude to those involved in the process.

“I just wanted to thank all the coaches who showed interest in him. We deeply respect them and appreciate their interest and I wanted to make sure to extend that.”

Kimbell to Georgia and Other Signings; Eddie Herr Acceptances; USTA Offers Pancho Gonzalez Grants

2009-11-13T20:28:00.002-05:00

The Tennis Recruiting Network wrapped up their coverage of blue chip signings today, with the announcement that Lilly Kimbell had signed with the University of Georgia. Josh Rey, who wrote some outstanding stories this year for usopen.org, gives a detailed look at Kimbell's junior tennis career, pointing out how it differs from that of other players, and at Kimbell's personality, ending the feature with Little Kimbellisms: quotes too good to leave out, even if they don't fit the narrative flow.

Other announcements from today include this release from the University of San Diego on blue chip Clarke Spinosa's signing, and four local newspaper stories on top-rated recruits: Stamford Conn.'s The Advocate's article on Dante Terenzio's signing with Louisville;. The Dothan Ala. Eagle's story on four star Emily Newton's commitment to Auburn, where she will be joined by five star Jacqueline Kasler, according to this Pensacola News Journal article; and Treasure Coast Palm's article on five star Andrew Butz's signing with the University of Florida. I will have more on another high profile commitment to the Gators tomorrow.

The Eddie Herr acceptances have been posted, and it looks as if they'll be only one junior slam singles winner in the field--US Open girls champion Heather Watson, who, of course, lives in Bradenton and trains at Bollettieri's. French Open finalist Daria Gavrilova of Russia, the Eddie Herr 14s champion, is entered in the 18s, as is US Open girls finalist Yana Buchina of Russia. Beatrice Capra and Madison Keys are the top ITF-ranked U.S. players entered, with the wild cards yet to be named. Sachia Vickery is entered in the 16s.

In the boys 18s, Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France is the highest ranked ITF player entered, at No. 9, and none of the junior slam winners or finalists are entered. The U.S. will again have a strong contingent with Denis Kudla, who today reached the semifinals of the Futures in Niceville, 2008 16s champion Raymond Sarmiento, Mitchell Frank, Harry Fowler, Junior Ore and Sekou Bangoura, Jr., all in the ITF top 60, in the field.

A spreadsheet of the acceptances, which at 36 pages gives an indication of just how huge the tournament is, can be found at eddieherr.com.

The USTA has announced a new grant in honor of Pancho Gonzalez, which will go to one male and one female high school student of Hispanic heritage who combines competitive tennis participation with academic achievements. For more on the qualifications for these two grants, see usta.com.

Harold Solomon Featured on Tennis Channel Academy; More College Signings; Kudla and Bangoura in Futures Quarters; Australian ITF Grade 1 Dropped

2009-11-12T18:51:00.009-05:00

If you are lucky enough to get the Tennis Channel, you will have an opportunity to see zootennis contributor Harold Solomon this weekend when he kicks off the new season of the Tennis Channel Academy series with Tracy Austin. According to this release, Solomon is the first of seven coaches who will be featured at their academies this fall. The others are: Rennae Stubbs, Johan Kriek, Craig Kardon, Wayne Bryan, Emilio Sanchez and Brett Hobden. The first airing of the Solomon segment is Sunday at 6:30 p.m. Eastern. For dates and times it is repeated, click here.

Although most of the major collegiate signings have not been announced yet by the schools, another blue chip, Christopher Mengel, revealed today at the Tennis Recruiting Network that he would be playing for Duke, as will Cale Hammond of Oklahoma, who was thought to be leaning toward staying in state and playing for John Roddick's Sooners.

There were several announcements involving the signing of local players, with four star recruit Nicolas Kamisar going to Washington, five star recruit Grant Roberts signing with Kentucky, and four star recruit Nikki Chiricosta making it official at Bowling Green. Most of the announcements will be out, I expect, by Monday, but you can keep up with them at Tennis Recruiting Network by checking on the boys' commitments and girls' commitments pages.

In the Pro Circuit Futures event in Niceville, Fla., Sekou Bangoura Jr. and Denis Kudla have reached the singles quarterfinals with wins today. Bangoura, a wild card, beat No. 7 seed Adam El Mihdawy in three sets, while Kudla, a qualifier, downed No. 8 seed Chris Klingemann, the former Ohio State Buckeye, in straight sets. Due to Hurricane Ida, there were a lot of walkovers and byes in the doubles, and although it's only Thursday, the doubles finalists are set, with the unseeded team of Bangoura and Kudla facing the top-seeded team of Tigran Martirosyan and Artem Sitak for the title. Florida State men's assistant coach Matt Cloer competed in the event, and was featured in this story in the Northwest Florida Daily News. CoCo Vandeweghe has reached the quarterfinals of the women's Pro Circuit event in Phoenix. For the complete draws, see the Pro Circuit results page.

The fact sheet is out for the Australian Open Junior tournament, but a quick review of the schedule for early 2010 reveals that the Optus Nottinghill Grade 1 is absent. The Loy Yang Traralgon Grade 1 has been moved to Nottinghill's place on the calendar right before the Australian Open Junior Championships. The qualifying for the AO Juniors has also been moved, to Bendigo, which is 90 minutes to two hours away from Melbourne. It will be interesting to see if the fields, which are always the weakest of the four junior majors, suffer from these changes. For the details, see the ITF junior website.

Cercone To Florida; Sandgren to Tennessee?; Initial Invitations to Australian Open Wild Card Event; Taylor Named USTA Coach

2009-11-11T18:00:00.005-05:00

Signing Day is here, and today the Tennis Recruiting Network revealed two blue chips' choices. Alexandra Cercone has committed to the Florida Gators and you can find my story about her decision here, while Daniel Kosakowski will also being staying close to home, signing with UCLA. Ali Jones wrote the article about his choice, which can be found here. Most of the announcements from the schools themselves have not yet been posted, but a couple have. Kate Fuller, who committed to Georgia many months ago, is officially signed; men's head coach Matt Knoll of Baylor University has received an official commitment from Louisiana's Robert Verzaal; Brooke Bolender's signing at Michigan was announced today.

For a different perspective, four-star recruit Kelsey Lawson of Arizona, who has committed to DePaul, wrote a diary of her experience for the Arizona Republic. Her account of the USTA 18s Clay Courts in Memphis is a reminder of the tension surrounding the major summer events, which are so critical for getting noticed by college coaches.

Speculation about the intentions of top-ranked blue chip Tennys Sandgren has been rampant the past few months, but the Knoxville News Sentinel is the first source I've seen that has gotten a comment from Sandgren.

"I'm most likely going to start (UT) in January," Tennys Sandgren said Monday from Niceville, Fla., where he is playing a $10,000 Futures tournament.

"I mean, I'm playing five professional tournaments the next five weeks," he said. "If I do really well I'll reconsider it, but for now I'm leaning toward going to UT in January."

If he does, Sandgren would put an already formidable Tennessee team at the top of the list of NCAA team title contenders. The article also covers Rhyne Williams's match against Luka Gregorc in the opening round of the Knoxville Challenger.

The USTA has announced a majority of the players who have been invited to compete for the Australian Open wild card in Atlanta next month. On the men's side, invitations have been extended to Jesse Levine, Donald Young, Wayne Odesnik, Rajeev Ram and Ryan Harrison. On the women's side, Christina McHale, last year's winner, will be joined by Madison Brengle, Alison Riske, CoCo Vandeweghe, Asia Muhammad and Alexa Glatch. For the complete release, click here.

And while I was in Connecticut, the USTA announced that Sarah Taylor would be joining Player Development as a coach. For the complete release, click here.

ITA Indoor Championships Slideshow, Videos

2009-11-10T17:17:00.001-05:00

With National Letter of Intent signing day coming up tomorrow, I thought it would be a good idea to get the slideshow and videos from the ITA Indoor up today. It will be early next week before my recap will be published on the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Create a Free Slideshow

The short videos below are of champions Steve Johnson and Jana Juricova. For videos of Irina Falconi and Guillermo Gomez, see the tenniskalamazoo channel at YouTube.

USTA Opens Training Center East in New York; Goldfeld and Austin Capture South Carolina ITF; Kubler Rolls On; Mijacika Reaches Finals in SC Challenger

2009-11-09T20:43:00.002-05:00

I had heard at the US Open that the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center in New York was going to become a National Training Center, and today the USTA made the official announcement, which can be found here. New USTA National Coach Tim Mayotte, who conducted a seminar for coaches at the ITA Indoor Championships at Yale Friday, will be stationed there, with programs beginning this winter. Another interesting note from the release: they will be adding four clay courts to the facility, which currently doesn't have any of that surface.

On the International Tennis Federation junior circuit last week, Americans Gonzales Austin and Ester Goldfeld claimed the Grade 2 titles in Lexington, South Carolina. For Austin, the USTA 16s National Champion, it was his first ITF tournament title. Unseeded, he beat top seed Dennis Novikov, 12th seed Alex Petrone and 4th seed Dane Webb in succession to reach the final, where he took out No. 2 seed Alexis Carlos of Mexico 6-0, 2-6, 6-3.

The fourth-seeded Goldfeld, a finalist at the Pan-American Closed last month, defeated No. 5 seed Madison Keys 0-6, 6-2, 7-5 in her third consecutive three-setter. The 16-year-old from New York now has a career-high ITF junior ranking of 42.

Novikov and partner Nick Chappell, the No. 1 seeds, took the boys doubles with a 2-6, 6-3, 10-7 decision over No. 2 seeds Emmett Egger and Shane Vinsant. The girls doubles title went to top seeds Katarena Paliivets of Canada and Monica Puig of Puerto Rico. They defeated unseeded Robin Anderson and Kelsey Laurente 6-4, 6-2 in the final. For complete draws, click here.

Jason Kubler of Australia, who was one of my October Aces, keeps on rolling. The 16-year-old won the Asian Oceania Closed and has now won 28 consecutive ITF junior matches, not including his Junior Davis Cup victories. His ITF ranking is now No. 4.

At the $25,000 Pro Circuit event in Rock Hill SC, Sacha Jones of New Zealand took the title, beating former Clemson star Ani Mijacika 6-0, 6-4. Jones, the younger sister of former Illinois standout GD Jones, has now won four ITF women's tournaments in a row, putting her on a 20-match winning streak. Mijacika, who last year at this time was playing in the final of the ITA Indoor, will crack the WTA Top 300 when her points from yesterday go on her record next week.

In the $50,000 Challenger in Charlottesville, Virginia junior Sanam Singh took champion Kevin Kim to a third set tiebreaker before falling in the quarterfinals. Kim beat Singh's compatriot and former teammate Somdev Devvarman in the final 6-4, 6-7(8) 6-4. Two former Cavaliers also reached the doubles final, with Dom Inglot and Rylan Rizza falling to former Middle Tennessee State's NCAA doubles champion Andreas Siljestrom of Sweden and Martin Emmrich of Germany 6-4, 3-6, 11-9.

In the Birmingham Futures, unseeded James Lemke of Australia beat top seed and former Cal standout Conor Niland of Ireland 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. Artem Sitak and former Kentucky standout Tigran Martirosyan, the second seeds, won the doubles over former LSU Tigers Colt Gaston and Michael Venus 6-3, 6-4.

This week the Pro Circuit is in Knoxville for a 50K for men, in Niceville Fla. for a $10K for men and in Phoenix for a women's 50K. See the Pro Circuit page for draws and results.

Pac-10 Sweeps Championships at ITA Indoor Sunday

2009-11-08T20:27:00.011-05:00

©Colette Lewis 2009--
West Haven, CT--

Tennis in the Pac-10 doesn't normally involve much indoor tennis, but the conference produced every ITA Indoor champion crowned Sunday at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center at Yale University, the first time that has happened since 1995.

Steve Johnson of the University of Southern California won a three-hour, 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-6(3) classic from Guillermo Gomez of Georgia Tech for the men's singles title, and Jana Juricova of California-Berkeley became the first Bear to win the women's Indoor title with her 6-4, 7-6(6) victory over Irina Falconi of Georgia Tech.

In the doubles, Stanford made Indoor history when Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher won the men's doubles, and Hilary Barte and Lindsay Burdette took the women's doubles, making it the first time one school had swept the doubles titles in the same year.

Johnson, the fifth seed, was able to squeeze past the unseeded Gomez despite converting only one of 17 break points. In the second set alone, he had 13, with Gomez going down 0-40 on his serve three consecutive times, but winning each of those games. After Gomez won the second set tiebreaker by winning seven straight points, Johnson got his only break point of the third set in the second game. When he didn't convert that one either, he raised his hands in the air, with a cry of "please just give me one."

"I was getting frustrated," said Johnson, a sophomore from Orange, California. "I hit a really good slice backhand and he just hit an awesome angle cross court drop volley. I was just hoping he would miss one, but he didn't give me any."

Gomez played composed and consistent tennis throughout the third set, but he had no opportunity to break Johnson. The junior from Spain showed no anxiety serving at 4-5 and 5-6, and when he held to force a tiebreaker, he had only to look back at the second set tiebreaker for encouragement.

This time, however, Johnson was ready. He hit winner after winner, his only hiccup a double fault when leading 3-1. A great kick serve and a forehand putaway brought him three match points, and he converted on the first, when Gomez's lob went just long.

"I just played really solid, I gave him nothing in the breaker," Johnson said. "I didn't have any unforced errors or anything. I just really used my head out there. I wouldn't let myself go away in the third set breaker."

Gomez was disappointed in the result, but far from crushed by the loss.

"The difference between us, it wasn't much," said Gomez. "But it isn't really tough, because I did everything I could. Of course I'm a little bit upset, but I did everything I could, I fought hard, and I'm proud of myself. The difference was maybe one good serving point in the tiebreaker, one better serve. I did my best, and I just have to congratulate him."

Johnson becomes only the second USC Trojan to win a men's Indoor singles title, joining ESPN commentator and Syracuse women's head coach Luke Jensen on the champions list.

Juricova, a sophomore from the Slovak Republic, is the only Bear with a women's Indoor singles championship after her win over All-American champion Falconi.

After trading breaks to open the match, both players held until Falconi, the second seed, was broken at 3-3. Juricova, the fourth seed, held on, and although it took her four set points, the tall right-hander finally stroked a forehand winner to grab the opening set. Falconi was broken to open the second set, but although the sophomore from Florida was making more errors than usual, she didn't let the match get away from her there. Falconi held on to her serve, kept pressuring Juricova's and pulled even at 4. Juricova held at love serving the difficult 4-5 and 5-6 games, but any momentum she may have had didn't last long. Falconi seemed ready to take the match to a third set when taking a 6-4 lead in the tiebreaker but Juricova brushed away one set point with a forehand winner, and on the second, an unfriendly net cord kept Falconi's shot from clearing the net. At 6-6, Falconi double faulted, and the match ended when her return of Juricova's second serve went long.

"I was up 4-2 in the second, so I was hoping to finish it in an easier way for me," said Juricova. "But it's great. I don't think I fully realize it, but it's awesome so far."

Juricova, who also played a doubles match on all four days, admitted to being tired, but although the fall season is over now, she can't take it easy quite yet.

"I have an exam on Tuesday, a pretty big one, so I have to study, but after Tuesday, I'm going to relax a little bit," Juricova said.

Falconi, who was attempting to become the first woman since 1985 to win both the All-American and the Indoor, had dominated her opponents throughout the tournament, but in the final, Juricova kept her errors to a minimum and didn't give Falconi much time to construct her points.

"She played very well today," Falconi said. "She has a big serve, hits a big ball, so I knew I was going to be on defense, but when I could be on offense, it would be good. It was a matter of getting to offense as much as possible, but she made it very difficult for me today."

Given the storied history of Stanford tennis, it is a bit surprising that the Cardinal had not claimed both men's and women's Indoor championships in the same year, and when the second-seeded team of Barte and Burdette were down match point against top seeds Caitlin Whoriskey and Natalie Pluskota of Tennessee, it looked as if 2009 wasn't going to the first.

Pluskota and Whoriskey, the All-American champions, won the first set 6-4, with Barte and Burdette taking the second 6-3. In the third set, Barte and Burdette had their first match point with Pluskota serving at 3-5, but Burdette netted a volley and the Tennessee pair won the next two points. Burdette was serving for the match in the next game, but two double faults led to a break for 5-5. Whoriskey held for 6-5, and in the next game, with Barte serving at 30-40, Tennessee had their match point. Whoriskey missed a return however, and a tiebreaker would decide the championship after nearly three hours of tennis.

Unlike the bulk of the match, the tiebreaker points went to the serving team every time with the exception of the first one, when Pluskota was broken. With Burdette serving at 6-4, the Tennessee pair rushed the net and Barte hit a lob that had everyone holding their breath before it settled just inside the baseline to give Stanford the title.

"We were pretty confident considering we had won the tiebreaker for the third at the NCAAs when we played them in the semifinals," said Burdette, whose sister Erin was a finalist in doubles for Stanford at the Indoor in 2004. "I had completely forgotten up until the tiebreaker started that the exact same thing had happened. That gave me a boost of confidence, like here we go again."

Klahn and Thacher's 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 win over Duke's unseeded team of Reid Carleton and Henrique Cunha couldn't match the women's final for drama, but once the Blue Devils found their form in the second set, the tennis was excellent. Klahn was broken in the sole break of the second set, and in the third Carleton, the only right-hander on the court, failed to hold serving at 2-1, and that was all the third seeds needed, finishing the match with a second break of Carleton.

"They hung in there; we saw that yesterday when they were down a set and a break," Klahn said. "We knew it was going to be tough. We stuck with the game plan in the third set."

Klahn and Thacher, both sophomores, have been playing together less than a year, and although they had an inauspicious debut as a team, starting out 1-2 last March, they are now comfortable together.

"In doubles, there's a lot to be said for chemistry," Thacher said. "We've just been getting better with each match," Klahn added.

As for helping put Stanford in the record books again, both were surprised that it hadn't been done before.

"There's obviously been a lot of great Stanford teams, both men and women, dating back a long time," Klahn said. "It means a lot, it's great for the program."

In the consolation finals played on Sunday, Kristie Boxx and Karen Nijssen of Ole Miss won the doubles 8-2 over Mari Andersson and Juricova of Cal 8-2. Laura Vallverdu of Miami defeated Reka Zsilinszka of Duke 6-4, 6-4 to take the women's consolation singles. Alex Lacroix of Florida defeated Texas's Ed Corrie 6-3, 6-1 in the men's consolation final. On Saturday, Marek Czerwinski and Dennis Nevolo of Illinois won the men's doubles consolation final 8-3 over Moritz Baumann and Marek Michalicka of Wisconsin.

For complete results, see the ITA tournament home page.

Georgia Tech Aims for Two Indoor Titles Sunday

2009-11-07T19:32:00.005-05:00

©Colette Lewis 2009--
West Haven, CT--

Two Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets took different paths to the ITA Indoor finals, but Irina Falconi and Guillermo Gomez are hoping to become only the second pair from the same school to capture both singles titles when they take the court Sunday afternoon at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center.

Falconi, the top seed, cruised past unseeded Lenka Broosova of Baylor 6-1, 6-0 in less than an hour Saturday afternoon, to set up a meeting with No. 4 seed Jana Juricova of California-Berkeley, who defeated No. 7 seed Denise Dy of Washington 6-4, 6-1.

The unseeded Gomez came from a break down in the third set to derail Michael Shabaz of Virginia 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 and in the final will face No. 5 seed Steve Johnson of Southern Cal, who was also down a break in the final set before upsetting top seed JP Smith of Tennessee 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Falconi gave Broosova absolutely no chance to get her rhythm, and while there were several entertaining rallies, most of them ended with an error by the Baylor senior. Falconi has now won 36 games to her opponents' 5 in the past three matches, although the sophomore from Florida was modest when asked about that domination.

"I believe it's hard to determine how the match was played due to the score," Falconi said. "All these girls are spectacular players, and it's just matchups. The score really doesn't say much."

Falconi described herself as a variety player, who doesn't like to "bang-bang."

"I like the slice, I can serve and volley. I like to do things not everyone is used to, and that's what I think gets me in the zone. Other players really don't like that, so changing it up is out of the norm."

Juricova, who is at least eight inches taller than Falconi, is a more conventional power baseliner. Against the athletic Dy, who had beaten her in the Northwest Regional final, Juricova took control of the match at 3-4 in the first set, winning eight straight games with her consistent pace and depth before Dy finally held serve down 5-1 in the second set.

"I was more motivated," Juricova said. "She beat me pretty badly (6-3, 6-3) so this was kind of revenge. It feels good."

The sophomore from the Slovak Republic does own a victory over Falconi in their only previous meeting. At the NCAAs team round of 16 in College Station, Cal defeated Georgia Tech, with Juricova beating Falconi 6-0, 6-4, but Juricova is not putting a lot of stock in that win.

"Team matches are totally different, and it was the end of the year," said Juricova, who led her team to the final playing No. 1 as a freshman. "I hope it's going to be a good match tomorrow, and the better player will win."

Falconi could become the first woman since Beverly Bowes of Texas in 1985 to win the All-American and Indoor titles in the same year.

"It would be amazing," said the Floridian. "Another national title would be a cherry on top, and it would be a nice way to end the (fall) season."

Georgia Tech's Gomez lost in the first round of the All-American last month in Tulsa, but this weekend he has demonstrated great composure, battling from a set down to upset No. 3 seed Robert Farah of Southern Cal in the second round and in Saturday's semifinal against Shabaz, duplicating that feat.

After making an early break stand up to claim the second set, Gomez found himself behind 4-2 in the third against the Virginia junior. But he didn't panic.

"He played great. I didn't make any mistakes tactically. He came out with unbelievable returns," said the junior from Spain. "My first thought wasn't getting angry, it was thinking it was done. After that I just went to the next game and said I'm just going to make every single ball, make him beat me."

Shabaz gave the break back immediately, and although there were plenty of long and punishing rallies in the next three games, Gomez won most of them, using his lethal one-handed backhand to keep Shabaz back on the baseline.

"He was kind of up and down, while I was a little more consistent," Gomez said. "That was the difference. Because when he plays good, it's very difficult to beat him."

In the other men's semifinal, played at exactly the same time on an adjacent court, Steve Johnson was also down 4-2 in the final set against Smith, and also won the last four games to claim the win.

Johnson was arguably in an even deeper hole, as he was facing the All-American champion and serving 1-4 down, fell behind 15-40.

"On those two points I hit a service winner and a forehand winner, which got me back to deuce, and I won the game," said Johnson, a sophomore from Calfornia. "Toward the end of the match I felt he was very erratic on the forehand, so I just tried to keep as many balls in play and pressure that side as much as possible."

Serving at 4-4, Smith had two game points that he was unable to convert and after two deuces Johnson earned a break point. Smith worked his way into position for an overhead winner, but hit it long, although the left-hander from Australia did not agree with Johnson's call, and appealed to the chair umpire, who sided with Johnson.

"I saw the ball out and saw a clear mark out," said Johnson. "The umpire saw it out, and there was no doubt in my mind. As soon as I saw it, I thought it was out, I looked, there was a mark out."

Smith seemed rattled by the incident, making uncharacteristic unforced errors as Johnson tried to serve out the match.

"He made two early mistakes, which really helps serving for the match," said Johnson. "Early in the tournament, I've had a couple of chances to serve out sets and I haven't been able to do it, so that was really helpful. Easy game for me, four errors. I'm not complaining, I'll take it."

Johnson and Gomez met in the second round of the NCAA Individual tournament in College Station, with Johnson claiming a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory.

"At that time I had some trouble physically," said Gomez. "But I know he's a fighter, as he demonstrated yesterday and today, so it's going to be a tough match."

Johnson, who is also appearing in his first major singles final, is hoping to get a little revenge for his teammate Farah.

"I got my revenge on JP for beating Rob at All-American and now I will do the same for Guillermo. I'm on a mission; nobody beats two Trojans."

The doubles final could also produce some history, as no school has ever earned both men's and women's doubles titles, and the Stanford Cardinal can do that this year.

Number three seeds Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher of Stanford reached the final with a 7-5, 6-1 decision over unseeded Boris Conkic and Rhyne Williams of Tennessee, and they will face another unseeded team in the final: Duke's Reid Carleton and Henrique Cunha. Carleton and Cunha posted a dramatic 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) over Texas A & M's Jeff Dadamo and Austin Krajicek. At 5-5 in the third set, Carleton and Cunha saved eight break points on Carleton's serve, only to drop the ninth, giving Krajicek the opportunity to serve out the match. But despite losing that disappointing service game, Carleton and Cunha fought back, breaking Krajicek to send the match to a tiebreaker, where they won the first three points and the last three points to earn their spot in the final.

Stanford's women's team of Hilary Barte and Lindsay Burdette had an even more impressive comeback. Trailing 5-1 in the third set to UCLA's Andrea Remynse and Yasmin Schnack, the second seeded Cardinal won the final six games of the match to claim a 5-7, 7-6(2), 7-5 victory. They will play top seeds Natalie Pluskota and Caitlin Whoriskey of Tennessee, who also had to battle back in their semifinal against Miami's Gabriella Meija and Laura Vallverdu before earning a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.

Three of the consolation finals will be played on Sunday, with Duke's Reka Zsilinszka facing Vallverdu of Miami in the women's singles consolation, and Ed Corrie of Texas taking on Alex Lacroix of Florida in the men's singles consolation.

In the women's doubles consolation final, Juricova and Mari Andersson of Cal will play Kristi Boxx and Karen Njissen of Ole Miss.

The men's doubles consolation final was played Saturday afternoon, with Illinois's Marek Czerwinski and Dennis Nevolo defeating Mortiz Baumann and Marek Michalicka of Wisconsin 8-3.

For complete draws, see the ITA tournament page.

ITA Indoor Semifinals Set After Two Rounds Friday

2009-11-06T21:51:00.005-05:00

©Colette Lewis 2009--
West Haven CT--

The men's and women's contenders for the college season's second major were pared from 16 to 4 Friday at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center at Yale University.

Men's top seed JP Smith of Tennessee will meet fifth seed Steve Johnson of the University of Southern California, while the other semifinal will feature two unseeded players: Michael Shabaz of Virginia and Guillermo Gomez of Georgia Tech.

The Yellow Jackets have a chance for two titles, with No. 2 seed Irina Falconi of Georgia Tech set to face unseeded Lenka Broosova of Baylor. The other women's semifinal is an all-Pac-10 affair, with Washington's Denise Dy, the seventh seed, taking on No. 4 seed Jana Juricova of California-Berkeley.

Falconi, the All-American champion, breezed past Josipa Bek of Clemson 6-2, 6-0 in their second round match, and was equally as impressive against No. 8 seed Venise Chan of Washington in the quarterfinals, taking that win by a 6-0, 6-2 score. Falconi has an impressive repertoire of shots that goes way beyond forehands and backhands, and her ability to control points with that variety keeps her opponents reacting, unable to take the offensive. Broosova, who upset No. 5 seed Caitlin Whoriskey of Tennessee 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the second round, really found her rhythm in the quarterfinals, defeating Marina Cossou of Cal 6-2, 6-1.

Juricova has not lost a set in her three victories, with her power and accuracy too much for Kristi Boxx of Mississippi in a 7-5, 6-2 second round victory and Boise State's Pichittra Thongdach, whom she defeated 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.

In contrast, Washington's Dy had two grueling matches Friday, defeating Stanford's Hilary Barte 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 in a three-hour plus second rounder, and then coming from behind to eliminate Fresno State's Anastasia Petukhova 1-6, 6-3, 6-0 in the quarterfinals.

Smith, who like Falconi, is looking to add an Indoor title to the All-American championship he won last month, defeated Clay Donato of North Carolina 6-2, 6-3 in the second round and Dimitar Kutrovsky of Texas, the No. 6 seed, 6-1, 7-5 in the quarterfinals. Johnson took out freshman Jarmere Jenkins of Virginia in the second round and fought back to take a 6-7,(3), 7-5, 4-0 ret. inj. decision from Marek Michalicka of Wisconsin, who was struggling with a back injury. Michalicka had beaten No. 4 seed and All-American finalist Andrei Daescu of Oklahoma in the second round, and Michalicka's teammate Mortiz Baumann also reached the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Bradley Klahn of Stanford. Baumann lost to Gomez 6-4, 6-1 in the quarterfinals. Gomez had defeated No. 3 seed Rob Farah of Southern California 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the second round.

Shabaz posted two tough straight-set wins Friday, defeating Dennis Nevolo of Illinois 6-4, 7-6(1) in the second round and No. 2 seed Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State 6-4, 7-6(6). The Virginia junior, who saved a match point in his win over No. 8 seed Eric Quigley on Thursday, was able to put his opponents on the defensive with his pace, but he did have to survive a set point in the tiebreaker against Nedovyesov to end the evening's action at 9 p.m.

The doubles semifinals will also be played on Saturday, and there were several surprises in Friday morning's quarterfinals. Top seeds Davey Sandgren and Smith were upset by Jeff Dadamo and Austin Krajicek of Texas A&M 8-3, and last year's Indoor finalists Farah and Johnson lost to Reid Carelton and Henrique Cunha of Duke 8-4.

No. 3 seeds Klahn and Ryan Thacher of Stanford are the only seeded men's team remaining. They defeated Tim Puetz and Alex Stamchev of Auburn 8-5, and will meet Boris Conkic and Rhyne Williams of Tennessee in the semifinals. Conkic and Williams beat Antoine Benneteau and Alexandre Lacroix of Florida 8-6.

The top seeded team in women's doubles did survive, but just barely. Natalie Pluskota and Whoriskey were down 6-2 to DePaul's Anna Redecsi and Selma Salkovic, but reeled off six straight games to advance against Miami's Gabriella Meija and Laura Vallverdu. Meija and Vallverdu beat small college Super Bowl champions Vanessa Heroux and Katia Sabate of Fresno Pacific 8-2.

Another all-Pac-10 contest will take place in the other doubles semifinal, with UCLA's Andrea Remynse and Yasmin Schnack meeting Stanford's Barte and Lindsay Burdette. Remynse and Schnack defeated Marshall's Michaela Kissell and Dominika Zaprazna 8-4; Barte and Burdette downed Oklahoma's Ana-Maria Constantin and Teona Tsertsvadze 8-3.

The doubles semifinals are scheduled for 9 a.m. on Saturday, with the singles following at 1 p.m.

For complete results, including consolation, see the ITA tournament page.

Top Seed Mosolova, All-American Finalist Gullickson Out in First Round at ITA Indoor Championships

2009-11-05T22:04:00.002-05:00

©Colette Lewis 2009--
West Haven CT--

Top seed Maria Mosolova of Northwestern's 6-4, 7-5 loss to wild card Anastasia Petukhova of Fresno State was over by the time we arrived at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center at Yale University, but I did watch some of the second big upset of the day, as 2009 All-American finalist Chelsey Gullickson, the third seed, fell to UCLA senior Yasmin Schnack 7-6(5), 6-2. Gullickson had an early 4-1 lead in the opening set, but injured her knee shortly thereafter, and Schnack capitalized on the Georgia sophomore's lack of mobility.

For Mosolova, it was the second straight defeat suffered in a collegiate major; she lost to Caitlyn Whoriskey of Tennessee, also a wild card, at the Riviera All-American last month.

The Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center is an eight-court facility, with excellent viewing and impressive reminders of the lengthy tradition of the sport at Yale. The four main viewing courts are designated not by numbers, but by the letters Y A L and E, and most of the seeds were assigned to those courts.

Second seed Irina Falconi of Georgia Tech, the reigning All-American champion, looked strong in her 6-0, 7-6(3) win over Fani Chifchieva of Auburn, using her extensive arsenal of shots to defeat the Southern regional champion.

On the men's side, only one seed failed to advance to the second round, with No. 8 Eric Quigley of Kentucky dropping a 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(3) decision to Michael Shabaz of Virginia in the last match to be completed Thursday evening. Shabaz saved a match point serving at 5-6, 30-40 in the final set, then got off to a good start in the tiebreaker, assisted by a fortunate net cord. Quigley approached the net and was in position for a drop volley when Shabaz's passing shot clipped the net and skipped past Quigley's racquet to give Shabaz a 4-1 lead. Shabaz missed only one first serve in the tiebreaker, while Quigley made only one, an ace when down 0-3.

Number five seed Steve Johnson of Southern California had his hands full with small college Super Bowl champion Damian Hume of Collin County Community College, but Johnson survived 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-4. The speedy Hume forced Johnson to hit an extra shot or two in every rally, and it wasn't until Johnson got a late break in the third set that the outcome was decided.

Top seed and All-American champion JP Smith of Tennessee advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Amit Inbar of UCLA and No. 2 seed Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State eked out a 6-3, 7-6(7) win over Texas Tech's Raony Carvalho. Cavalho had a set point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker but double faulted and had another at 7-6 but sent a backhand long. There seemed to be an appeal to the chair umpire after ever line call in the tiebreaker and the handshake seemed less than cordial between the two Big 12 rivals.

The doubles first round also produced some surprises. NCAA champions Mari Andersson and Jana Juricova of Cal, the No. 3 seeds, were beaten 9-7 by Miami's Gabriella Meija and Laura Vallverdu. All-American finalists Aleksey Bessonov and Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State, the No. 2 seeds, lost to Antoine Benneteau and Alexandre Lacroix of Florida 9-8(2), and No. 4 seeds Mortiz Vaumann and Marek Michalicka of Wisconsin were beaten 8-3 by USC's Robert Farah and Johnson, who reached the Indoor finals last year.

For complete results, see the ITA tournament home page.

Unfortunately, cell phone and wireless reception are not good in the Tennis Center, so tweets will be very limited.

October Aces

2009-11-05T12:12:00.001-05:00

I don't know what time my post from the first day of the ITA Indoor Championships might go up this evening, so here's an early post, linking to my monthly aces feature for the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Check out the ITA tournament home page and my twitter feed for results throughout the weekend.

Singh Wins Challenger First Round, So Out of Indoor Championships; College Tennis Showcases; Serena, Oudin, Isner & Querrey to Play at UGA

2009-11-04T18:49:00.001-05:00

We're heading for Connecticut early Thursday, (look for a link to my Tennis Recruiting Network October Aces to autopost around noon) but we won't be seeing Virginia's Sanam Singh playing at the ITA Indoor. Singh qualified for the main draw of the $50,000 Challenger being played in Charlottesville this week, and he won his first round match yesterday, defeating sixth seed Grega Zemlja of Slovenia, who has an ATP ranking of 156. For more on that match, see this article in the Daily Progress. Singh doesn't play his second round match against Scoville Jenkins until Thursday, so he had to withdraw from the competition at Yale, where he was to play both singles and doubles, with Houston Barrick. This allowed second alternate Patrico Alvarado of Southern Mississippi entry into the main draw, and since Singh was seeded, Eric Quigley of Kentucky goes from being a dangerous floater to the No. 8 seed. The South Carolina team of Diego Cubas and Ivan Machado replaced Singh and Barrick in the doubles draw.

For the draws, see the ITA tournament home page. Play begins with women's doubles at 9:00 a.m. Thursday, followed by men's doubles, women's singles and men's singles.

There are several USTA Sectional College Showcases set for this weekend and next. The Middle States has one in Philadelphia on Saturday and in Monroeville on the 14th. Eastern's is Sunday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and the Mid-Atlantic is hosting its first Nov. 14th at Old Dominion. These are great opportunities to learn about playing college tennis, so consider attending if there's one near you.

The exhibition season in tennis is just around the corner, and Rock-n-Racquets will be making its first appearance in Athens, Georgia next month. Former University of Georgia star John Isner will participate in the Dec. 12th event, along with Sam Querrey (his rehab must be coming along as scheduled), Serena Williams and Melanie Oudin. Wayne Bryan will serve as MC. There are very inexpensive seats available for UGA students, faculty and staff beginning on Thursday. See georgiadogs.com for more information.

USTA Study of Junior Injuries Produces Troubling Numbers; Paul Roetert Leaving USTA; Delic Chats at Illinois

2009-11-03T20:43:00.002-05:00

In an article today for Foxsports.com, Richard Evans writes of a study on junior injuries conducted from 2007-2008 by the USTA, which was recently presented at a coaches meeting at the Boca Raton Training Center. The numbers are not encouraging. Of the 861 players surveyed, 41 percent reported an injury, with 13 percent reporting two or more injuries. Although the article doesn't address this specifically, I'm assuming these are injuries that prevent a player from competing.

National coach Tom Gullikson is quoted as saying "it's worse than we expected," and those expectations were probably pretty low to begin with if you're around junior tennis players as much as someone like he is.

Evans explores three possible reasons for all the injuries: strings (the relatively new strings that allow for extended rallies), surface (the pounding that hard courts inflict on the body) and stress (pressure and expectations). There is a quote from Patrick McEnroe about the possibility of the Orange Bowl returning to clay, the surface that it was played on before it moved to Key Biscayne from Flamingo Park.

It would be extremely interesting to compare the injuries of junior players in this country with a country that has the majority of its training and tournaments primarily on clay to see how much of a factor this might be. (It may be possible to do this by just comparing the Southern California juniors with the Florida juniors, or at least the 12 and unders, as those in Florida do much of their training on clay.) If it's demonstrated that clay training does result in fewer injuries, it would add another plus to that side of the surface ledger.

Evans goes on to praise the dedication and attitude of the national coaching staff (although I believe he's mistaken in including Rodney Harmon, the former head of men's tennis among them) and the effort to address this important issue. As anyone who has followed tennis since the U.S. Open knows, it's a problem at the very highest level of the game too.

I don't believe there's been an official release, but Paul Roetert, the former Managing Director of Player Development and current Managing Director of Coaching Education and Sport Science, will be leaving the USTA at the end of the year. Roetert has also served as the tournament director of the US Open Junior Championships.

Amer Delic, the 2003 NCAA singles champion while at Illinois, is recovering from a knee injury and while unable to play, he is back in Champaign, finishing his degree. He did a chat today on the Fighting Illini website, answering questions about his decision to turn pro, breaking racquets, his favorite cities and when he might be back on the tour.

Seeds Announced for ITA Indoor; Pro Circuit Update; S. Carolina ITF Underway; Oudin's New Website

2009-11-02T18:55:00.006-05:00

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association has announced the seeds for the ITA Indoor, which begins Thursday at Yale University.

The seeds take into account the players' performances in the fall season, so it is no surprise that Tennessee's JP Smith, the All-American champion, is No. 1, even though he is No. 2 in the preseason rankings, behind Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State, who is seeded No. 2 at the Indoor. In the women's seeds, the committee did not elevate the All-American champion Irina Falconi to the top spot, probably because her preseason ranking is No. 8. Maria Mosolova of Northwestern stays at the top, while Georgia Tech's Falconi is given the No. 2 seed. Allie Will of Florida is the only freshman seeded, men or women.

The complete seedings:

1. J.P. Smith - Tennessee
2. Oleksandr Nedovyesov - Oklahoma State
3. Robert Farah - USC
4. Andrei Daescu - Oklahoma
5. Steve Johnson - USC
6. Dimitar Kutrovsky - Texas
7. Sanam Singh - Virginia
8. Bradley Klahn - Stanford

1. Maria Mosolova - Northwestern
2. Irina Falconi - Georgia Tech
3. Chelsey Gullickson - Georgia
4. Jana Juricova - California
5. Caitlin Whoriskey - Tennessee
6. Allie Will - Florida
7. Denise Dy - Washington
8. Venise Chan - Washington

Doubles:
1. J.P. Smith/Davey Sandgren - Tennessee
2. Oleksandr Nedovyesov/Aleksey Bessonov - Oklahoma State
3. Ryan Thacher/Bradley Klahn - Stanford
4. Moritz Baumann/Marek Michalicka - Wisconsin

1. Caitlin Whoriskey/Natalie Pluskota - Tennessee
2. Hilary Barte/Lindsay Burdette - Stanford
3. Mari Andersson/Jana Juricova - California
4. Andrea Remynse/Yasmin Schnack - UCLA

The complete list of participants can be found on the ITA tournament home page.

There is lots of action on the Pro Circuit this week, after a quiet one last week, with the women in Rock Hill, SC for a $25,000 event, and the men at the Futures in Birmingham, Ala. and the Challenger at Charlottesville, Va. Qualifying is now complete at all three tournaments. In Virginia, former Wake Forest teammates Cory Parr and Todd Paul qualified, as did current Cavalier Sanam Singh. In Birmingham, Denis Kudla won four matches to qualify; five current Ole Miss and Mississippi State players: Marcel and Christoph Thiemann and Tucker Vorster of Ole Miss and Louis Cant and Artem Ilyushin of Mississippi State also won through to the main draw. Former rebel Devin Britton, just back from training in Spain, received a wild card and will hope that his work on red clay translates to the green clay this week. Sekou Bangoura Jr., Bob van Overbeek and Tennys Sandgren also are in the main draw.

In the final round of qualifying in South Carolina today, Grace Min breezed past former WTA top 30 player Laura Granville 6-0, 6-2, and Jacqueline Cako got by Ajla Tomljanovic, who was a semifinalist at the $25,000 Pro Circuit event in Puerto Rico last week. For all the results and draws, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

Also in South Carolina this week, near Columbia, is the ITF Grade 2, where main draw singles begin Tuesday. The girls draw is loaded, with Madison Keys and Ester Goldfeld joining four other Top 100 players. The boys draw has only two, Dennis Novikov and Alexis Carlos of Mexico. For complete draws and order of play, click here.

Melanie Oudin has a new website, which can unsurprisingly be found at melanieoudin.com.

More Sensational Agassi Confession: Drugs or Hatred of Tennis?

2009-11-01T17:59:00.003-05:00

There's not much going on in tennis today, so it seems like a good time to explore the recent revelations in Andre Agassi's new book, Open: An Autobiography. Although generally I attempt to keep the focus of this website on current junior and college tennis, I have always been interested in development, and when one of the U.S.'s greatest champions goes into great detail about his introduction to the game, I think it merits discussion here.

I just finished reading the Sports Illustrated excerpt in the current issue, which emphasizes not the crystal meth drug use that has made all the headlines, but Agassi's fear of his father and his loathing of the game (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas isn't just a Hunter S. Thompson title, I guess.) In fact the SI cover blurb and the excerpt's title is "I Hate Tennis" and it's clear that sentiment is meant to be in the present tense, not the past.

There is what I would call a romantic notion--one I confess I share--that it's impossible to do all the work and make all the sacrifices necessary to excel at tennis without loving the game. When Agassi describes his childhood, which is portrayed as being exclusively directed by his father's desire that Andre become No. 1 in the world, there is only resentment, dread, anxiety, a fear of failure that would seem to be debilitating, but somehow wasn't. Agassi does appear to realize, in retrospect anyway, that the constant practice had produced rare skills. Even though he says he "takes no pride in my reflexes" when he succeeds in sending a ricocheting ball back over the net, he actually does seem proud that "there are few children in the world who could have seen that ball, let alone hit it." Later he adds:

"Though I hate tennis, I like the feeling of hitting a ball dead perfect. When I do something perfect, I enjoy a split second of sanity and calm."

If Marat Safin were to come out with an autobiography claiming that he hated tennis, few of us would be surprised, as his ambivalence toward the sport has been on display for many years now. Or Mark Philippoussis, whose soap opera of a life doesn't exactly exude fulfillment. But Agassi, who extended his career long past the normal retirement age of his contemporaries, married a former tennis player, spoke so eloquently and knowledgeably about it during short stints in the broadcast booth and is still playing exhibitions, how could he hate it?

One interesting exploration of this question was published last week in the Guardian. Stuart Jeffries talks with various prominent British athletes about the issue, and comes up with some pretty compelling arguments. One, former ATP pro Barry Cowan, says:

"If you're at the top of tennis, you're on tour 30-plus weeks of the year – and when you're doing that, everything revolves around tennis. Every decision you make, tennis is at the back of your mind. That's the main reason for burnout among tennis players in their 20s.

"I know this for myself – it's something you've done since you were six years old, and there's a sense that if you stop giving 100% you are doomed to failure, and that is unacceptable. No wonder so many players hate their sport – the surprise is that so few admit it."

Justine Henin, who has announced her return to tennis, recently gave an interview at her Sixth Sense Academy in Florida, and although the Belgian, who had a difficult childhood of her own, didn't say she hated tennis when she retired in May of 2008, she did say this, according to the article in Bob Larson's Tennis News by Charlie Bricker:

"I once said to Carlos that I was afraid the only thing I can do is play tennis. But after this much time off, now I know I am a human being. I can do other things. I found I could trust myself as a person. I needed to try different things to realize how the world is."

She is also quoted in this Miami Herald AP story as saying:
"It took me a while to realize that it's not just about hitting a tennis ball," she said. "At 5 years old, there's no way you can know that tennis is what you want. Now it's something that I choose to do."

It seems that Andre Agassi could have come to that same conclusion eight or nine years ago, made his personal peace with his past, and once retired, concentrated on his school and his other charitable activities. He chose a different path, just as he had in 1997, and the revelations will probably continue through next week, when the book is finally available for sale. Today's headline from the book is "Agassi says he took what he believes to be speed," with his father behind his ingestion of that drug. There hasn't been anything from the Bollettieri years yet; it would be surprising if his teenage years didn't produce some indiscretions.

For some of the thoughts from tennis writers who have covered Agassi throughout his career, and there is nothing like a consensus emerging from them, I'll provide the following links:

Peter Bodo, for espn.com
Bonnie Ford, for espn.com
Jon Wertheim, for si.com
Chris Clarey, for the New York Times
Neil Harman, for the Times

Georgia Tech Wins Two Matches vs. USTA National Team; Vania King Replaces Serena Williams in Fed Cup; Cavaliers Fill Draws at Challenger

2009-10-31T19:12:00.001-04:00

The Georgia Tech women's team took two singles matches from the USTA girls national team on Saturday afternoon, the only two singles matches the USTA girls lost in their three-campus swing this week. All-American champion Irina Falconi downed Lauren Davis 6-4, 6-3 at No. 1 and sophomore Lynn Blau defeated Kyle McPhillips 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 at No. 3 to give the Yellow Jackets a split of the four singles matches that were played. Lauren Herring defeated Sasha Krupina 6-4, 7-5 at No. 2 singles and Breaunna Addison earned a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Hilary Davis at No. 4, giving the national team an 11-2 singles record. This is quite a contrast to the only other USTA girls national team result earlier this year, when the University of Miami team posted a convincing victory over the younger girls. National coach Jean Desdunes said at the time of the Miami match that he thought "they'll be better next time, because I think they'll know what to expect. It will be interesting to see what they'll do the next time they get an opportunity like that."

It certainly appears that they learned from that experience.

In the two doubles matches, the USTA teams swept both matches, with Herring and Grace Min defeating Falconi and Krupina 8-5 and Monica Turewicz and Chanelle Van Nguyen beating Blau and Davis 8-6.

For a recap of the match and comments from Georgia Tech head coach Bryan Shelton, see the Georgia Tech website.

Although earlier this month Serena Williams had stated that she would play Fed Cup unless she was in a wheelchair, she informed the USTA today that she would not be participating. No reason is given in this brief announcement from the USTA. Vania King, who just returned to California from Asia according to her blog post entitled "I'm finally home", won't be for long, as she was named to take Williams's place.

There is no men's Pro Circuit event this week in the United States, but there are two new venues next week, a Futures in Birmingham, Alabama and a Challenger in Charlottesville, Virginia. Qualifying is underway in both, and in today's opening round in Charlottesville, nearly half of the 32-draw is current or former Cavaliers. Although the draw hasn't yet been updated, the order of play for Sunday indicates that Virginia freshman Jarmere Jenkins defeated top qualifying seed Jamie Baker, and Virginia junior Sanam Singh beat No. 3 seed Ricardas Berankis. See the ATP challenger page for the draws. For more on the tournament, see this article from the Charlottesville Daily Progress.