Winter Nationals Underway; Last Chance to Vote for ZooTennis as Tennis Blog of the Year

The USTA Winter Nationals are one major junior tournament I have never attended due to the location and timing. Coming off a month covering three tournaments in Florida, I need the holiday break to reacquaint myself with my home and work on assignments from the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowls. Even if I had heard glowing reviews of the weather in Arizona this time of year, which I haven't, I still would be unlikely to make the trip.

But for many juniors, it is one of the major tournaments that can be played without missing school, and the field is often full of the best California players in particular. The 16s and 18s divisions are held in Scottsdale, and in the boys 16s, Jack Sock, the No. 1 seed, and Shane Vinsant, the No. 2 seed, have both advanced to the fourth round of the 128-draw. In the girls 16s, National hard court champion Lauren Davis is the No. 1 seed and Nicole Melichar the No. 2 seed.

In the boys 18s, top seed Walker Kehrer was upset by fellow Californian Daniel Kosakowski in the third round, and there have been many upsets, with only No. 2 seed JT Sundling and No. 7 seed Connor Smith representing the top eight seeds in the round of 16.

In the girls 18s, No. 1 seed Hanna Mar and No. 2 seed Lilly Kimbell have advanced to the round of 16, but No. 3 seed Catherine Isip was upset in the first round.

For the 16s and 18s draws and results, see the TennisLink site.

The 12s and 14s are held in Tucson, and from their TennisLink site, it sounds as if the weather has been very wintry. In the boys 12s, top seeds Toshiki Matsuya and Christian Garay, both of whom played the Junior Orange Bowl, are through to the third round. No. 1 Terrell Celestine and No. 2 Jonathan Huang have made the third round in the boys 14s.

In the girls 12s, the top seeda are Katrine Steffensen and Christina Makarova; in the girls 14s, the top seeds are Jacqueline Crawford, and Brooke Austin.

A final reminder: Voting ends on Monday, December 29th in the On The Baseline Annual Awards. If you haven't already done so, please take a moment to vote for ZooTennis for Tennis Blog of the Year by clicking on the graphic in the upper left corner, or go to On The Baseline and select the VOTE TODAY icon. Thank you!

Tags: junior tennis, USTA Winter Nationals, Daniel Kosakowski, Colette Lewis

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Eddie Herr Wrap; Australian Wild Card Playoff; Vote for ZooTennis as Tennis Blog of the Year

My weekly post for The Tennis Recruiting Network is a roundup of last week's Eddie Herr. I hope it provides an overall review of the highlights of that always exciting and chaotic week; for my more in-depth daily coverage, go to "older posts" or the category entitled International Tournaments. I hope to get a slide show up when I get a few hours off, but an Eddie Herr photo gallery is also up for viewing today on The Tennis Recruiting Network.

I spoke with Jay Berger, the USTA's new head of Men's Tennis for Elite Player Development early this week, and he told me the Australian Open main draw wild card playoff is scheduled for next weekend in Boca Raton, with John Isner, Wayne Odesnik, Donald Young and Jesse Levine vying for the wild card that the USTA exchanges with Tennis Australia every year. I don't yet have the information on the women's wild card, but will try to get it later in the week.

And a reminder that if you would like to vote for ZooTennis for Tennis Blog of the Year, please click on graphic in the upper left-hand corner for the On The Baseline WTA site's ballot.



Tags: junior tennis, The Tennis Recruiting Network, Colette Lewis

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Eddie Herr Wrap; Australian Wild Card Playoff; Vote for ZooTennis as Tennis Blog of the Year

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ZooTennis Nominated For Best Tennis Blog

I'm pleased to announce that ZooTennis has received a nomination for "Best Tennis Blog" in the annual On The Baseline awards. I'm up against some pretty stiff competition, so your vote would be much appreciated. Go to onthebaseline for all the nominees. To find ZooTennis and the competition, click on the Media Nominees, then go to the Vote Now button to vote for ZooTennis. Thank you for your support!

Tags: Colette Lewis

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Still Time to Pick Your US Open Junior Winners; Day One of Junior Qualifying Complete; Stephens & Kendrick Take Down No. 1 Mixed Doubles Team

Saturday's post will be from the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and if the travel gods are kind, I may be able to catch some of the final qualifying matches that take place on the practice courts outside the East gates of the US Open. (If you are in the area, come out--it's free).

There are five of the eight U.S. boys and five of the 14 U.S. girls are still in the running for a spot in the main draw. Bo Seal, Devin Britton and wild cards Nathan Pasha and Matt Kandath advanced in straight sets, while Harry Fowler came from a set down to defeat Matthew Short of Great Britain.

I was surprised to see that Lauren Embree had lost, but it did take No. 9 seed Karina Pimkina of Russia two tiebreakers to overcome the 18s Clay Court champion. Brooke Bolender, Lauren McHale, Alexa Guarachi and wild cards Allie Will and Beatrice Capra were the U.S. winners, all in straight sets . Will and McHale face each other Saturday afternoon and that will be high on my list must-see matches.

For complete draws and Saturday's order of play, click here. For on site coverage of junior qualifying, see collegeandjuniortennis.com.

In Canada's Grade 1, unseeded Nicole Gibbs of the U.S. has reached the final, and will play No. 3 seed Kurumi Nara of Japan. Marcus Willis of Great Britain and Mirza Basic of Bosnia will decide the boys' championship.

A huge surprise in mixed doubles competition today in New York, as 15-year-old Sloane Stephens and her partner Robert Kendrick upset the top-seeded team of Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei and Daniel Nestor of Canada 6-1, 6-4 in first round action.

And don't forget to pick who you think will win the US Open Junior Championships by adding your comment to this post. Entries close at 9 a.m. Sunday morning, so make your guess now!

Tags: junior tennis, US Open Tennis Championships, Colette Lewis

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Still Time to Pick Your US Open Junior Winners; Day One of Junior Qualifying Complete; Stephens & Kendrick Take Down No. 1 Mixed Doubles Team

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Pick The US Open Junior Winners in Post #1500

The day before the U.S. Open starts is one of the quietest days in professional tennis, so it seems the perfect time to start another Pick The Winner competition, this one for the U.S. Open Junior Championships. The August 21st acceptance lists are here, but there are often a great many changes during the final three days leading up to Sunday's start. With five U.S. girls in both the main and junior draws, (Kristie Ahn, Gail Brodsky, Asia Muhammad, Melanie Oudin and Coco Vandeweghe) there is a chance that success in singles or doubles in the first week could cause some withdrawals. Ahn has drawn No. 6 seed Dinara Safina (see this Star-Ledger story for how she feels about that draw), Brodsky plays No. 13 Agnes Szavay and Vandeweghe No. 2 seed Jelena Jankovic. Muhammad plays unseeded Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai, ranked 74, who was upsetby Vandeweghe in the first round of March's Las Vegas challenger, the tournament where Muhammad reached the finals. Oudin drew another wild card, 18-year-old Australian Jessica Moore, who is also entered in the junior draw, and due to her 178 WTA ranking will likely be seeded in the 5-8 group. Unfortunately, the draw doesn't come out until the day before the tournament starts, so unlike Kalamazoo, there is no opportunity to take that into account when making a pick.

The men's doubles draw is out at usopen.org, and there are ten U.S. teams as well as three U.S. men--Travis Parrott, Jamie Cerratani and Eric Butorac--partnering non-U.S. players. Chase Buchanan and Ryan Harrison have drawn the unseeded team of Spain's Tommy Robredo and Argentina's Sergio Roitman. It's good to see NCAA doubles champion Kaes Van't Hof receiving a wild card. He will play with fellow Southern Californian Michael McClune.

So, leave a comment (remember, no anonymous comments will be published) on this, post number 1500 on zootennis.com, with who you think will win the boys and girls championships. Feel free to add a dark horse, and if you don't pick U.S. players to win, which U.S. player will be in it the longest.

Tags: junior tennis, US Open Junior Championships, Colette Lewis

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Pick This Year's Winners at The Zoo; Applications for US Open Junior Entries Close Friday

The draws are up at ustaboys.com, so it's time to start the contest, which invites you to pick the singles winners and identify a dark horse (someone outside the top 8 seeds) who has a chance to make the finals. Again, no anonymous comments please. Last year we had great participation, but only one person correctly picked the two number one seeds, Michael McClune and Tennys Sandgren, to capture the championships. Feel free to add comments on who has the toughest draw, a good first round 18s match to watch Friday (I'll go first--Kandath vs. Stevens) and a second round encounter you're anticipating.

The deadline for applying for the U.S. Open Junior Championships is Friday, August 1, and that includes wild card applications. As encouragement for those who may be on the fence, Dennis Nevolo was initially 31 spots out of qualifying last year when the first acceptances were released, and he got into qualifying. He got out of it too, making it to the round of 16 of the main draw.

The application form is available here.

For information on who gets what wild card from the National Hardcourts, please refer to the chart below, taken from the usta website.



*must be ITF age eligible

Tags: junior tennis, Kalamazoo, US Open Junior Championships, Colette Lewis

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Wimbledon Juniors Day One; Contest for All-Access Passes Ends at 9 pm EDT Saturday

The first day of Wimbledon junior competition is over, and seven seeds made their exits. Ty Trombetta of the U.S. topped No. 5 seed Yuki Bhambri of India 7-6(2), 6-4, while No. 8 Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and No. 12 seed Peerakit Siributwong were also defeated. Bhambri, a semifinalist in this year's Australia Juniors, has had a woeful spring in Europe, going 0-2 on the clay and 0-2 on the grass, with this loss.

Ryan Harrison, the No. 7 seed, saved two match points in the second set tiebreaker and managed to get past Vasek Pospisil of Canada 6-7(5), 7-6(8), 6-4, and No. 16 seed Bradley Klahn was taken to three sets, but won the final one 6-0 in his win over Di Wu of China. Chase Buchanan, the No. 14 seed, made it through in straight sets, but his doubles partner, Jarmere Jenkins, was eliminated by No. 6 seed Henrique Cunha of Brazil.

The girls draw lost both of the Romanian Bogdans (not related), No. 4 seed Elena, the French Open finalist who beat Oudin at Roland Garros, and No. 7 Ana. Kurumi Nara of Japan, the No. 8 seed, and No. 11 Ksenia Lykina of Russia also lost in Saturday's opening round. Mallory Burdette of the U.S. was defeated by Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, the 2007 Eddie Herr 16s champion. Top seed Melanie Oudin and wild card Coco Vandeweghe, the other two U.S. girls in the draw, will play their first round matches on Monday.

It's refreshing to have an official website pay attention to the juniors, and today Wimbledon.org has no less than three news stories devoted to them. This one is on how the seeds fared, this one on the British juniors and this one on top seed Bernard Tomic of Australia, who demolished Spain's Carlos Boluda in the opening round. For complete draws, including doubles, which were released today, visit wimbledon.org.

The drawing for the four All-Access passes will take place tonight at 9 p.m. and I will email the winners shortly thereafter. I will close the comments on Friday's post below, after I make my picks in the last comment.

I am also pleased to announce that Guy McCrea of Radio Wimbledon will be contributing reports on the junior action next week direct from the All-England Club. He is covering the juniors for Radio Wimbledon, so he will have plenty of valuable observations on this year's junior event for zootennis readers.

Tags: junior tennis, Wimbledon Junior Championships, Ty Trombetta, Colette Lewis

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Free Wimbledon Live All-Access Passes for Several Lucky ZooTennis Readers

The draws for the Wimbledon junior championships are out (more about that later), but there's other exciting news first. MediaZone has just contacted me with an offer of several free All-Access passes ($24.99 value) for the online streaming product at Wimbledon.org, which I think will be of real value for those who are interested in watching some of the U.S. college players still in doubles, and, of course, the juniors. At this late date, there's no time for a real contest, so tomorrow (Saturday) I'll just randomly select from anyone who has left a comment in June, if they also leave one on this post predicting the winners of the girls and boys Wimbledon Championships.

One caution: Wimbledon LIVE is available only for the Windows operating system. And I will need you to provide me with your email when you comment (which I will delete before posting the comment to the site), so I can send you the gift certificate code if you are selected.

Now to the junior draws. The U.S. had great success in the juniors last year, with Donald Young winning the boys title and Madison Brengle reaching the girls final. There are six U.S. boys in the main draw this year, three of them seeded: Ryan Harrison (7), Chase Buchanan (14) and Bradley Klahn (16). Jarmere Jenkins, Ty Trombetta and qualifier Devin Britton are also in. There are only three U.S. girls, as none of the four in qualifying advanced to the main draw: Melanie Oudin, the top seed, who won Roehampton today, Coco Vandeweghe and Mallory Burdette. Oudin beat 14-year-old Laura Robson of Great Britain in three sets in the Roehampton final, and they will meet, if both advance, in the second round at Wimbledon.

For those interested in the qualifying results, click here. For the Roehampton results, including a short story on the British finalists, click here.

So, who do think will win the Wimbledon junior titles? Make a comment and get in the running for the All-Access Passes for Wimbledon LIVE.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Wimbledon LIVE, Wimbledon Junior Championships, Colette Lewis

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Picking the Winners in NCAA Division I, Care to Try?

Today on the Tennis Recruiting Network, Harry Cicma, Marc Lucero and I weigh in on the upcoming NCAA Division I tournament. As most of you know, I'm not one for predictions, but I did pick the team finalists, and in a zootennis post last week, picked Barte and Devvarman to take the individual titles.

Last year for the Kalamazoo tournament, I asked readers to select their winners, and I'd like to try that again for the NCAAs. Leave a comment with the names of your men's and women's team winners and men's and women's individual champions, and the school you think the women's doubles champion will come from (as a tiebreaker). That's it. When making your comment (to this post) use a name that has some relation to you, although it does not have to be your real name, post it, and if you are right, you'll be recognized in the Honor Roll and receive the designation of "college tennis expert" just like Harry, Marc and me!

Seriously, I ran across this blog today on D-III men's college tennis, and I'm jealous of all the comments and knowledge bandied about there. (The defending national champions, UC-Santa Cruz, lost in the round of 16, so they've already had a lot to discuss). Although we have some serious college tennis fans here at zootennis, we need more. Take a guess (deadline is next Wednesday, the 14th), there's no cost to this lottery! (I'll add a category called "contest" to this post, so it will still be easy to find a week from now.)

To follow up on the results from yesterday, the U.S girls' victory over Canada in the Junior Fed Cup qualifying is detailed here, and the unbelievable eight-hour length of the tie makes it all the more unfortunate that Canada has been deprived of a spot in the final 16 in September.

TCPalm.com had this story on Chase Buchanan's win in Vero Beach, with an interesting set of statistics of the sort you get from Grand Slam matches at the bottom. The Daily Progress talks with Alexis Gordon about her first pro win in Charlottesville and her future goals.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, NCAA Division I tennis championships, Colette Lewis

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