Furman's Scarpa Sets D-I Win Record; Tomic Suspended; UCLA Team Wins Pacific Coast Doubles; Indian Wells Qualifying; Gilbert Joins Bollettieri's

As I mentioned when he wrote a story about Melanie Oudin a couple of weeks ago, ESPN's Greg Garber is back on the tennis beat, and in an article posted today, he examines the career of Furman's Paul Scarpa, who became the leader in NCAA Division I men's tennis wins when his team defeated Yale 6-1 on Friday. Now with 821 victories (Furman beat Army on Sunday), Scarpa surpassed Jim Schwitters of Hawaii, and according to Garber, his retirement, at least any time soon, is unlikely. Until recently, I wasn't aware that Scarpa developed the 3-6 system, with three doubles matches for one point, played first, and six singles following, that is now employed in NCAA Division I tennis.

The ITF has made its decision regarding the case of Bernard Tomic, and he will not be able to play in ITF events until after April 6, as punishment for walking off the court in a Futures tournament match back in December. He was also fined $1560, according to this story from the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Given that Tomic has recently won an ATP Challenger title, and his participation in that level of tournaments is not affected by this ruling, it probably will have very little impact on his schedule in the next four weeks. He is now 382 in the ATP rankings.

The 120th annual Pacific Coast Doubles tournament (that number's not a typo) was contested at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club, with UCLA's Haythem Abid and Nick Meister winning the title. Due to some questionable seeding, Abid and Meister were one of the No. 9 seeds, and fell in the same 1/16 as co-No. 1 seeds Robert Farah and Steve Johnson of USC, but the Bruins won that 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 (isn't it refreshing to see real doubles scores again?) and went on to beat Rice's team of Christoph Muller and Tobias Scheil, one of the No. 8 seeds, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the final. Marc Lucero was there covering the tournament for his blog, Luch by Marc Lucero. For the complete draws, see the TennisLink site.

The women's qualifying began today at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Julia Boserup lost to Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-2, 6-2, while Angela Hayes, also a wild card, defeated Olga Savchuk of Ukraine 6-1, 6-3. Gail Brodsky, who won the other qualifying wild card when she saved match points against former UCLA star Riza Zalameda, according to this story in the Desert Sun, couldn't pull off another three set triumph a day later. In a match that took nearly two and a half hours, Brodsky lost to France's Aravane Rezai 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4. Sixteen-year-old Michelle Larcher de Brito won her match in three sets; CoCo Vandeweghe and Asia Muhammad have not finished their matches as I write this.

For complete results, see the BNP Paribas website.

Nick Bollettieri has announced on his website that Brad Gilbert will be joining his staff as a "guest coach" beginning in April.


Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Furman, Paul Scarpa, Bernard Tomic, Nick Meister, Haythem Abid, UCLA, Gail Brodsky, BNP Paribas Open, Brad Gilbert, Nick Bollettieri, Colette Lewis

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Pegula Wins Costa Rica Grade 3, Stanford Women Beat Cal; Ole Miss Men Beat Georgia, Tennessee

It's been rather quiet on the junior front lately, but the ITF Grade 3 in Costa Rica has been a favorite of U.S. players for quite a few years, and this past week, a large group competed there. Unseeded Mitchell Krueger made the quarterfinals and No. 11 seed Dennis Novikov reached the final before bowing out to No. 2 seed Tigre Hank of Mexico. U.S. girls claimed three of the four semifinals berths, with No. 6 seed Shelby Rogers falling to unseeded Jessie Pegula, while No. 5 seed Kate Fuller reached the finals with a win over Christina Mathias of Austria. Pegula, who turned 15 last month, rolled past Fuller in the final 6-0, 6-1, and also took the doubles title with Elisabeth Abanda of Canada. For complete draws, see the ITF junior site.

After several years of clear favorites for the NCAAs, this year there is no such thing. In a non-conference match against No. 7 Cal yesterday, the 13th-ranked Stanford women extended their home match winning streak to 142 with a 4-3 victory. Cardinal senior Jessica Nguyen came from 5-3 down in the third set against Cal's Claire Ilcinkas at No. 3, winning the last four games to earn the dramatic win. Cal is still without Marina Cossou, who was injured at the Team Indoor last month. For more on the match see the Stanford website. With the USC, UCLA and the Cal conference matches on the road, only No. 16 Arizona State stands a realistic chance of ending Stanford's streak this year, which dates back to 1999.

In other women's action, No. 6 Miami lost to No. 8 Georgia Tech 5-2 on Saturday in Atlanta, then went to Clemson and beat the Tigers by the same score today. Clemson had beaten Georgia Tech late last month. Miami's Julia Cohen has been playing some outstanding tennis of late; since her loss to Stanford's Hilary Barte at the Team Indoor, she has won six straight, including an impressive 6-4, 6-1 result today over the nation's top-ranked player, Ani Mijacika.

Men's tennis has been no more predictable. No. 10 Ole Miss kicked off their SEC conference schedule with a bang, defeating No. 4 Georgia 4-3 on Friday night, and No. 5 Tennessee 6-1 today, with both matches played in Oxford. No. 31 South Carolina is also now 2-0 in SEC play, having upended No. 11 Kentucky today 5-2 in Columbia. No. 32 Virginia Tech beat No. 16 Louisville 5-2 on Friday, just one more indication that the competition for those last 16 spots in the NCAA is going to be fierce in the next two months.

In the Pro Circuit events completed today, Gabriela Paz of Venezuela won the $25,000 Fort Walton Beach Challenger, the second $25,000 tournament she has won this year as an unseeded qualifier. Lester Cook won the $15,000 McAllen Texas Futures event. For complete results, visit the usta.com Pro Circuit results page.

And Andy Roddick kept his streak intact, closing out the Davis Cup tie against Switzerland with a convincing 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win over Stanislas Wawrinka. After Roddick's eleventh victory against no losses when in that position, the U.S. will travel to Croatia for the quarterfinals in July.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Jessica Pegula, Stanford, Ole Miss, Colette Lewis

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Bhambri Given Sony Ericsson Main Draw Wild Card; New Tennis Blog Debuts

India's Yuki Bhambri, the world's top-ranked junior and the reigning Australian Open Junior champion has received a main draw wild card into the Sony Ericsson Open, which begins on March 25. That news, first reported by The Hindu, was confirmed by IMG Vice President Olivier Van Lindonk. The 16-year-old had earned a qualifying wild card by virtue of his victory at the Orange Bowl, on the site of the Sony Ericsson, but IMG, who owns the tournament, has decided to upgrade him. He'll join Marcos Baghdatis and Lleyton Hewitt, who have already been announced as wild card recipients.

Bhambri recently came in for some criticism for choosing to play in this week's Pro Circuit event in Texas rather than serve as a practice partner in India's Davis Cup tie with Chinese Taipei this weekend, according to this story from DNA. (University of Virginia's Sanam Singh, who is mentioned here as a part of the Davis Cup team, is not participating). Bhambri, using a junior exemption gained by finishing in the Top 10 of the ITF Juniors last year, lost in the first round of the Futures event to Lester Cook 6-4, 6-2. He also lost, in three sets, to Singh in the first round of qualifying for the ATP's Chennai Open back in January. IMG needs to use some caution in handing out a wild card to such a big tournament--it worked fine with Michelle Larcher de Brito, who last year used hers to win two Sony Ericsson matches before losing to Shahar Peer, but Bhambri is well behind her in terms of physical maturity. No one wants to see the Donald Young scenario repeated with another precocious and talented teen who is being viewed as the best hope to improve his country's tennis fortunes.

I recently spoke with Chris Woodruff, the associate head coach at the University of Tennessee (this is a teaser for my Tennis Recruiting Network article next week) and he made it very clear to me the danger of playing at the wrong level--and this was as an NCAA champion who felt in over his head. The occasional wild card is generally not harmful, but as Woodruff said, word gets around that you haven't earned your way in and there's not much sympathy from professionals for that circumstance.

Although there are plenty of tennis blogs out there (see my links for some of my favorites), a new one by my Tennis Recruiting Network colleague Marc Lucero is definitely worth a read. He has posted only once, but his account of the Stanford and USC men's match last week will be much appreciated by those of us who can't get enough college tennis match reports.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Yuki Bhambri, Chris Woodruff, Marc Lucero, Colette Lewis

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Tomic Wins Challenger; Kriese Working with Lertcheewakarn; Keys Makes Professional Debut

For reasons that elude me, 16-year-old Bernard Tomic's win at the $50,000 Melbourne challenger over the weekend has produced no comment from the Australian press. This is a significant accomplishment for a player of his age, and the lack of coverage is surprising, given the media blitz that accompanied him in the same city last month, when he won one match in the Australian Open main draw. The final featured yet another meeting between wild card Tomic and fellow Australian Marinko Matosevic, the sixth seed. In the brief time that Tomic has been playing Pro Circuit events, he and Matosevic have met four times, with the 23-year-old winning the first two, including the infamous match when Tomic left the court at the behest of his father, leading to a default. Tomic has won the last two times they have played, with the defaulted one the only match not reaching three sets. For a brief synopsis of Tomic's performance last week, see the Tennis Australia account.


A few days ago, I came across a story in Thailand's The Nation about Noppawan Leertchewakarn, the 2008 ITF World Junior champion (and US Open Jr. doubles champion) from that country. While she transitions from the juniors to the pro tour, she is planning on playing the remaining junior slams; she was a semifinalist at the Australian Open juniors in January. She is working with former Clemson men's head coach Chuck Kriese, who took a position with the Thai Federation last year.

The story goes on to say:
Being the world No 1 junior is no guarantee of success in the big leagues. Only three of the top girls since 1994 - Martina Hingis, Amelie Mauresmo and Svetlana Kuznetsova - have gone on to be No 1 among the professional women, and they'd all won at least one junior Grand Slam.

First of all, being No. 1 in the world is a pretty high standard for defining "success in the big leagues." But the odd thing about this is the selection of 1994 as the cutoff date, the year Martina Hingis was the World Junior Champion. Going back to 1978, there are a lot fewer No. 1s--why not start there to make the point?

Madison Keys, who turned 14 last month, made her debut in a professional tournament today in the $25,000 Challenger in Fort Walton Beach, and although she didn't win it, she did take eighth seed Ekaterina Bychkova, ranked 141 by the WTA, to three sets. For the complete results of that event, and the $15,000 Men's Futures in McAllen, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.


Tags: junior tennis, Bernard Tomic, Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, Madison Keys, Colette Lewis

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Davis Cup Camp; Stephens and Brodsky Open in Madison Square Garden; Stanford Takes Over No. 1 Spot in ITA Men's Rankings

The USTA is holding a Player Development Davis Cup camp in Birmingham, Ala., prior to this weekend's tie with Switzerland. The boys selected to participate, all of whom are 13 or 14 years old, are: Justin Butsch, Drew Dawson, Daniel Kerznerman, Thai Kwiatkowski, Mackenzie McDonald, Jack Murray and Noah Rubin. In addition to announcing the camp, the USTA has also provided an update on the boys' results and rankings in this release on usta.com.

In other Davis Cup news, Ryan Sweeting has replaced Amer Delic as a practice partner, and yesterday the team conducted an open practice, according to this story in the Birmingham News.

Sloane Stephens, who is now training in Carson, Calif., and Girls 18s champion Gail Brodsky were the opening act in the BNP Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup exhibition held last night in Madison Square Garden. Their photo is the first one in the slideshow available at usta.com.

The first computer-generated Division I college tennis rankings have been released, and the team that lost, the Northwestern women, retained its No. 1 spot, while the team that didn't, the Virginia men, are no longer at the top. Stanford had an outstanding weekend in Southern California, beating both USC and UCLA, but they are ahead of Georgia, who beat them at the Team Indoor, didn't lose, and fell from No. 2 to No. 4 in the rankings. Fortunately, like all NCAA sports except football, the champion will be determined in competition, and the rankings are important only for seeding implications once the NCAA regionals and finals roll around in May. For the ITA release on today's rankings, click here.

USC's Robert Farah is now No. 1 in singles, the third player to claim the top spot in the three rankings this year. Unlike last year, when Virginia's Somdev Devvarman was No. 1 wire-to-wire, the individual championship this year should be much more wide open. Clemson's Ani Mijacika has taken the women's No. 1 berth from Northwestern's Maria Mosolova. For the complete rankings, see the Campbell's ITA ranking page.

And I'm a day late on this, but congratulations to the women of Carnegie-Mellon, who won the first ITA Division III Women's Team Indoor last weekend in Minnesota, defeating Emory 6-3 in the final. The ITA's account is available here.

Former Clemson star Julie Coin, who is now a career-high 68th in the WTA rankings, won the Clearwater, Fla. $50,000 Pro Circuit event on Sunday, in one of the most unlikely ways possible. She trailed No. 2 seed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 3-6 when at 1-1 in the second set Wickmayer was defaulted for apparently hitting a linesperson with a ball. Credit to Diane Dees at the blog Women Who Serve for unearthing some details about the incident.

And ZooTennis sponsor Own The Zone string vibration dampeners is announcing today a new partnership with Rally for the Cure®, providing pink bands for distribution at tennis events held to support breast cancer awareness. For the complete release, click here.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Jack Murray, Davis Cup Player Development Camp, Colette Lewis

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Garber on Oudin; Juniors in Spain; Kelcy Tefft in College Spotlight

ESPN's Greg Garber is taking his usual break from the NFL football beat to cover tennis, and he's done two features already, one on Todd Widom and most recently, on Melanie Oudin. And if you are a squash fan, he has written and produced a story on the Trinity men's squash team and its 11th straight national title. And if you think U.S. tennis is heavy on the foreign influence....

Nathan Pasha has written his second blog entry from Spain for usta.com, and apparently he is now turning the keyboard over to another junior, either Bob van Overbeek or Denis Kudla. I spoke with Mike Sell briefly over the weekend, and Chase Buchanan had a couple of injuries, so he is now back in the U.S. Raymond Sarmiento and Rhyne Williams qualified for the first Futures, winning four matches, with Williams beating Kudla in the third round of qualifying. Van Overbeek and Pasha lost in the second round of qualifying. Sarmiento lost in the first round of the main draw; Williams won his first match before losing today. For complete results, see the ATP's Challenger and Futures page.

As for the Pro Circuits in the U.S., there are no juniors remaining after the first round of either the $50,000 women's event in Clearwater, Fla. or the men's $15,000 tournament in Harlingen, Texas, although there are plenty of college players still in action. See the Pro Circuit page for complete results.


And speaking of college players, Notre Dame senior Kelcy Tefft is featured today in the USTA's College Spotlight.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Melanie Oudin, Todd Widom, Nathan Pasha, Kelcy Tefft, Colette Lewis

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Pasha Blogs From Spain for usta.com

The trip to Spain that I heard about when I was in Florida last month is underway, with Chase Buchanan, Denis Kudla, Nathan Pasha, Raymond Sarmiento, Bob van Overbeek and Rhyne Williams now in the Barcelona area with USTA National Coaches Mike Sell and Ricardo Acuna, preparing to play in a series of Futures tournaments there on clay. Nathan Pasha is blogging about the trip for usta.com, and his first entry, from Monday, can be found here.

For a complete list of the tournaments, see the ITF Men's Circuit page.

Tags: junior tennis, USTA Player Development, Nathan Pasha, Colette Lewis

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Catching Up With the Women

There are going to be many changes in the next Division I rankings, due out on Thursday, but not at the top of the women's team rankings, where Northwestern will stay after their impressive showing in Wisconsin at the ITA Women's Team Indoor. After taking out a very dangerous Miami team 6-1 in the opening round, the Wildcats barely got by Duke in the quarterfinals 4-3, but handled excellent teams from Notre Dame and Georgia in the semifinals and finals, dropping only one point. Duke gets a rematch on Feb. 28th in Evanston, and the Fighting Irish also travel to Northwestern in early April, but if the Wildcats get by those two teams and Georgia Tech, whom they face in Atlanta this Sunday, a perfect regular season is probable. Although that would obviously make Northwestern one of the teams to beat for NCAA title, there are several teams who can rival them, especially when play moves outside later this spring. So despite Northwestern's hold on the top spot, there is a still a lot of excitement left this season in women's college tennis. For the Northwestern website's story on the Indoor title yesterday, click here.

The ITA now has a team schedule page, that provides links to the dual match schedules of most colleges with tennis teams, so check out your local team's upcoming home matches and make plans to attend one.

Georgia freshman Chelsey Gullickson, who garnered the Bulldogs' sole point in yesterday's Team Indoor final against Northwestern by beating Maria Mosolova, the nation's top-ranked player, was the subject of last week's College Spotlight on usta.com. The seventh-ranked freshman is definitely a contender for the NCAA individual title in College Station, and she is publicly stating that as one of her goals.

And in case you missed it, wild card Melanie Oudin beat her Fed Cup teammate Jill Craybas in the first round at the WTA Cellular South Cup in Memphis Sunday, but fell today in the second round to Marina Erakovic of New Zealand. The Memphis Commercial Appeal had this story about Oudin's victory. Portugal's Michelle Larcher de Brito, who just turned 16 and also a wild card, won her first round match against Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden 6-2, 6-0.

The Sony Ericsson WTA website devoted a recent "Getting to Know" segment to former Clemson standout Julie Coin. Click here for that interview.

The Pro Circuit has a $25,000 women's event in Surprise, Arizona this week, where Kaitlyn Christian and Asia Muhammad have qualified for the main draw. The men are in Brownsville, Texas for a $15,000 event there. Wild card Jordan Cox won his first round match today. (correction--Cox lost, it was initially posted incorrectly on the draw). For complete results and draws, visit the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Northwestern University, Chelsey Gullickson, Julie Coin, Melanie Oudin, Colette Lewis

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Georgia to Host NCAAs in 2010 and 2012; In-depth Feature on Octagon's Tom Ross; Kristie Miller Returns to Michigan

The University of Georgia announced today that it will host the Men's and Women's NCAA Division I Tennis Championships next year and in 2012. The NCAAs were last held in Athens in 2007, when the men captured their fifth national championship. Georgia was considered a front-runner for the 2010 championships, due to their extensive experience they have in holding the event and the short turnaround time between the bid acceptance and the tournament--less than 16 months. It also demonstrates a commitment to the combined men's and women's events, which I personally believe has added immeasurably to the college tennis experience. For more on the announcment, see georgiadogs.com. Stanford, the 2006 host, was awarded the 2011 championships.

It's not often that an executive of a sports management company gets profiled by a local paper, but the Marin County (California) Independent Journal recently published this feature on Tom Ross, a senior vice president at Octagon. There are reminisces about Todd Martin, an early client, and there are statements on Donald Young, a much more recent addition to the Octagon tennis roster. With the SAP Open in San Jose this week, there were high hopes that Young would qualify for the main draw, but the third seed lost to Michael Ryderstedt in the second round of qualifying.

The only Pro Circuit event taking place this week is in Midland, Michigan, and it's a big one, the $75,000 Dow Corning Tennis Classic. The Port Huron Times Herald noted that nearby Marysville's Kristi Miller, the former Georgia Tech star, had received a wild card into qualifying, and wrote this story on her return home. In the final round of qualifying on Tuesday morning, Gabriela Paz of Venezuela and Madison Brengle of the U.S. will square off for a main draw berth.

And to wrap up the Fed Cup over the weekend, a blogger from Phoenix was in Surprise for the U.S. and Argentina tie and had this to say about Melanie Oudin's performance. For a great overview of everything that happened around the world in Fed Cup play, see Todd Spiker's always excellent WTA Backspin.

Tags: college tennis, University of Georgia, Tom Ross, Octagon, Fed Cup, Kristie Miller, Dow Corning Tennis Classic, Colette Lewis

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January Aces; Koniecko Interview, Fed Cup News

It's the first Thursday of the month, so please check out the January Aces article I've written for The Tennis Recruiting Network.

Bryan Koniecko of Ohio State, currently No. 1 in the ITA individual rankings, is featured today on usta.com. I hope he's right about the assumption contained in his answer to a question on his goals (emphasis is mine):

My individual goals are to keep trying to improve while I’m still at college and obviously try to win the NCAA singles title at the end of the year. Winning the NCAA could give me a US Open main-draw berth, and that would be exciting, being from New York and all. More importantly, I want to win the NCAA title as a team and finish No. 1. Since I was a freshman, we have had top-5 teams, and due to some bad luck and a couple injuries, we missed our opportunity in going to the finals of the NCAA tournament. But as a senior and a captain, winning the NCAA as a team would just be an amazing finish to a great four years.

"Could" appears to be the operative word here, as Georgia Tech's Amanda McDowell did not receive a U.S. Open wild card after her NCAA individual championship last year.

The Fed Cup begins this weekend, and with Bethanie Mattek's recent withdrawal, captain Mary Joe Fernandez has asked Julie Ditty to join Jill Craybas, Liezel Huber and Melanie Oudin for the tie with Argentina. Fernandez is blogging for usta.com, and in this entry, I was somewhat surprised to hear that she did not know Oudin. Despite the age gap with the 30-somethings, Oudin is not the only teenager in the mix. Seventeen-year-olds Julia Boserup and CoCo Vanderweghe are serving as hitting partners in Surprise, Arizona, according to this article from the Arizona Republic.


The U.S. and Argentina are in the World Group, which has 16 teams, but there are also Zonal round robins taking place in Estonia, Australia and Canada. In Quebec yesterday, Puerto Rico, with 15-year-old Monica Puig playing No. 1, defeated the Bahamas 2-1 in an opening round match. For results and information, see the Fed Cup website.

And finally, if you haven't done so yet, take a look at the free live video streaming that Front Row Tennis is providing this week at the TbarM Dallas Challenger. This afternoon I watched the third set of a battle between 2002 Kalamazoo 18s champion Prakash Amritraj and 2004 Kalamazoo 18s champion Scoville Jenkins, won by Amritraj 6-4. Tonight, two members of the 2003 Illinois NCAA championship team will be on court when Amer Delic plays Brendan Evans and Rajeev Ram takes on Michael Russell.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Fed Cup, Mary Joe Fernandez, Monica Puig, Bryan Koniecko, Front Row Tennis, Tennis Recruiting Network, Colette Lewis

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Donald Young vs. Michael Russell at the TbarM Challenger in Dallas

I had totally forgotten until today that Ken Thomas of radiotennis.com had told me during our conversation in Boca Raton that FrontRowTennis was going to provide free, legal live video streaming of the Pro Circuit Men's Challenger in Dallas. Please follow this link to watch Donald Young and Michael Russell (both former Kalamazoo champions: Russell won the 16s in 1994, Young won the 18s in 2005 & 2006). Ken Thomas is doing the commentary for this match, although not for the previous one featuring Kevin Kim ( 18s Kalamazoo champion 1996) and Andrea Stoppini of Italy.

After the initial buffering, I had no problems watching via my cable modem, although I am currently having audio problems.

Today's order of play is here.

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Rhyne Williams Profile; Vickery, Duval and DiGiulio Into Quarterfinals at Les Petits As

When we were at the Boca Raton Futures earlier this month, I had an opportunity to sit down with Rhyne Williams to discuss his plans for college, and I've written about the conversation in today's article on The Tennis Recruiting Network. Today in Plantation, Williams and partner Ryan Lipman advanced to the doubles semifinals of the Pro Circuit Futures there. For complete results, visit usta.com.

In Tarbes, France, No. 2 seed Sachia Vickery and No. 5 seed Vicky Duval, finalists at last week's Teen Tennis tournament in England, have reached the quarterfinals at Les Petits As, as has No. 5 seed Joe DiGiulio. Vickery and Duval are also still in the doubles; with a tense 11-9 match tiebreaker win today, the No. 1 seeds have reached the semifinals. See the tournament website for complete results.

In Melbourne, the semifinals of the junior singles and doubles are not scheduled to begin until five hours later than they have been, and the indoor Hisense arena is not being used, so I don't know if that means the heat wave is over, or that there will be changes. There was a BBC story that Heather Watson's father was not happy that she was playing in that heat. It does bother me that juniors are expected to play sometimes five sets of tennis in those conditions day after day, when the much more physically mature players get a day of rest between matches, and most don't play singles and doubles.

You may notice some changes in format and advertising on the site in the near future. I hope it's not too disruptive, but I have signed up with a company that targets advertising to sports blogs, and I'm working out some of the kinks in formatting and placement of the advertisements.


Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Rhyne Williams, Australian Open, Heather Watson, Les Petits As, Colette Lewis

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Oudin Named to Fed Cup Team; Christian Wins Wild Card Tournament for Rancho Mirage Challenger

Melanie Oudin is one of four players named to the U.S. Fed Cup team that plays Argentina in Surprize, Arizona on February 7th and 8th. This is Oudin's Fed Cup debut, although she did serve as a practice partner as a 15-year-old back in July of 2007 when the U.S. took on Russia in Vermont. Bethanie Mattek, Jill Craybas and Liezel Huber are the other four members of the team, with the Williams sisters declining to participate according to this Associated Press story.


Steve Pratt, whom I've worked with at the Easter Bowl, Carson and the U.S. Open, is the media director for next week's $25,000 Women's Pro Circuit event in Rancho Mirage, and today he passed along this story about the wild card "opportunity" tournament, won by 17-year-old Kaitlyn Christian of Orange, California, who earned a main draw wild card with the victory.

In Tarbes, the U.S. has three girls and two boys still contending for the prestigious Les Petits As titles. Sachia Vickery, Brooke Austin and Vicky Duval advanced today, as did Joe DiGiulio and Luca Corinteli. Austin got a walkover, Duval won 6-1, 6-2 and Vickery and DiGuilio shutout their opponents. Only Corinteli had a close match, coming back for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win. For complete draws, including doubles, see the Les Petits As website.

The heat has caused havoc in the junior championships in Melbourne, with play being suspended with several of the quarterfinal singles matches undecided. Top seeds Yuki Bhambri and Julen Uriquen did manage to post wins before the heat rule suspended play, as did No. 7 seed Adrien Puget, but the fourth semifinalist is unknown, with Alexandros-Ferdinandos Georgoudas of Germany up a set on 15th seed Cheng-Peng Hsieh of Chinese Taipei. Girls top seed Noppawan Lertcheewakarn rolled over unseeded Anna Orlik, and Laura Robson assured a Wimbledon final rematch with Lercheewakarn when No. 4 seed Elena Bogdan retired 6-3, 2-5. Bogdan was serving, up 30-0 and needing only two points to end the set, which would have suspended the match. The BBC is reporting (they do live text updates from the Australian Open) that Bogdan turned her ankle. No. 3 seed Ksenia Pervak and No. 9 seed Heather Watson had begun their second set before the heat rule was invoked, and Pervak came from a break down in the second to finish it in two 6-3, 7-5. No. 2 seed Ana Bogdan of Romania leads No. 7 seed Kristina Mladenovic of France by a set in their quarterfinal. None of the scheduled doubles were played on Wednesday, so they still have quarterfinals to play. Christina McHale, who is playing with Croatia's Ajla Tomljanovic, is the only U.S. player still in doubles. See the Australian Open website for draws.

Tags: junior tennis, Melanie Oudin, Fed Cup, Pro Circuit, Kaitlyn Christian, Australian Open, Colette Lewis

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Notes from Tarbes, Plantation, Carson, Laguna Niguel and Melbourne; Sundling Has Surgery, Wins Award

The last round of Les Petits As qualifying saw three of the four U.S. players advance to the main draw, with only Nadia Echeverria Alam losing, by the score of 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, to Solene Guyomard of France. Brooke Austin, Luca Corenteli and Roy Lederman will play their first round matches on Tuesday, as will Vicky Duval, who is seeded fifth. Teen Tennis champion Sachia Vickery, who is seeded second behind Slovakia's Petra Uberalova at Les Petits As, won her first round match easily, as did Joe DiGiulio, the No. 5 seed, and unseeded Nikko Madregallejo. To follow the action via the tournament's excellent website, click here.

The last round of qualifying in the 128-draw of the Men's $10K Futures in Plantation, Florida, saw U.S. juniors Chase Buchanan, Tennys Sandgren and Bob van Overbeek earn spots in the main draw, with Sandgren and van Overbeek winning third set tiebreakers to do so. Raymond Sarmiento, Rhyne Williams and Evan King received main draw wild cards. At the $50,000 Challenger at the Home Depot Center in Carson, 2008 NCAA doubles champion Kaes Van't Hof of USC has earned one of four qualifying spots in that event. At the $25,000 women's tournament in Laguna Niguel, US Open Junior champion CoCo Vandeweghe and Stanford recruit Stacey Tan are among the eight qualifiers for the main draw. For draws and results of this week's Pro Circuit events, see usta.com.

In early second round action at the Australian Open Junior Championships, No. 5 seed Laura Robson, trailing 5-1 in the second set against Thailand's Kanyapat Narattana came all the way back to force a tiebreaker and cruised through that for a 6-3, 7-6(0) victory. Expect more stories like this one from the Guardian, given that Murray's defeat last night left a lot of British tennis writers in search of someone to cover.

Qualifier Alexandra Cercone of the U.S. couldn't hang on to her 3-0 lead in the third set against No. 14 seed Ksenia Kirillova of Russia, losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Lauren Embree, now the last U.S. player with a chance for the third round, plays later this evening. For live scores and draws, visit the Australian Open website.

And finally, I ran across this Los Angeles Daily News story about Winter National Champion and USC recruit JT Sundling, who was notified that he was named this year's winner of the Southern California Tennis Association's Evelyn Houseman Junior Sportsmanship Award on the same day he had surgery on the wrist he injured at the Orange Bowl.


Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, JT Sundling, Australian Open, Laura Robson, Les Petits As, Colette Lewis

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Robson Beats McHale in Australia; Kudla Signs with BEST; Your Match Reports Welcome

In a just-completed first round girls singles match in Melbourne, No. 5 seed Laura Robson of Great Britain has defeated Christina McHale of the U.S. 7-5, 6-3. It's dangerous to speculate without seeing the match, but it's apparent that neither player served well, with nearly as many breaks of serve (10) and holds (11). McHale was serving for the first set at 5-3, but she was broken without reaching set point and went on to lose eight of the next nine games. Serving at 4-2 in the second set, Robson was broken, but McHale couldn't pull even, losing her 3-4 service game and allowing Robson to serve out the match.

With McHale's loss, No. 8 seed Lauren Embree and qualifier Alexandra Cercone, both of Florida, are the only Americans remaining in the junior singles draws.

I heard while in Florida that Denis Kudla had signed with BEST, the sports and entertainment management company, and that has been confirmed with his addition to their junior client list. Lynn Berenbaum of Off The Baseline recently posted about the possibility that BEST, whose most famous U.S. client is Andy Roddick, will be acquired by the French company Lagardere.

Laura Robson is not the only seeded girl that British fans will be following this week in Melbourne, as Eddie Herr finalist Heather Watson is seeded at No. 9, and won her first round match Sunday, a result duly noted by Neil Harman of The Times. Harman speaks with Watson's parents and finds she has received financial sponsorship from online bookmaking group Sportingbet which allows her mother to travel with her. Although Harman may not be aware of the intricacies of NCAA regulations, with that sponsorship, the Bollettieri-trained Watson is no longer eligible for a tennis scholarship that was mostly likely the reason she attracted the interest of what he refers to as "premier American educational establishments."

And for those of you don't read comments regularly, please take a moment to check out Scott's report on the 10th-ranked Florida men's 7-0 win today over No. 7 Baylor. And Andrew D also took the time to comment about some of the junior matches in Australia on Sunday. I really appreciate their efforts, and invite any of you observing live tennis to do the same. If you would prefer to email me rather than using the comment function, please contact me via my profile page.

I would have liked to be watching live tennis myself today, instead of monitoring the Australian Open live scoring, and the match I wish I could have seen was at the Plantation Florida Men's Pro Circuit Futures event. In the third round of qualifying there, Chase Buchanan beat Ryan Lipman 4-6 6-3 7-6(5). For results of all the Pro Circuit events, see usta.com.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Laura Robson, Christina McHale, Denis Kudla, Heather Watson, Pro Circuit, Colette Lewis

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Vickery Defeats Duval for Teen Tennis Title; Cercone Qualifies for Australia Jrs., Domijan Reaches Hollywood Semis

Thirteen-year-old Sachia Vickery, the top seed, won the Aegon Teen Tennis girls championship, beating fellow Floridian and Bollettieri protege Vicky Duval, the No. 8 seed, 6-4, 7-5 at the prestigious 14-and-under event in Bolton, England. Nikola Milosevic of Serbia, also the top seed, took the boys title, with a 6-1, 6-3 decision over No. 6 seed Evan Hoyt of Great Britain. For complete results, see the LTA results page. The 14-and-under action now shifts to Tarbes, France, where Les Petits As began today with the opening round of qualifying. The website features live scoring once the main draw action begins on Tuesday.

Qualifying is complete at the Australian Open Juniors, and Alexandria Cercone of Seminole, Florida, who was the No. 4 seed, advanced to the main draw with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Tamara Curovic of Serbia. Cercone joins Lauren Embree, Beatrice Capra, Ester Goldfeld and Christina McHale in the main draw, which begins on Sunday. Nadiya Kichenok of Ukraine and Spain's Pablo Carreno-Busta won the singles titles at the Grade 1 Nottinghill. For complete results, see the Tennis Australia website.

In the Men's $10,000 Pro Circuit event in Hollywood, Florida, Alex Domijan has reached the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Tihomir Grozdanov of Bulgaria. The draws for this tournament, the women's $25K in Lutz and the qualifying for the men's $10K in Plantation are available at the Pro Circuit results page at usta.com.

Tags: junior tennis, Nikola Milojevic, Sachia Vickery, Australian Open, Pro Circuit, Les Petits As, Colette Lewis

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Plaza Cup 18s Finalists Include Only One Seed

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Coral Gables, FL--

It was another dawn to dusk day of tennis at the Plaza Cup Sunday, with singles and doubles quarterfinals and semifinals packed into the eleven hours of play at the 18s site of Salvadore Park.

When the Har-Tru dust had cleared, No. 3 Andrew Butz was the only seed still alive, having overpowered unseeded Spencer Newman 6-1, 6-4 in the quarterfinals, and unseeded Jeremy Efferding 6-2, 6-4 in the semifinals.

When the big right-hander's first serve is on, there are few who can counter his first and third ball power, and on Sunday, the 16-year-old from Vero Beach didn't cool off at any point in either match. Although Butz complained often about the courts' uneven bounces, it wasn't ultimately much of a factor, and even Efferding's willingness to come in to the net was secondary to surviving Butz's forceful offense.

Hoping that Butz will not continue in that vein is 15-year-old Bjorn Fratangelo of Pittsburgh, who advanced to the finals with wins over fellow unseeded players Zachary Katz and Michael Alford. In the morning match, Fratangelo beat Katz 6-2, 6-4, and took the semifinal when Alford was forced to retire after losing the first set 7-5. Alford ran wide for a shot in the first game and went down with a cramp, and although he attempted to serve a couple of more points, he couldn't continue.


The girls 18s final will feature two unseeded players, with Mary Clayton of Plantation, Florida meeting Kelsey Laurente of Miramar, Florida. Clayton has yet to lose a set in the tournament, but she came close in Sunday's semifinal with top seed Jackie Kasler. Kasler, who had served for the first set at 6-5, couldn't hold, but she took a 3-0 lead in the ensuing tiebreaker. Clayton then played flawless tennis, capturing the next six points, and although Kasler held her next two serves, Clayton got an unforced error from Kasler to claim the first set. In the second set, Kasler got down 4-0 before she found her game again, but Clayton, two-handed on both sides, didn't panic when she was broken serving for it at 5-2, and finished the victory by breaking Kasler in the final game.

Laurente, only 14, took out No. 2 seed Maria Belaya 5-7, 6-3, 10-7 in the quarterfinals. Laurente's slight frame gives no indication of how strong she is mentally, and her placement and consistency keep her in every match. In the semifinals, Laurente took an early lead in each set against No. 5 seed Brittany Dubins and despite a few anxious moments late in the second set, cruised to a 6-1, 6-4 win.

The girls 14s final will also be played at Salvadore Park on Monday, with top seed Alexandra Kiick facing No. 3 seed Blair Martin. In the boys 14s at Riveria Country Club, No. 1 seed Thai Kwiatkowski will meet second seed Jordan Daigle.

The boys 16s final pits unseeded Alexios Halebian against No. 2 seed Hunter Callahan, while the girls 16s singles features No. 1 seed Jacqueline Crawford and unseeded Reeree Li. Those matches are on the hard courts of the Biltmore Tennis Center.

The 12s finalists in the boys division are No. 4 seed Chase Colton and unseeded Alexander Knight. In the girls 12s, No. 4 Diana Kussainova will meet No. 5 Elysse Graci for the championship.

For complete draws, including consolation and doubles results, see the TennisLink site.

In the Champion Porsche Pro Circuit events completed today in Boca Raton, No. 2 seed Jose Armas of Venezuela defeated No. 1 seed Gabriel Moraru of Romania 7-5, 6-3, and qualifier Gabriela Paz, also of Venezuela, downed unseeded Sharon Fichman of Canada 6-4, 7-6(4). For complete results, see the Pro Circuit results page.



Tags: junior tennis, Plaza Cup, Mary Clayton, Kelsey Laurente, Andrew Butz, Bjorn Fratangelo, Colette Lewis

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Boca Pro Circuit Semis Set; Plaza Cup Coverage Starts Saturday

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Coral Gables, FL--

I'm a bit out of my element at Pro Circuit events, and regular readers of ZooTennis know that I rarely cover more than one a year, and never from beginning to end. This is our second year that Paul is directing a site at the Plaza Cup, the Level 3 USTA event for 12s, 14s, 16s, and 18s, and it is the main reason for this trip.

But with the first Pro Circuit event of the year taking place in Boca Raton, we escaped the Michigan winter a few days early to see some of the juniors and former college players in action. We had planned on being there only Wednesday and Thursday, but when Chase Buchanan made the quarterfinals, we decided to wait to leave for Miami until after his match was completed.

He was second up, so I watched some of 2006 USTA National 18s Champion Lauren Albanese's 6-3, 6-4 win over qualifier Darya Kustova of Belarus, and also watched former Florida star Greg Ouellette against Serbian Nikola Ciric. Ouellette, who was cheered on by former Gator teammates Nestor Briceno and Jesse Levine, got off to a very slow start against the big-serving left-hander, who alternated booming serves with delicate drop shots to take the first set 6-3. The unseeded Ciric was up 5-2 in the second set, when wild card Ouellette made his comeback, winning four straight games to take a 6-5 lead. Ciric, who had made error after error in that four game stretch, got back on track to force a tiebreaker, and it was Ouellette who began to miss routine shots, falling behind 5-1, and losing a chance at a third set when Circi cracked an ace to end it 7-6(3).

Tim Smyczek, the fourth seed, who has won seven matches since last Friday's qualifying began, was much steadier than the flashy qualifier Adriano Biasella of Italy, taking a 6-3, 5-2 ret. win. He will play No. 2 seed Jose De Armas of Venezuela, who downed No. 6 seed Jesse Witten, the former Kentucky Wildcat, 6-3, 6-4.

In the last quarterfinal match, top seeded Romanian Gabriel Moraru, who had somehow survived being down a set and 5-0 to Stefan Ianni of Italy in a three hour and forty minute second round match Thursday, showed no sign of fatigue against Buchanan, taking the first set 6-2. Buchanan wasn't finding the range on his backhand, with many of them hitting the net, while Moraru was missing infrequently and serving well.

The second set saw Buchanan raise his level and he stayed with the 26-year-old, who is ranked 294 by the ATP. Leading 5-4 in the second set, Buchanan got his only break points of the set when Moraru fell behind 15-40. The Romanian saved one by pinning Buchanan deep into the backhand corner and forcing an error, but he didn't get a first serve in at 30-40 and Buchanan pounced, blasting a backhand return winner to even the match.

Buchanan lost his serve to open the third set, and again had two break points on Moraru's opening serving game, but when he didn't convert either of those, he seemed to lose his edge. Serving at 1-3, Buchanan made four straight unforced errors, and after that, the result wasn't in doubt, with Moraru taking the third set 6-1.



In the women's semifinals, Albanese will meet qualifier Gabriela Paz of Venezuela, who disposed of Heidi El Tabakh of Canada 6-0, 6-1 in a match played after we left. The other semifinal will feature No. 5 seed Ahsha Rolle, a 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3 winner over No. 4 seed Tetiana Luzhanska of Ukraine, against unseeded Sharon Fichman of Canada. Fichman dismissed No. 8 seed Anna Floris of Italy 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.

I had an opportunity to sit in with Ken Thomas of radiotennis.com, who began his coverage of the event today. He will be there through the finals, so for free internet streaming of the play-by-play, go to radiotennis.com.

For complete results of the Champion Porsche Pro Circuit events, see the results page at usta.com.

For the Plaza Cup draws, see the TennisLink site.


Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Champion Porsche Pro Circuit Event of Boca Raton, Lauren Albanese, Plaza Cup, Colette Lewis

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Buchanan Advances to Quarterfinals in Boca Futures; Smyczek Downs Domijan in Two Tiebreakers

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Boca Raton, FL--

It might not have been the weather the hundred or so spectators were hoping for, but the cool and cloudy conditions that greeted Thursday's competitors in the Champion Porsche Pro Circuits events at the Swim and Racquet Center were ideal for long and dramatic matches. The top seed in the men's $10,000 Futures, Gabriel Moraru of Romania, survived a three hour and forty minute test, trailing throughout the entire match, until he won it, 6-7(5), 7-6(3), 7-6(3), over Stefano Ianni of Italy. Ianni was up 5-0 in the second set and 5-2 in the third, and although I didn't watch it carefully enough to count exactly, he must have served for the match at least five times. Late in the tiebreaker, the good-natured Italian, who had required at least two visits from the trainer, let loose with a long shout in Italian, and from the grabbing of his neck, I took it to refer to choking, a comment few in the mostly full show court bleachers would disagree with. Moraru, on the other hand, looked calm and unperturbed throughout the ordeal, and looked fit enough at the end of the match to play another three hours if necessary.

The 26-year-old top seed's opponent in the quarterfinals will be 17-year-old Chase Buchanan, who had a rollercoaster of a match with Simeon Ivanov of Bulgaria before recovering for a 6-1, 0-6, 7-5 victory. Buchanan lost the first game, on his serve, then reeled off the next six to take the first set. I took the opportunity to look in on the Kim Couts - Lauren Albanese match a few courts away, and when I returned, with Albanese leading 4-3 in the first set, in a match that started at the same time as Buchanan - Ivanov, Buchanan was double faulting to give Ivanov the second set. He then lost his seventh and eighth games in a row to go down 2-0 in the third, got back even, then broke Ivanov to take a 5-4 lead. Buchanan didn't come close to serving it out however, but got a second chance with a break in the next game, and made no mistake that time.

Meanwhile, Albanese had taken the first set from Couts, but Couts was leading in the second set, and after nearly two hours, it looked as if a split was inevitable. But the third seeded Albanese dug out from a 5-3 deficit and took the subsequent tiebreaker to claim a 6-4, 7-6(5) victory that took more than two-and-a-half hours to complete.

While that battle was raging, qualifier Gabriela Paz of Venezuela was grinding down Aurelie Vedy of France 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. Although I could hear the pair, with Paz's distinctive squeal usually audible, I couldn't see them, as I was perched outside court 5 watching the Tim Smyczek - Alex Domijan match. I joined with wild card Domijan serving at 5-6 in the first set, and he held to force a tiebreaker, which Smyczek, a qualifier, but the No. 4 seed, would go on to dominate, winning the last five points to take it 7-6(1). Smyczek broke Domijan to start the second set, but the hard-hitting 17-year-old got it back immediately, and then broke Smyczek in the sixth game for a 4-2 lead. Smyczek got that break right back and a much different tiebreaker decided the match.


Domijan had a set point serving at 6-5, but a Smyczek shot landing right on the baseline handcuffed him. He didn't get another opportunity, although he did fight off two match points, before Smyczek, who had some success bringing Domijan in and passing him, forced a wild forehand volley from Domijan to end it.

Smyczek, who turned 21 last month, will face former USC Trojan Adriano Biasella of Italy, who handily defeated Phillip Simmonds 6-2, 6-1. Biasella, 28, is a qualifier.

Croatia's Alja Tomljanovic, who had upset top seed Angela Haynes on Wednesday, was outlasted by Heidi El Tabakh of Canada 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 Thursday afternoon.

For complete results, visit the Pro Circuit home page at usta.com.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Champion Porsche Pro Circuit events, Tim Smyczek, Chase Buchanan, Colette Lewis

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Tomljanovic Upsets Top Seed Haynes; Domijan and Buchanan Advance In Boca Raton Futures

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Boca Raton, FL--

Juniors and qualifiers made their presence felt on Wednesday, with the completion of the first round of play at the $25,000 women's and $10,000 men's Champion Porsche Pro Circuit events at the Racquet and Swim Club of Boca Raton.

Chief among them was Ajla Tomljanovic, the 15-year-old Croatian qualifier, who took out top seed Angela Haynes of the U.S., the WTA's 140th ranked player, 7-6 (6), 4-6, 6-1. I watched the end of the first set, when Tomljanovic twice had an opportunity to serve for it, but couldn't convert either time, and ended up needing a tiebreaker. Even there, she was unable to make it easy on herself, letting two set points slip away at 6-4, but Haynes, who seemed uncomfortable on the clay, contributed enough unforced errors, including a set-ending backhand wide, to give Tomljanovic the first set. I didn't watch the second set, but at the start of the third, Tomljanovic took control and fashioned a quick 4-0 lead to rob the final set of any drama.

The Racquet and Swim Club is a public facility, although it has the feel of an exclusive private club, with the the well-groomed landscaping, the comfortable lawn chairs for seating and excellent courts for viewing and playing (no lets from other courts, as each court is separately fenced). To begin the day, which was a bit chilly to start, but soon was warm and sunny, with negligible wind, I stood between the two courts featuring Tim Smyczek of the U.S. on one, and Alex Domijan, another Saddlebrook resident, on the other. Smyczek was forced to qualify due to a late entry, but he won his four matches and his ranking of 348 gave him the No. 4 seed in the main draw. He looked sharp and match tough in taking out Roman Vogeli of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-2. Domijan actually had secured his first set against fellow wild card Robert Verzaal even more quickly than Smyczek did his, but then things got much tougher for the 6-foot-6 17-year-old. He lost a 10-deuce game early in the second set, but eventually Domijan's power and his ability to attack Verzaal's second serve led him to a 6-1, 6-3 victory and a spot opposite Smyczek in the next round.

Chase Buchanan took Smyczek's place on court 5, and after five close games with fellow qualifier Goran Tosic of Montenegro, the future Ohio State Buckeye got a break, and held for the first set, 6-3. In the second set, Buchanan, who won a Futures event on Florida clay last May, got a break in the third game, and eased to a 6-2 second set win.

One of the day's best matches saw 2008 Wimbledon and U.S. Open Junior Champion Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria go up against Stefano Ianni, with the 27-year-old Italian taking a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(5) win. Despite the closeness of the match, there was little of the pressure-cooker atmosphere that often accompanies a Futures contest, and both players seemed to be enjoying themselves on the court. Ianni conceded a point to Dimitrov when the chair umpire had made an out call when Ianni half volleyed on the baseline, and racquet claps were regular occurences. Ianni saved his best for 5-3 in the tiebreaker, when he made a dive stab volley at the net, giving him Har-Tru-stained shorts and three match points. He needed them all, as Dimitrov got an exceedingly fortunate net cord to make it 6-4, and Ianni double faulted for 6-5. But Dimitrov missed a forehand just long in the final rally, and Ianni had earned his chance at top seed Gabriel Moraru of Romania.

For complete draws, visit the Pro Circuit results page at usta.com.

Tags: junior tennis, college tennis, Boca Raton Champion Porsche Futures, Alja Tomljanovic, Colette Lewis

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