Top Seed Duke Survives Ole Miss, Tennessee Blanks No. 3 Baylor as ITA Women's Team Indoor Kicks Off

©Colette Lewis 2012--
Charlottesville, VA--

With 2011 finalists Stanford and Florida taking a pass on this year's ITA Women's Team Indoor, third-ranked Duke is the top seed. But after the Blue Devils barely got by Ole Miss 4-3, with Annie Mulholland clinching it for Duke at the No. 6 spot, there's a feeling around the Boars Head Tennis Club that the 2012 title is definitely up for grabs.

Third seed Baylor is already out, blanked 4-0 by unseeded Tennessee. After a win over Michigan last weekend, the Lady Vols were confident coming into the tournament, according to Tennessee co-head coach Mike Patrick.

"We were playing better and better each week and getting a little bit healthier," Patrick said. "We played a good doubles point, and we probably play indoors a little bit more than Baylor, so I think that was in our favor."

Freshman Caitlyn Williams, one of the Tennessee players just rounding into form after injury, took the second point over Jordaan Sanford at No. 4, and Kata Szkeley made it 3-0 with a quick win over error-prone Sona Novakova at No. 3. With Sarah Toti up big over Emma Burgic at No. 5, and Brynn Boren rolling over Nina Secerbegovic at No. 2, it was a race to the fourth point, with Boren winning to end the match in less than three hours.

"Brynn's been playing very well," said Patrick. "She played great last weekend, came in confident this week, and she's got the kind of game--she hits such a big ball--when she gets on a roll, gets the momentum, it's hard to get into the match sometimes. I was hoping she was going to play well and she did."

After making such quick work of Baylor, who had taken Florida to three sets in nearly every match last week, Patrick stayed to watch a bit of the monumental battle between No. 6 seed North Carolina and unseeded University of Southern California, knowing that Tennessee's next opponent would be playing a couple of hours later than they did.


After a 90-minute doubles point, which North Carolina won at No. 3 9-8(8), USC jumped out to a lead in the majority of the singles matches, and took No. 4 and No. 5 singles to make 2-1. Sabrina Santamaria made it 3-1 for the Trojans with a win at No. 3, and that score didn't change for a while, as the three remaining matches all split. Tessa Lyons won at No. 6 to make it 3-2 USC, and the two remaining matches, at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, were just beginning the third sets. At No. 2, USC's Danielle Lao and UNC's Zoe DeBruycker had traded 7-5 sets, with Lao forcing a third set with hers. In the third set, Lao trailed 2-1, down a break, but then came a stretch of five straight breaks, which cost DeBruycker her slim leads. Lao finally held, taking a 5-4 lead in the final set, but by this time, her teammate Zoe Scandalis had taken a 5-3 lead on Court 1 over Lauren McHale. Unlike Court 2, there had been only one break in the third set, and Scandalis got it. McHale saved match points but held to make it 5-4, forcing Scandalis to serve it out. The freshman hit two good first serves on the first two points, but McHale won both long points, and a double fault followed. On the next point McHale confidently put away an overhead, and it was 5-5.

Back on court 2, Lao had match point with DeBruycker serving, and just that quickly it was over, with DeBruycker netting a backhand to give Lao the 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 win, making it a 4-2 final. The victory guarantees an unseeded semifinalist.

Duke will play No. 8 seed Michigan, who rolled past unseeded Clemson 4-0. The Wolverines' Sam Critser, who has not played due to her recovery from arthroscopic knee surgery, was in the doubles lineup, but did not play singles against Clemson, who did not have Josipa Bek in their lineup.

No. 4 Georgia got by unseeded Texas 4-2, and will play No. 5 seed Cal, a 4-0 winner over unseeded Miami. That means we'll have another chapter in the rivalry between Cal's Jana Juricova, the 2011 NCAA champion and Georgia's Chelsey Gullickson, the 2010 NCAA champion, now both seniors.

In the night matches, unseeded Northwestern sent the local supporters home disappointed, with the Wildcats taking a 4-2 win over the No. 7 seeded Virginia Cavaliers. Belinda Niu clinched at No. 3 for Northwestern.

In a match that ended just six minutes prior to midnight, No. 2 seed UCLA came back from the loss of the doubles point to claim a 4-2 win over unseeded Georgia Tech.

ITA Women's Team Indoor Live Coverage Starts Friday; Racquet Club of the South Sold; Martin Blackman Leaves USTA, Starts Academy

I'm en route to Charlottesville, Virginia where the ITA Women's Team Indoor starts on Friday morning. I won't be at the Boars Head Tennis Club until late afternoon, so I will miss top seed Duke vs. Ole Miss and No. 8 seed Michigan vs. Clemson, which are the 9:00 a.m. matches. No. 4 Georgia vs. Texas and No. 5 California vs. Miami are the noon matches, and those may also be over before I arrive, but I should see most of the four matches in the bottom half of the draw. Scheduled for 3:30 are No. 6 North Carolina vs. Southern California and No. 3 Baylor vs. Tennessee. At 6:30, Northwestern will play No. 7 seed Virginia, the host school, and No. 2 UCLA faces Georgia Tech. Live scoring can be found here.

A few other notes before plunging into college team tennis again.

The Racquet Club of the South, which was one of the first USTA Regional Training Centers, has been sold to Life Time Fitness, a Minnesota-based company. The new owners are planning major renovations, and according to this Atlanta Business Chronicle article, a 4,000-seat stadium. For more on the sale, see this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which emphasizes Melanie Oudin's connection to RCS.

Martin Blackman, who was hired for the newly created position of Senior Director of Talent ID and Development three years ago, has left the USTA, and is now offering private coaching in Delray Beach, Florida. Kent Kinnear, formerly a National Coach based in Boca Raton, has been named to succeed Blackman. For more on Blackman's new venture, see his website.

Today at the $25,000 Pro Circuit women's tournament in Rancho Mirage, 16-year-old Allie Kiick continued her run, beating fellow qualifier Nicole Melichar 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals, where she'll play Valeria Solovieva of Russia, who beat wild card Krista Hardebeck 6-4, 6-4 today.

Lauren Davis, the No. 8 seed, came back from a 2-5 deficit in the final set to down Heidi El Tabakh of Canada 6-0, 2-6, 7-6(3). Former USC All-American Amanda Fink also reached the quarterfinals, defeating No. 5 seed Lina Stanciute of Lithuania 0-6, 6-4, 6-4. Complete results are below:

Thursday, February 9 – RESULTS
Singles – Main Draw
Amanda Fink, USA, def. Lina Stanciute (5), Latvia, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Lenka Wienerova (6), Slovakia, def. Yi-Fan Xu, China, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(6).
Valeria Solovieva, Russia, def. Krista Hardebeck, USA, 6-4, 6-4.
Alexandra Kiick, USA, def. Nicole Melichar, USA, 6-3, 6-3.
Johanna Konta, Australia, def. Zuzana Luknarova, Slovakia, 6-2, 6-3.
Claire Feuerstein (1), France, def. Jing-Jing Lu, China, 6-1, 2-6, 7-6(6).
Lauren Davis (8), USA, def. Heidi El Tabakh, Canada, 6-0, 2-6, 7-6(3).
Zuzana Zlochova, Slovakia, def. Elizaveta Ianchuk, Ukraine, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles – Main Draw
Maria Sanchez/Amra Sadikovic def. Anamika Bhargava/Sylvia Krywacz, 6-2, 6-3.
Sofia Shapatava/Ekaterine Gorgodze def. Giola Barbieri/Zuzana Luknarova, 7-5, 6-3.
Lenka Solovieva/Lenka Wienerova (3) def. Katerina Kramperova/Nicole Melichar, 6-1, 6-3.
Amanda Fink/Elizabeth Lumpkin def. Chen Liang/Jing-Jing Lu (2), 6-4, 3-6, 10-4.

Gyulai Named SMU Women's Head Coach; Oklahoma St Coach Jamea Jackson in the Spotlight; Appleton Tribute; Schneider Chooses North Carolina

The SMU Mustangs have been without a head coach for the women's team for a long time, with Lauren Longbotham Meisner leaving for Auburn back in early October of 2011. Today the school announced Kati Gyulai, currently the head coach of the University of Wyoming women, has accepted the position. Although young, Gyulai has previous head coaching experience prior to her three seasons leading Wyoming, her alma mater. She was men's and women's head coach at Louisiana-Lafayette from 2006-2008. For the complete release, see the SMU athletics website.

Former top 50 WTA professional Jamea Jackson didn't play college tennis, but as the assistant coach at Oklahoma State for the past three years, she has gained a lot of insight into what it can offer. She explains her perspective in this USTA college spotlight, and also answers questions about her experience coaching the USTA Collegiate Team during the past two summers.

I tweeted a link to the sad news last Friday that former Boise State tennis player Steve Appleton, the CEO of Micron, who was killed in a private plane crash in Boise, Idaho. The loss was devastating to the Boise community and the university, where Appleton served as a mentor, role model and philanthropist, as well as an employer. The ITA provided this tribute to the 51-year-old father of four.


The top recruit of the 2013 class, reigning Kalamazoo 16s champion Ronnie Schneider, has already announced his college choice. The Bloomington, Indiana junior said last night that he has made a verbal commitment to the University of North Carolina.

Yesterday's new ITA men's team rankings, the only rankings released, saw no change in the top 5, with USC followed by Virginia, Ohio State, Georgia and Florida. Stanford, previously ranked 6th, fell to 9th, with Kentucky, Baylor and UCLA moving up a spot. There won't be another ranking for the men's team until after the Team Indoor February 17-21, although new individual rankings will come out next Tuesday.

In notable Pro Circuit matches today, 15-year-old wild card Liz Jeukeng picked up a big win at the $100,000 Dow Corning Tennis Classic in Midland, beating lucky loser Federica Grazioso of Italy 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-2 in the first round. She will play top seed and defending champion Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic on Thursday.

At the $100,000 YP Challenger of Dallas, Denis Kudla reached the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 win over Mischa Zverev of Germany. Kudla will play another unseeded German, Stefan Seifert, for a place in the semifinals. The wild card doubles team of future Texas A&M Aggies Mitchell Krueger and Shane Vinsant will play a first round match against the top-seeded team of Carsten Ball of Australia and Amil Shamasdin of Canada later tonight.

Can US Tennis Hope for Better after Weak Australian Open? Seeking Freaks in Wales; Johnson Tapped for ATP San Jose Wild Card

Sandra Harwitt was in Australia for the Open last month, and in addition to her work for the ITF Juniors, she also wrote several pieces for ESPNHS and ESPN. This one, published today, examines the poor performance by the American men and women in Melbourne, with none getting to the second week in singles. Harwitt provides quotes from Mary Joe Fernandez, Patrick McEnroe, John Isner, Justin Gimelstob and Jim Courier, with Fernandez calling the US absence "sad" and McEnroe using the word "disaster". Gimelstob says it's "probably going to get worse before it gets better."

Davis Cup captain Courier is presented as the most upbeat of the group, expressing faith in both USTA Director of Coaching Jose Higueras and 10-and-under tennis to assist in getting American tennis back in the mix for grand slam success.

The US obviously has a completely different set of problems from a country like Wales, which is part of the United Kingdom and has a population of only 3 million. With Scotland (pop. 5 million) as a template, Wales is hoping to uncover a Welsh Andy Murray, but this detailed article clearly lays out all the obstacles to such an outcome. Peter Drew, the head of Tennis Wales, knows that any federation determined to create such a player is destined for failure.

“Those players are just freaks that can pop out anywhere, the Murrays, the Federers, Nadals or Djokovics,” he says.

“One might pop up from Wales, that would be great. But even if you had the best system in the world, it won’t guarantee you an Andy Murray as you’ve got to get someone with that freakish talent.

“All you can do is have that system in place, so that if that freakish talent does pop up your area, then you’ve got the best opportunity to take that player through.”

The SAP Open in San Jose announced today via twitter (@SAPOpenTennis) that USC's Steve Johnson has been given the final main draw wild card for the ATP event, which begins next week. How this will impact his participation in the ITA Team Indoor, which begins next Friday, will probably depend on his draw, which will be revealed this Friday.

Today at the Dow Corning Tennis Classic in Midland, Michigan, Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula won their final round qualifying matches to reach the main draw of the $100,000 event. Keys will play Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal and Pegula faces No. 7 seed Olga Govortsova of Belarus. Former Northwestern star Samantha Murray of Great Britain also qualified and she will play Gail Brodsky. Syracuse University senior Alessondra Parra, who received a wild card when Brodsky didn't need one, plays No. 5 seed Stephanie Dubois of Canada. 2011 finalist Irina Falconi, seeded 4th, lost in the first round today to Madison Brengle.

Allie Kiick and Maria Sanchez were among today's qualifiers at the $25,000 Pro Circuit Childhelp Desert Classic in Rancho Mirage.

January Aces; McHale Leads US in Fed Cup; Coaches Can't Contend with Parents; Smith on Player Development

My monthly Aces column for the Tennis Recruiting Network usually contains 12 or 13 photos and captions, but today's January edition contains 17, which I believe is a record. And it was difficult to cut it off there. Check out the outstanding performances of the month, from the USTA Winter National champions to the Australian Open winner to the Les Petits As winner, all of whom deserve recognition for their accomplishments.

I haven't devoted much space to the young American pros lately, but Christina McHale had a fantastic weekend at the Fed Cup in Worcester, Mass, winning both her singles matches in straight sets. In order to be eligible for the Olympics this summer, the Williams sisters had to play this tie against Belarus, which looked to be a very competitive one until Victoria Azarenka pulled out at the last minute with a back injury. The US went on to win 5-0, and will compete for promotion back to the World Group in April against an opponent to be determined in a draw held February 14th. In his blog for ESPN, Peter Bodo gives full credit to McHale for her performance this past weekend.

Ryan Harrison, who like McHale is also 19, was named to the US Davis Cup team last month, which plays in Switzerland this weekend. Although he is not likely to play, with Mardy Fish and John Isner on the team, his presence will certainly help his preparation for the future. Harrison was also on the team for the September 2010 tie with Colombia, but he did not play after the dead rubber was abandoned when Mardy Fish clinched.

I also wanted to pass along this article (I have no idea what the headline is about) on Julia Boserup's win over Lauren Davis in Rancho Santa Fe. I wasn't aware that Boserup was working with former USTA PD head Eliot Teltscher now, and he had several interesting things to say about his pupil, who has had an excellent start to 2012, winning two rounds of qualifying at the Australian Open and now a $25,000 tournament title.

Another interesting article, not specifically about tennis, but about sports parents driving coaches out of their positions, was brought to my attention by Lisa at her Parentingaces.com blog. The theory about the impact of ESPN is an interesting one, but it's hard to say whether that's really behind the lack of civility in sporting events.

Lisa also posted a perceptive personal story from Dr. Allen Fox, a well-known sports psychologist, about his emotions when he watched his two children compete in junior tennis tournaments. I especially liked his line in the sand: THIS IS THE TURNING POINT WHERE THE GOOD TENNIS PARENT MAY BECOME THE BAD TENNIS PARENT and his advice on how to avoid crossing it, tempting though it may be.

Steve Smith, a longtime coach with a great deal of experience in player development at his Tennissmith Academy in Tampa, wrote me regarding the Wayne Bryan letter to the USTA that I linked to last Wednesday. I am posting it in the comments section of my original post, in two parts. I loved his baseball analogy about first and third base coaches. Please take the time to read it.