Georgia Men Down Ohio State 4-3, Tennessee and Texas Women Upset; Hayley Carter Earns Family Circle Qualifying WC; Bollettieri's New Tournament

The Ohio State - Georgia match in Athens turned out to be every bit as exciting as anticipated, with the fourth-ranked Bulldogs pulling out a 4-3 win over the No. 2 Buckeyes after dropping the doubles point. Georgia got victories from KU Singh at line 2, Ignacio Taboada at 4, Nathan Pasha at 6 (winning the last four games after trailing Connor Smith 4-2 in the third) and Sadio Doumbia at 3. After pushing top-ranked USC in the semifinals of the Team Indoor and beating Ohio State today, Georgia can only be gaining confidence as May's NCAAs loom. As for Ohio State, playing in Athens in front of 1100 fans today can only provide valuable experience should they face the Bulldogs again in the late stages of the NCAAs. For more on the match, see georgiadogs.com.

There were two major upsets in women's play today, with No. 67 UNLV defeating No. 12 Tennessee 4-3, with the Volunteers missing their usual top two--Natalie Pluskota with an injury and Brynn Boren with illness. They forfeited the point at line six, and Caitlyn Williams retired midway through the first set of her match, leading UNLV to what their website calls its best win in program history.

No. 9 Texas was also short-handed in their match against No. 50 Illinois, with No. 1 Aeriel Ellis out, but the Longhorns did field six players in Austin, so their 4-3 loss to the Fighting Illini has to top the list of today's surprising victories. For more, see the Illinois website.

In Ann Arbor this afternoon, No. 20 Michigan women lost the doubles point to No. 17 Notre Dame, but came back to post a 5-2 win over the Fighting Irish. For more, see the Michigan website.


While I was busy with the Wayne Bryan/USTA discussion and the Men's Team Indoor, I neglected to monitor the annual Southern tournament that provides the girls 18s winner with a qualifying wild card into the Family Circle Cup in Charleston. Formerly the Smash Cup, Dunlop took over sponsorship this year, and Hayley Carter defeated Mariana Gould, both No. 5 seeds, 6-7(4), 6-2, 10-5 to earn the qualifying wild card. The the tournament's qualifying begins on Saturday, March 31st. The complete draws are available at the TennisLink site.

Nick Bollettieri is introducing a new tournament in Bradenton, called the Discovery Open, for age divisions 11, 13 and 15. The tournament, held at the IMG/Bollettieri academy, is June 1-4, 2012, with a week at the academy given to the winners of the six 32-draw fields. The overall winner will receive a year's scholarship at the academy. Entires close May 1. For more information, see the IMG website.

Today at the Sony Ericsson Open, qualifiers Madison Keys and Sloane Stephens advanced to the second round with three-set wins. Keys beat Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-1 and Stephens defeated Pauline Parmentier of France 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4. Christina McHale is just beginning her first round match against Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan.

Easter Bowl Acceptances; UCLA, USC Remain No. 1 in College Rankings; Hampton, Stephens and Keys Qualify for Sony Ericsson

The Easter Bowl acceptances are out, with the ITF B1 tournament having nearly the same field as the International Spring Championships in Carson the week before, minus the international players. Mitchell Krueger and Taylor Townsend are likely to be the top seeds in both tournaments. Krueger is currently in Zurich, Switzerland playing alongside Marat Safin, who is there competing in the BNP Paribas Zurich Open Champions tournament. Krueger and several other top-ranked ITF juniors are playing doubles with the older players and playing exhibition matches among themselves.

There are a couple of interesting 18s vs. 16s choices made by competitors who are playing both California events. Michael Mmoh, who is 15 (actually Mmoh is 14, thanks for the correction), has opted for the 18s in both tournaments, but 14-year-old Stefan Kozlov has decided to play the 16s at the Easter Bowl, although he would have easily qualified for the 18s. Like Koslov, rival Henrik Wiersholm will be playing the 18s in Carson and the 16s in Rancho Mirage. I can't figure out which division Jordi Arconada will be playing as he is showing in the acceptances for both the 18s and 16s at the Easter Bowl.

Kyle McPhillips will return to defend her 2011 Easter Bowl ITF title, and Chalena Scholl, who has gone from 41 to 14 in the ITF junior rankings with her two recent titles in South America, will be among the top seeds.

I'm disappointed not to find Frances Tiafoe's name among the competitors, but perhaps he is requesting a wild card for the 16s. 2011 Easter Bowl 14s finalist Katerina Stewart is another name that doesn't appear in any of the age groups, so I hope there is a chance she will receive a wild card. Another name missing from both tournaments is Vicky Duval, last year's top girls seed in Carson, who withdrew from the Eddie Herr last November with an injury and hasn't played since.

Three of the semifinalists at the USTA 18s Spring Nationals in Mobile expressed interest in the wild cards that are reserved for them, so Lexi Borr, Ronnie Schneider and Jared Hiltzik will added to the fields if they choose to play.

The 16s and 14s fields are at their TennisLink site. The 18s fields are at their TennisLink site.

For all of the acceptances, both 16s and 18s, at the International Spring Championships in Carson, see the tournament page at usta.com.

The new Campbell's ITA Division I team rankings were released today, with no change in either top 2. The UCLA women remain at 1, followed by Florida, USC, Stanford and Duke. USC and Stanford switched places this week. The USC men, currently on a 38-match winning streak, are No. 1 and Ohio State remains No. 2, followed by Virginia, Georgia and UCLA. Virginia moved up from fifth place the previous week. For complete rankings, see the ITA website. For the Texas College Tennis blog's alternate national rankings, click here.

Tomorrow's big men's match is No. 2 Ohio State at No. 4 Georgia, who have only two losses between them, both losing close matches to USC at the ITA Team Indoor last month. Ohio State has beaten Georgia their last three meetings. There will be a live blog, scoring and video of the match beginning at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. For more on the match, see georgiadogs.com.

Today at the Sony Ericsson, Madison Keys, Jamie Hampton and Sloane Stephens all won their final round qualifying matches to advance to the main draw. No. 17 seed Hampton beat No. 12 seed Mandy Minella of Luxembourg 6-3, 6-2, wild card Keys beat No. 19 seed Anastasia Rodionova of Australia 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, and, on her 19th birthday, No. 10 seed Stephens defeated Sania Mirza of India 6-2, 6-4.

The Sony Ericsson website features a question and answer session with Keys about her comeback win, the improvement in her game, and favorite Food Network shows.

USTA Passes Changes to Junior Competition Schedule; Sandgren Wins Rain-Delayed Calabasas Futures

Today at the USTA meeting in La Costa, Californina, the proposed changes to the formats and schedules of junior competition were passed by a vote of 16-1, with the Southern section the only section to vote against the proposal.

As I noted back in February, it is much too complicated for me to go into detail about, but here are some of the major changes for 2014:

• 18s Spring Championships will be eliminated
• The Easter Bowl, now including the 12s, will be reduced to 32 draws except for the ITF, which will remain 64
• The clay and hard courts will be 128 draws (starting in 2013) for the 14s, 16s and 18s,; the 12s will be 64 draws.
• The Winter Nationals will now be team events for the 14s, 16s and 18s, with the 12s competition eliminated.
• There will be a National Doubles tournaments for the 16s and 14s age divisions.
• Two new "Sweet 16" events for 14s and 16s and a new "Grand Masters" event, with small compass draws in 14s, 16s, and 18s have be introduced.
• Quotas have been changed to emphasize strength of competition in the section, not simply membership, which is the case now.
• Regional tournaments are restricted geographically.

For those interested, I published coach Tom Walker's objections to this plan last week. The vote was decisive in favor of the plan, so now the task of explaining all these changes, clearly and concisely, to every junior player and his or her parents and coach is the USTA's next major undertaking. I look forward to learning along with all of you.

I do not have the proposal as actually passed available, but it's my understanding that the only changes were in the regions. Everything else is as it is explained in this document.

Please remember that if you are going to comment, do so using a name. Anonymous comments will not be posted.



Tennys Sandgren won the $15,000 Calabasas Futures singles title today, after rain Friday night and Saturday required one quarterfinal and both semifinals be played on Sunday. The unseeded Sandgren, who turned pro last summer after two years at the University of Tennessee, beat former UCLA Bruin and No. 5 seed Dan Kosakowski 6-3, 7-5 in Monday's final. Top seeds Carsten Ball of Australia and Andre Begemann, the former Pepperdine All-American, won the doubles title 7-6(7), 6-4 over No. 2 seeds Nima Roshan of Australia and Artem Sitak of New Zealand.

For more on today's final, see Steve Pratt's article, available at Tennis Panorama.

The men stay in California for another $15,000 event, this one in Costa Mesa, where qualifying will be completed on Tuesday.

US Open girls champion Grace Min reached the final of the $25,000 Clearwater Pro Circuit event, but evidently her three consecutive three-set wins, including one over WTA No. 65 and top seed Anastasia Yakimova of Belarus, took their toll. She fell 6-0, 6-1 in Sunday's final to 18-year-old qualifier Garbine Muguruza Blanco of Spain, who received a main draw wild card into the Sony Ericsson this week.

Monica Puig also lost in the final of a $25,000 ITF tournament in Mexico yesterday, with No. 2 seed Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan defeating the unseeded Puig 6-1, 6-2. Puig had beaten top seed and WTA No. 95 Patricia Mayr-Achleitner in the semifinals.

Two former college stars collected Futures titles over the weekend, with University of Wisconsin's Mortiz Baumann of Germany winning the $10,000 Futures in Switzerland and Baylor's Denes Lukcas of Hungary winning the $10,000 Portugal Futures.

Papa Wins ITF Grade 1 Banana Bowl; Grade A Copa Gerdau Begins Monday; Sony Ericsson Wild Cards, Qualifying Draws Released

Spencer Papa, who reached the semifinals of the Grade 1 Asuncion Bowl in Paraguay last week, collected his first Grade 1 singles title yesterday, winning the Banana Bowl in Brazil as an unseeded wild card. Papa, who trains at the USTA's Boca Raton National Center, beat No. 15 seed Daniel Santos, No. 3 seed and Asuncion Bowl champion Gianluigi Quinzi, and No. 10 seed Juan Ignacio Galarza on the red clay before taking out qualifier Quentin Halys in the semifinals. In the final, Papa beat unseeded Pietro Licciardi of Italy 6-2, 6-3, completing his run to the title without dropping a set.

Chalena Scholl, who won the Asuncion Bowl to bring her ITF ranking into the Top 20, beat top seed Montserrat Gonzalez of Paraguay in the quarterfinals of the Banana Bowl, but fell in the semifinals to eventual champion Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan. That ended Scholl's South American win streak at 13, as she had won the Uruguay Bowl two weeks ago as well.

Danilina won the doubles title too, with she and partner Zuzanna Maciejewska of Poland, the No. 1 seeds, beating unseeded Ferny Angels Paz of Peru and Katrine Steffensen of the US 6-1, 6-2 in the final. Quinzi, of Italy and Christian Garin of Chile, the No. 2 seeds, won the boys doubles title with a 4-6, 6-0, 10-7 victory over No. 8 seeds Jorge Panta Herreros and Santos of Peru.

The main draw of the Grade A Copa Gerdau begins Monday, also in Brazil, with three Americans reaching the main draw through qualifying. Jared Donaldson, Louisa Chirico and Rima Asatrian will join 16 other Americans in the main draw. In what seems like a violation of the separation of players from the country procedure called for in the ITF rules, Donaldson and Chirico have both been placed against other Americans in the first round. Chirico will play top seed Kyle McPhillips, while Donaldson has been drawn to face Papa, seeded 16th. The other US players competing in the main draw are Mackenzie McDonald(14), Thai Kwiatkowski, Luca Corinteli, Stefan Kozlov, Martin Redlicki, Trey Strobel, Denise Starr, Blair Shankle, Stephanie Nauta(16), Tornado Ali Black, Sachia Vickery(8), Steffensen, Kelsey Laurente and June Lee. Thiago Monteiro of Brazil is the top seed and defending champion. The ITF preview, which doesn't quite have the seedings right on the girls side, is available here.

The main draw wild cards for the Sony Ericsson were announced yesterday, and the lack of young American girls among that group was surprising. Venus Williams is the only US woman to receive a wild card. The others went to: Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada, Olivia Rogowska of Australia, Alisa Kleybanova of Russia, Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia, Heather Watson of Great Britain, Garbine Muguruza Blanco of Spain and Zhang Shuai of China.

Three American men did receive wild cards: Ryan Harrison, Denis Kudla and Jesse Levine. The other two went to Marinko Matosevic of Australia and Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, who is retiring after the tournament.

The qualifying draws were posted this evening, and include more wild cards. The men's qualifying wild cards went to Gastao Elias of Portugal, Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland, Sergi Bubka of Ukraine, Dan Evans of Great Britain and Tim Smyczek of the US.

The women's qualifying wild cards went to Lauren Davis and Madison Keys of the US, Naomi Broady of Great Britain, Caroline Garcia of France, Indy De Vroome of the Netherlands and Anastasia Pivovarova of Russia. Young American women in qualifying who did not receive main draw wild cards are Sloane Stephens, Jamie Hampton, Alison Riske, Irina Falconi and Varvara Lepchenko. Stephens plays the 15-year-old De Vroome in the opening round of qualifying Monday. The qualifying draw and Monday's order of play can be found at the tournament website.

Indiana Pair Sweeps USTA 18s Spring National Titles

©Colette Lewis 2012--
Mobile, AL--

When USTA 18s Spring National champions Brooke Austin and Ronnie Schneider return to Indianapolis, their next practice match might have a bit more on the line than usual. The title of overall Mobile champion is at stake, after both won tight three-set victories in Saturday morning finals.

Schneider is fortunate Austin didn't demand an immediate playoff, as the 17-year-old from Bloomington, Ind. started cramping late in the final game of his 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win over Midwest rival Jared Hiltzik.

With Hiltzik serving at 4-5, 0-30, Schneider cracked a forehand winner to earn three match points, only to feel cramps setting in.

"I said, oh, no, this is bad, this is really bad," said Schneider. "One point away, and then I lose the next two points, and think if this goes to deuce, I'm in serious trouble."

Hiltzik saved the first match point with an aggressive forehand putaway, and the second with an ace. The third, a deep and aggressive forehand that Hiltzik had a play on, let go and called out, was not saved, when the chair umpire overruled Hiltzik's call and immediately announced, game set and match Schneider.

"It felt good coming off my racquet, and it surprised me when it was called out," said Schneider. "But the thing was, where I was, I didn't see it land."

Hiltzik had been overruled earlier, and he apologized to Schneider and the chair umpire after realizing he had mistakenly called a ball out that was actually in. But of the match-ending call, Hiltzik thought the mistake was the chair's.

"I had a chance to play the ball and I knew it was going out," said Hiltzik. "I let it go, it was out, but I can't help it."

The unusual ending overshadowed an entertaining encounter that featured more drama than their previous two matches, which ended with 6-0 third sets.

At 1-1 in the third, that possibility was gone, but Schneider won the next 3 games, and Hiltzik had to scramble to get back on serve. An overrule that went against Schneider and two errors led to a break with Hiltzik holding in the next game to make it 4-4. Schneider held at 15 to make it 5-4, and managed to stay upright for the final five points of the match.

"That shot ended up going in, and I was very thankful, because as soon as it did, my legs were done," said Schneider, who lost to Hiltzik last month 6-3, 5-7, 6-0. "With Jared, you're going to have to do a lot of running, and I had to put all my energy into every single ball I hit. Against Jared, you have to hit like four or five winners to actually win the point."

Schneider was able to hit his usual assortment of forehand winners, but Hiltzik's backhand, especially when he hit it down the line, wasn't up to its usual standard, with that exchange nearly always ending in Schneider's favor. Schneider never conceded a point, and was even prepared for Hiltzik's excellent tweener in the fifth game of the third set, volleying it away for a winner.

Winter National champion Hiltzik, who suffered his first loss since Schneider beat him 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 in November, wasn't happy with his level of play.

"I don't think either of us played our best out there," said Hiltzik. "I became very passive, which was not my goal, and he just took advantage of that. We keep going back and forth, and if the streak continues, I'll win next time, I guess. But he's always fun to play against."

Schneider assessed his own play differently.

"I played well, especially in the first and third sets," said Schneider. "I was really aggressive with my feet and really worked the point well."

Although Schneider was able to leave the court under his own power, he did receive medical assistance after the match, leading him to concede that Austin would probably win if she insisted on playing the set immediately.

"The one time she would actually win would be now," said Schneider. "I feel like if I got two games in, I'd be cramping and I'd probably just try to drop shot and peg her."

It's not as if Austin breezed through her 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over unseeded Lexi Borr. Austin trailed by a set and 2-0 before she finally found the answer to the 16-year-old left-hander, playing in her first Level 1 USTA National Championship final.

"It took me a while to get adjusted to her," said Austin, who had separated her shoulder at a National Open last month and was unsure if she would play Mobile up until the last minute. "She hits topspin and then backspin, mixes it up. It's sort of different and it took me a while to get used to it. And I wasn't really moving my feet that well in the first set and a half."

Borr put Austin on the defensive from the beginning of the match, which is not how Austin likes to win points. She prefers to stand on or inside the baseline and go for the lines, but Borr's depth and placement, plus her own errors, took her out of that comfort zone.

After Austin evened the match, she got some advice from Schneider's coach Bryan Smith, the son of Jeff Smith, who is Austin's primary coach in Indianapolis.

"He told me to hit a lot more to her forehand, and in the third, it started breaking down," Austin said. "I started figuring out how to get her off-balance, get her to hit more short balls, and take more balls out of the air."

Borr broke Austin to open the third set, but then lost five straight games to give Austin a chance to serve for the match. She was unable to finish on her serve, admitting that she began to feel a few nerves, but Borr wasn't able to capitalize. In the long final game, Borr attempted to inject more of the aggressive play that had worked so well for her earlier, but when her forehand volley went wide on match point, Austin had the title.

"I was probably feeling a little fatigued from the past few matches," said a disappointed Borr, playing in just her second National Level 1 in the 18s. "She played really well, started making a lot of shots, and I probably should have been more aggressive at that point, but I let it get away from me."

Despite the loss, Borr knows she will ultimately look back on the positives.

"It was a great tournament for me, and I learned a lot," said Borr, her voice full of emotion, a tear spilling down her cheek. "I learned I could compete with these girls."

With her tenth gold ball, Austin wasn't facing those questions, but she was pleased to end a fall and winter full of injuries.

"It's been a while," said the 16-year-old, who was out more than four months with stress fractures in her foot. "I'm still in shock right now, because two days before the tournament started I couldn't lift my arm. So it's a nice surprise for me, that's for sure."



The girls doubles championship was also played Saturday morning, with future North Carolina Tar Heels Whitney Kay and Ashley Dai, the No. 2 seeds, taking the title 6-1, 7-5 over top seeds Madeline Lipp and Jamie Loeb.

Kay and Dai, who start their college careers in Chapel Hill this fall, had not played together prior to pairing up in Mobile, and were fortunate to escape an early upset.

"It was a little struggle in the first match," said Kay. "We had a bye and then got a walkover, so we were playing our first match in the third round. We saved one or two match points and won 13-11 in the (match) tiebreaker."

Despite a lack of experience playing together, Kay and Dai had a ready explanation for their chemistry.

"It works together well because we're good friends and try to keep each other positive, stay upbeat," said Kay, who ends her junior career with 13 gold balls. "I feel we know where each other is going to go, even though it's our first time playing together."

"She keeps me calm," said Dai, who now has five gold balls. "And that's good, I don't get really pissed with her. And it's fun."

Third place in girls doubles went to No. 8 seeds Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum and Spencer Liang, who defeated No. 5 seeds Zoe Katz and Maegan Manasse 6-1, 6-3. Bernard-Feigenbaum had survived a full body cramp after a late night singles match on Tuesday, requiring an ambulance and hospitalization, but after an IV, she was back on the court for two doubles matches the next day.

The bronze balls in singles went to Ryan Shane and Manasse. No. 15 seed Shane defeated No. 5 seed Gage Brymer 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-4 in a three-hour marathon. Manasse collected third place in the girls singles when Dai withdrew prior to Saturday's scheduled match.

In the consolation finals, Rachel Pierson, a No. 17 seed, avenged her main draw loss to Josie Kuhlman, beating the unseeded wild card 6-4, 6-2 to finish in fifth place. Henry Craig, also a 17 seed, beat unseeded Andrew Schafer 5-7, 6-1, 6-3. The match should have been decided in a match tiebreaker, but a full third set was played in error.

In addition to the gold balls for singles and doubles, Ronnie Schneider also won the sportsmanship award. Whitney Kay received the girls sportsmanship award.

For complete results, see the TennisLink site.