Bricker Scolds Damico
With no Americans in the second week, the attention of the U.S. media has been directed to the juniors, and in this article the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel's Charlie Bricker takes some shots at Kellen Damico's behavior.
Those who read my account of Damico's Easter Bowl match with Steve Forman aren't surprised by what's contained in this story. Most of the comments I received on that story addressed his history of outbursts and the USTA's failure to do anything about it. I sincerely hope the anger management/mental toughness expert he's said to be working with produces a change.
With Donald Young losing today in the third round to Robin Roshardt of Switzerland, who also defeated Young at last year's Orange Bowl, Damico and Nate Schnugg were one of the few bright spots for the U.S. The Australian Open Junior finalists (unseeded of course, as the ITF doesn't look at past doubles results) defeated the top seeded team of Thiemo de Bakker and Alexandre Siderenko 7-5 in the third in the opening round of doubles. Julia Cohen and Kim Couts also won their first round match. Jamie Hunt, who is playing with Roberto Maytin of Venezuela also was a first round doubles winner. Dennis Lajola, who is playing with Kenyan Christian Vitulli, is through to the quarterfinals.
8 comments:
Not surpised that US junior tennis is in crisis. Not suprised that the most promising junior Sam Querry was bever involved with USTA high performance. They pick a handful of favorites at an early age, throw thousands of dollars in their little primadonas and ignore the rest of their top kids, at least for the boys. I bet if you went down the list of top 5 juniors in every age group you would be stunned at those who have never received a penny of support from high performance or invited to any one of their camps, and these are kids who crush some of thier counterparts on Team USA for thier age groups.
It will be interesting what the USTA does with this new facility change. They might want to look at making some coaching changes also, since the majority of the coaches the USTA have hired are former touring pros that have either had little or no coaching experience in junior development. Some of these coaches seem to feel because they were a player on the tour that qualifies them to develop up and coming juniors. There are coaches in the US right now that have had more coaching experience (years) developing the top players that have made it on the tour, than probably the entire USTA High performance coaching staff combined. I recently heard from a coach on the USTA High Performance staff that he believed that a coach today should have the professional experience to coach these up an coming juniors. I don't remember much of Lansdorp's or Bollettieri's career. There are coaches all over the world that never played professionally that are developing players that make it on the tour. I congratulate Sam Querry on what I feel was the correct decision on doing it a different way. He is the best American junior for now.
Everyone wants to whine about the USTA. The fact is the USTA had very little to do with Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Chang, Wheaton, Martin, Roddick and Blake reaching the top ten in the world. So stop complaining!!!
That was my point!!
How about some new ideas? Ask the people who are in the 'jr.tennis system' at present. The USTA might think about concepts that work and have been proven in the world of successful businesses.
Easy on Kellen. He is only 17. He is a competitor with fire in his belly. Most of his opponents already know what to expect....mental toughness is key.
"You reap what you sow" No effort from the USTA during the ITF jr. clay court season = no results. This is no brain surgery.
Who plays the USTA or the players? What training? All a player needs are some balls and a court. How much preparation goes into the grass court season? Keep digging for ways that the USTA screwed up, because wheni comes down to it the players win or lose.
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