Samaha Profile, Last Midland Report
My article this week for The Tennis Recruiting Network is a recruiting profile of Tampa's Joel Samaha. I had an opportunity to talk to Samaha last month when I was in his hometown, and I enjoyed hearing about his plans for college. He also told me how much he liked the tournament at Kalamazoo, which he visited for the first time last year.
The Dow Corning Tennis Classic in Midland reminded me of Kalamazoo's tournament in a lot of ways. It's obviously a very big deal to the small town to have such an event, and the media coverage, the sponsorships, the parties and community outreach have all helped to develop it into a major stop on the minor league tennis calendar. Many of the players (and umpires) stay in private housing, and return year after year to enjoy the Midwestern hospitality, getting a sense of community in a profession that often lacks it.
I returned to Kalamazoo today, but I did see a few matches before I left. Angelique Kerber of Germany, who had upset No. 5 seed Stephanie Dubois of Canada on Wednesday, had no trouble with qualifier Leanne Baker 6-3, 6-4. Another qualifier, 18-year-old Olga Govortsova of Belarus, did advance, downing Angela Haynes of the U.S. 6-2, 6-1, to win her fifth consecutive match in straight sets. Govortsova will face Greta Arn of Germany in Friday's quarterfinals. Arn defeated 36-year-old qualifier Brenda Schultz 6-4, 3-6, 6-0 on Court 5, while No. 6 seed Abigail Spears was eliminating Lauren Albanese 6-3, 6-2 on Stadium Court. 
The tournament's website occasionally posts scores to their draws during the day, not just after all play is completed as the Pro Circuit page does.
5 comments:
Colette,
With the Davis Cup starting, do you have any idea if they took any hitting partners? If so, do you know who?
Collette,
Slightly off topic but, as there havent been any comments in the last couple of posts I thought no-one would mind if I asked a few questions.
1) Why Vania King?
By that I mean, what is it that has enabled her to achieve a good measure of success in a relatively short time and why her above quite a few others?
2) Is there anyone else you see with similar qualities and,
3) What is happening with Alexa Glatch?
Sorry, I thought I had mentioned that. Mike Russell and Ryan Sweeting were selected as hitting partners.
I don't know why Vania King made that step while others with similar results/games in juniors did not. I did hear Zina Garrison praise Vania's attitude and self-confidence recently, but even in hindsight, I don't think there were many people who thought she would make these huge strides in the past 18 months.
Actually Madison Brengle reminds me a little of King--size, attitude, ground strokes. No big brother as an influence though.
As for Glatch, I haven't heard anything recently. The Pro Circuit program for 2007 has an article about her injuries in 2006. She has entered the Clearwater and Las Vegas Pro Circuit events later this month, but she'll probably need wild cards to get in.
colette, any word on the clays yet?
thanks
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