Inside Junior Tennis Podcast; Tomic Gets Qualifying Wildcard; Morgan Invited to Roehampton
It's been well over a month since Kevin McClure and I have been able to get together for a podcast, so it's no surprise that this edition is nearly an hour long. With the Eddie Herr, the Orange Bowl, the Junior Orange Bowl and the Winter Nationals to discuss, we couldn't get too deeply into the tournaments and their winners, but I think we hit most of the high points.
We did discuss Bernard Tomic's decision to play the 16s rather than the 18s at the Orange Bowl, and about the pressure he will face during the Australian Open juniors, and that was before it was announced today that he had received a wild card into the men's qualifying. Linda Pearce of The Age has the story here.
The first of the three major ITF junior tournaments in Australia has progressed to the quarterfinals. Top seed Ryan Harrison lost in the second round, but No. 6 seed Ty Trombetta is still alive. No U.S. girls are competing.
The acceptances for the Australian Open Juniors, published last week, suggest that the trip is too far and too expensive to draw many U.S. competitors. American boys in the main draw are Harrison, Trombetta, Bradley Klahn and Mateusz Kecki, with Bob Van Overbeek and Alex Domijan listed as qualifiers. The U.S. girls are even fewer. Madison Brengle and Alexa Guarachi are in the main, with Lauren McHale, Danielle Mills and Monica Yajima in qualifying.
Of the ITF Top Ten, only three boys--Cesar Ramirez (4), Jerzy Janowicz (5) and Daniel Evans (10) and four girls--defending champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (2), Ksenia Lykina (8), Nikola Hofmanova (9) and Brengle (10) are playing the Australian Open Junior Championships, which has difficulty drawing fields comparable to those at other junior slams.
Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion George Morgan is profiled by The Telegraph which explains his next step as an audience with Paul Annacone at the LTA's Roehampton Training Centre. There can't be a British tennis article without a reference to Andy Murray of course, but does anyone else think this sentence is a little off?
When Murray won the same title for under-12s he said it was only then that he realised he could make it as a player.
12 comments:
I wonder why oudin would not play?
Just the plane fare alone from the US can be anywhere from $2000-$3500- too rich for most. The expenses for Easter Bowl are outrageous, let alone the Australian Open. Easter Bowl should be moved to a place less glamorous and far more affordable.
we have 14 US boys in top 100 ITF. it certainly makes more sense for several of these to play the series of january futures tournaments in florida than to travel all the way to australia to play a junior slam. also, alexei grigorov has trained with roddick the past year. he is a classic case study for the impact quality coaching can have. he has really blossomed since moving from florida to train in texas.
in the past the USTA has helped with the travel expenses for the kids that qualify for the junior slams. i believe it is their objective to give every kid who has proven they have the talent and the dedication the opportunity to both train and compete at the highest levels.
The article on Morgan is yet another example of what is wrong with the USTA. The LTA has proven "US" coaches in Paul Annacone and Brad Gilbert helping their promising juniors. Who does the USTA have to provide the same level of expertise for US players? A bunch of no-names that think they know what it takes to excel at the world-level, with NO PROVEN track record they know what they are talking about. On top of this, instead of focusing on US players, they spend a lot of time helping foreign players living in the US. What is wrong with this picture? Comments are appreciated.
has anyone heard of daniel mccall. He seems to be one of the top 93's on the boys side. He has wins over egger and newman recently. Any thoughts?
tennisman:
Daniel McCall is from San Francisco, and is coached by Brad Stine, who was with him at the Junior Orange Bowl this year. McCall's grown quite a bit since last spring, when I saw him play at the Easter Bowl.
thanks colette, how did he look at the orange bowl?
notaustafan, I don't understand how the article on the Morgan kid is an example of what is wrong with the U.S.T.A. The U.S.T.A. has plenty of good coaches. Jay Berger was top 10 in the world. Roger Smith was top 30 in the world. Ricardo Acuna was top 30 or 40 in the world. David Roditi was top 40 in the world in doubles. Rodney Harmon was top 50 in the world. David Dilucia has worked with Lindsay Davenport and other top pros as have most of these guys. These guys were all highly ranked players that are coaches with the U.S.T.A. I dont however believe you have to have been ranked in the top 100 in the world to be a good coach or that would disqualify alot of great coaches in the past 50 years. I mention these guys because they are coaches with the U.S.T.A. that my children have spent at least a little bit of time with and they think very highly of them as coaches and people(in particular Roger Smith and David Roditi)who they have spent alot more time with. These guys are very passionate and know a lot about the game. I like most parents would like to see more help on the financial end as far as grant money but if its not in the budget then what do you do. I really don't know where the blame lies but have some opinions on it which would take at least an hour to write but I do know it doesn't lie with this group of guys and their coaching ability and I can speak from personal experience with them. I hope you meant it when you said comments appreciated. Pat Harrison
Just because some of them have had a very little success on the tour way back when, does not mean they are good coaches. I do know one of the coaches you are talking about. I think he was a good player at one time, but he lacks communication skills. Alot of them cannot get their point across in an effective coaching manner. As for more grant money, that should strickly go to the 18s. The younger divisions are are not accomplished enough and maybe good right now, but time will tell. I do not know of any coach with the USTA who has created any top 50 player. If you do please tell me.
get real, grant money should only go to the 18's? why? by the time these kids are 18 if they aren't in the top 200 in the world they aren't going to make it into the top 30 in the world anyway. the top 2 players in the world rankings from the u.s. are rhyne williams and ryan harrison and they are 16 and 15 years old so would you disqualify them for not being 18? as for paul annacone and brad gilbert with the LTA they have never created or developed a player into the top 50 in the world. every player they have had was already a top 50 player and they provided them with some stability and self-confidence but they certainly didn't develop them.
To Tennisman: Saw Daniel McCall play today at Plaza Cup. I can see why Stine is coaching him. Excellent all court game, with great hands at the net. He's a big kid, and makes mistakes when coming in sometimes, but that does not seem to stop him from playing a very aggressive, attacking game. He is without a doubt developing a game for the upper levels and will probably completely mature with it in a year or two. Even at 14, the kid's talent is obvious. He's got guts, class, and great potential. I am now a fan.
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