U.S. Teams for Teen Tennis and Les Petits As Tournaments
The USTA has selected the players traveling to Europe later this month to participate in these two prestigious 14-and-under tournaments.
The girls team, coached by Jay Berger [1/2/08 correction: it is Jai DiLouie coaching the girls] will consist of Breaunna Addison, Kyle McPhillips, Grace Min and Chanelle Van Nguyen.
Coached by Kent Kinnear, the boys team is: Reo Asami, Robert Livi, John Harrison Richmond and Alexios Halebian.
Christian Harrison decided not to play those events again this year.
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10 comments:
thanks for the info colette. interesting team i've only heard of asami because he won the 12's orange bowl last year. Have you seen any of the other players on the boys team play?
that team is gonna struggle is it just me or r the years 1993 and 1994 extremely weak?
I agree with Midwest that the selected boys appear extremely weak. Based on the fiasco on how the selection process was carried out last year, the new revamped system appears to be drastically broke. From what I understand, the players were selected based on a two-day playoff and not as a result of overall results over an extended timeframe. Which means if you didn't have a good weekend, you are left out in the cold. It will be interesting to see who other than Reo gets passed the first round. I have also heard that Reo may or may not have a US passport. Can anyone confirm this?
From what Colette has reported, it sounds like only two of the spots were selected solely on the playoff (Asami and Livi). And I don't know how you can argue that those two aren't worthy selections. Asami would seem to be one of the best '94s in the world, having won the Orange Bowl last year. He also finished 3rd at the Winter Nationals.
Livi was a quarterfinalist at the Eddie Herr where he beat Asami and Johan Skattum (#6 14-and-under European). He was a finalist at the Kentucky International Tennis Derby (lost to John Richmond).
Richmond and Halebian did the best at the Orange Bowl of all the '94s other than Harrison. Richmond beat one of the best Europeans, Lukas Mugevicius, 6-4, 6-2. Halebian qualified, won his first round match, and then won several matches in the backdraw.
I don't see how any others are clearly better choices than the ones chosen. I also don't see why some of you see 1994 as being such a weak year. Chrisitian Harrison is probably the best '94 in the world. Asami appears to be up there. Livi and Richmond have knocked off highly ranked Europeans. Mico Santiago would probably fare very well if he played 14-and-under events. Mitchell Krueger hasn't taken off the way some may have expected after winning the Eddie Herr last year, but he's a good player.
I think expectations are a little out of whack if we're calling 1994 a weak year.
As for 1993, the second, third, and sixth place finishers at the Orange Bowl were Americans born in 1993. Another (Emmett Egger) was quarterfinalist who lost to other Americans (Newman in the QFs, Harrison in the backdraw). At the Eddie Herr, Newman was a finalist and Novikov was a quarterfinalist.
Why all the pessimism?
it is pretty silly to say that the 1994 team is going to struggle at this point. The kids are on par with last years' group, so they should do well. As for the 93-94's, there are several in the group that are developing well. The fact is that you can't tell who is going to make it until this group is 16-18 at a minimum, especially when you are evaluating the boys, who take longer to develop a consistent winning game. Look at the top pros -- most of whom will admit in an honest moment that at 14-16 they has inconsistent records, with some good wins, and some ridiculous losses.
It's all about the draws. Its very difficult to determine how good a player is based on one tournament, especially the Orange Bowl where the draw pretty much dictates how successful you will be. If you manage to get a good draw, you can go far. If not,then your done in one or two matches. If you watch Livi play, he doesn't have the game required to compete at the higher echelons. He does a lot of pushing and wins by frustrating his opponents.
Yes, Livi made it to the quarterfinals of the Eddie Herr this year. But Skattum had knee problems during the match and had a difficult time moving. It you look at the Winter Nats, Livi got crushed by Chase Curry, another grinder, and then only won one match in the backdraw before bowing out.
We will just have to wait and see how well he does in Europe. I still have a hard time believing Livi's game is something the USTA is really interested in.
hi, best whishes for 2008 to everyone.. and thank you colette for the great work you do every single day !!!
now.. i'm rrreally very disappointed to hear that christian harrisson wont come this year, i was sure he would do it this year ! I saw him play last year, and he had only one reason not to wn the tournament.. his opponent was really hard to beat, but this year, he wont be there.. oh i'm shure that we will miss a big champion this year !!!!
anyway, all the best for your future, chris ! bonne chance !
sonia from france
Hi everyone,
Does anybody know why Christian Harrison won't be playing Les Petits As this year? I mean, he did so well in 2007 (finale), I'm sure he could have won the tournament this year, now he's one year older. Personally, I'm very disappointed because I was rejoicing to see him play again. Thanks for your answers and congrats to Colette for this wonderful website. Happy Year to you all. Tennisly yours :)
Pierrick
go john richmond
midwest-1994 as a year is actually strong and its too early to tell with most of them anyways. however, i agree that 1993 is very weak. the top four in 1993 (egger, newman, giron, decoster) struggled in 16s winters and only egger has a game with any resemblance to the players in the older age groups.
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