February Aces; Brengle, Muhammad and Vandeweghe Win Again in Las Vegas
February's aces are posted today at The Tennis Recruiting Network. Because there is so little happening in junior tennis during February, it's college-and-pro-heavy, but things change in March, with the ITF South American clay court season and the Spring 18s championships in Mobile.
Today in Las Vegas, three of the juniors who received wild cards into the $50,000 Women's Pro Circuit event held there in conjunction with the ATP Tennis Channel Open advanced to the quarterfinals. Yesterday Madison Brengle, 17, beat Sesil Karatancheva, the Bulgarian once ranked 35th in the world, who is coming back from a two-year drug suspension, and today Brengle beat No. 2 seed Yvonne Meusburger of Austria, currently ranked 66th, 6-3, 6-4. Sixteen-year-old Coco Vandeweghe took out top seed Aravane Rezai of France, the WTA's 53rd-ranked player, after losing the first set Wednesday and today dismissed Ahsha Rolle of the U.S., again coming back from a set down.
Sixteen-year-old Asia Muhammad, who is from Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb, and is famously mentored by Andre Agassi, has buoyed the hometown fans with two victories in the past two days. Not to be outdone, she too beat a WTA top-100 player, today taking out No. 7 seed Tatjana Malek of Germany, who is ranked 90th, after eliminating Melinda Czink of Hungary on Wednesday. The local press isn't touting her as the Next Big Thing, however, which is often the case in situations like hers. Here is a local column at the Las Vegas Review Journal which realistically assesses the challenges Muhammad faces.
Although as of this evening Muhammad was still entered in Mobile, where I head tomorrow, (she is in fact the top seed on the girls' side), but with a Sunday start for everyone, I wouldn't be surprised if she withdrew.
3 comments:
Colette, do you know what Coco or Asia are doing for school? Regular high school or online? Plus, is it true Asia has officially turned pro? Thanks
As the story linked to says, Asia is home-schooled, but has not turned pro.
I am not sure what Coco's status is.
Enjoyed watching Asia today in Vegas in the finals against Pin. Experience prevailed, with Pin content to calmly and patiently stroke from the baseline, while the more aggressive Muhammad piled up 48 unforced errors, going down 6-4, 6-1. Impressive comeback by Muhammad in the 2nd set of the semis from down 4-0 against Brengle, although the 9th and 10th games were marred by two criminal non-calls of long-balls by Muhammad that spoiled Brengle's attempt to force a 3rd set. I think we'll see a lot more of these two in the near future.
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