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Thursday, May 8, 2008

50,000 Balls; Roland Garros Junior Acceptances Released

My weekly article for The Tennis Recruiting Network is a Q and A session I conducted with Tom Pura late last week about the documentary he made called 50,000 Balls. Unlike Unstrung, it is not a professionally produced documentary; it is a look at 12-and-under tennis from the eyes of a parent who is living that life. I've seen the DVD several times, as I have known Tom since 2005, when he contacted me as an early reader of zootennis.com. The final edition, which Tom has since learned has been accepted at the Newport International Film Festival, not only provides a contrast to Unstrung, it also has lengthy interviews with Jay Berger, Dave Licker, Al Parker, Tom Gullikson and Chris Lewis among others. I'm not going to do a full-fledged review, since I am much too close to the project to assess it properly, but I will say that I found it to be more authentic--I didn't detect any false notes in the 67 minute production--than Unstrung. For more information on the film, see the website,50kballs.com.

The acceptances are out for the French Open Juniors, and there are four U.S. boys--Ryan Harrison, Bradley Klahn, Chase Buchanan and Jarmere Jenkins--in the main draw as of now. There are three U.S. girls directly accepted: Melanie Oudin, Madison Brengle and Mallory Burdette, although Brengle was quoted as saying in her hometown newspaper today that she didn't know if she was going to play the juniors there. I suppose it depends on how she does in the main draw.

And don't forget to chime in on who you think is going to win the NCAAs by leaving your picks in the comments of this post. Deadline is Wednesday, May 14.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sweet Sixteen
Virginia over Michigan
Tennessee over Baylor
Georgia over Pepperdine
Mississippi over North Carolina
Southern Cal over Tulsa
UCLA over Alabama
Texas over Florida
Ohio State over Illinois

Elite Eight
Virginia over Tennessee
Georgia over Mississippi
UCLA over Southern Cal
Ohio State over Texas

Final Four
Georgia over Virginia
Ohio State over UCLA

National Championship
Ohio State over Georgia

Anonymous said...

Colette, on another site, someone mentioned that in Unstrung at the begining, it was mentioned that Marcus Fugate was ineligible to play college tennis because he signed an endorsement $ deal. I don't remember hearing this when I saw it at the Zoo, do you recall this fact?

Colette Lewis said...

No, I don't remember that being in the version shown last year in Kalamazoo. But Wertheim's conversation with Mike Tollin implied that they were updating for this release, so it may have been added then.

I don't get ESPN Classic, so I was not able to see that version myself.

Anonymous said...

I watched it last night. I thought it was good for what it was. However, I think they should have focused it on two or three players instead of so many.

At the end they basically had a "Where Are They Now" portion. It had everyone updated as of this spring. They showed Seguso at UCLA. Neilly giving lessons and trying to get back on tour. Fugate saying he was going to either Ohio St or Florida, but then said he was ineligible. Showed Querrey winning Las Vegas. Hirshman playing for Stanford. Shields at Boise State. Young on tour.