Free Wimbledon Live All-Access Passes for Several Lucky ZooTennis Readers
The draws for the Wimbledon junior championships are out (more about that later), but there's other exciting news first. MediaZone has just contacted me with an offer of several free All-Access passes ($24.99 value) for the online streaming product at Wimbledon.org, which I think will be of real value for those who are interested in watching some of the U.S. college players still in doubles, and, of course, the juniors. At this late date, there's no time for a real contest, so tomorrow (Saturday) I'll just randomly select from anyone who has left a comment in June, if they also leave one on this post predicting the winners of the girls and boys Wimbledon Championships.
One caution: Wimbledon LIVE is available only for the Windows operating system. And I will need you to provide me with your email when you comment (which I will delete before posting the comment to the site), so I can send you the gift certificate code if you are selected.
Now to the junior draws. The U.S. had great success in the juniors last year, with Donald Young winning the boys title and Madison Brengle reaching the girls final. There are six U.S. boys in the main draw this year, three of them seeded: Ryan Harrison (7), Chase Buchanan (14) and Bradley Klahn (16). Jarmere Jenkins, Ty Trombetta and qualifier Devin Britton are also in. There are only three U.S. girls, as none of the four in qualifying advanced to the main draw: Melanie Oudin, the top seed, who won Roehampton today, Coco Vandeweghe and Mallory Burdette. Oudin beat 14-year-old Laura Robson of Great Britain in three sets in the Roehampton final, and they will meet, if both advance, in the second round at Wimbledon.
For those interested in the qualifying results, click here. For the Roehampton results, including a short story on the British finalists, click here.
So, who do think will win the Wimbledon junior titles? Make a comment and get in the running for the All-Access Passes for Wimbledon LIVE.
22 comments:
Colette,
On the boy's front, I do expect a decent run from the winner of Bernard Tomic and Devin Britton (should be a great match if they meet, as scheduled, in the second round), Daniel Smethhurst and Ryan Harrison. However, I think the winner will come from either Bradley Klahn or Tsung-Hua Yang. Unfortunately, they're in the same half so I'll go with Klahn to beat Jerzy Janowicz in the final.
On the girl's side, I just don't see very much to get excited about. Compared to the last few years it seems to be a relatively weak draw. Melanie Oudin is, obviously, the form player but I don't think she'll win... this year. That being the case, I'll pick Arantxa Rus to win but do so with absolutely no confidence.
Hi Colette,
I'm going with Ryan Harrison (gotta love the wikipedia entry on this guy) on the boys side, and Melanie Oudin on the girls.
Bernard Tomic to win the boys but at this level nothing is certain, definately is a player to beat and in the gilrs the russian Arantxa Rus . Just like the main draw ths competition is likely to cause upsets.
Colette,
my choices- Jerzy Janowicz from Poland and Polona Hercog from Slovenia
I have always enjoyed watching American ATP players compete on the world stage. It really is getting very tough to watch.
Since the Open Era began in 1968 this is by far the worse showing with 8 ATP players losing in the first round and 3 players losing in the 2nd round and only Bobby Reynolds a 26 year old who has not won a title yet in the ATP advancing to the 3rd round.
Since 2005 when Safin won the Australian the only countries to have Grand Slam Champions - Swiss- The Raj- Espana - Nadel and Serbia- Nole.
Not only haven't the Americans won but they basically are no where in sight -- they had the worse performance on Clay the past few years - and even the grass and or hard courts we are really not even close.
And for some USA fans to pin their hopes on the Harrison Brothers age 14 and 16 - wow talk about the future -
give me a break- the point is so many of the top, world class players are so very, very young (age 19-22)and I have been saying this for at least the last 3-4 years -
it is painfully obvious -forget about the speacial 7- Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Chang, Todd Martin, Mal Washington, David Wheaton -- how about just a solid showing by more than 1 or 2 guys in the Grand Slam.
Yes, I really want the Red, White and Blue to win -- but I am also a REALIST and it is not in the cards for a long, long, long time - regardless of the Harrison Brothers -- it reminds me of my dear friend Austin who shouted acclaim for a troika of girls from Florida age 10-12 a few years ago.
I guess we are really getting desperate.
BTW- I truly think Roddick / Blake and the rest of the USA bunch are really trying -- we just don't have the goods and the rest of the world has caught up and is much more hungry and has past us by like we are standing still.
The rest of the world plays like they are not ENTITLED --unlike so many of our young players - and YOUNG (Donald) is the operative word along with a bunch of others.
post script to Jesse
WOW -that was some hit on Harrison as Jesse mentioned ("gotta love the wikipedia entry on this guy") in the Personal section
re Ryan Harrison bio, Obviously I know someone who did not have anything to do with that. Hint: she has the best blog out there about college and junior tennis. I wonder if that stuff is true? If so, would an academy like Newcombe hire such a guy, or would the fact that he has the two best male players in their respective age groups offset that?
Special 7? You can whittle that down to Fantastic 4.
Tomic and Oudin re my picks
steve1959,
Arantxa Rus is from The Netherlands - are you confusing her with someone else?
Tomic over Klahn.
Oudin over Hofmanova.
However, I will take myself out of the running for the prize because I already purchased it last week.
Man in the Moon mentioned me hyping some young girls. Im telling you, Sasha Vickery is the next big thing. Ill eat my words if it happens, but she is the one I think will make it. She's just so much more athletic than the rest of girls within a few years of her age.
Go USA
Austin,
yes Sasha Vickery is a very strong, athletic player who unquestionably has talent.
As we have seen over the years- that really is not enough - I think trying to pick out a 10 -12 year old in any sport is extremely difficult to say the least and almost impossible at best.
I would have thought you would have learned your lesson with DY-
he clearly is not the chosen one in the ATP - or he would have already been where Nadel, Gasquet, Muarry, Nole etc are- is it possible for DY to achieve -yes - but with all the hype he received you would think he would already be there-
Is he washed up at 19 - certainly not - I am saying that too much hype at a young age- is not necessarily a good thing!
Yuki Bhambri for the boys and Oudin for the girls.
So Boluda is playing juniors! Too bad Tomic destroyed him today. Maybe it was first time on Grass for Boluda, but a disappointing result given all the hype around him. Really wanted to see him take out Tomic and prove you don't have to play all the big junior events to make it big. Obviously, they are both still young and will improve considerably. I look forward to that.
Tomic over Klahn.
Oudin
Ryan Harrison's wikipedia entry looks pretty tame to me. Did something get edited out? If so, what?
Colette,
Devin Britton came up through the qualifier and I have to pick him for a good showing. Also Melanie Oudin on the girls side. You know I'm a bit biased!
Klahn and Oudin are my picks.
My picks:
Tomic & Oudin
I'm interested to see what the US Jrs will do. I don't think it is a lack of anything but focus that accounts for the relatively weak results.
mnm, the Ryan Harrison bio on Wikipedia said "he is known in the junior tennis community as a real p***k" but was taken out just since I saw it yesterday!
ok. harrison may be good but FYI questions surround his ATP Houston win in that lots of offshore betting and S american supposedly threw the match
I'm picking Grigor Dimitrov and Melanie Oudin.
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