Wimbledon Junior Qualifying Draws; Smith Named Men's Head Coach at Duke
Thanks to Guy McCrea, who is working the Championships for Radio Wimbledon, I've gotten the qualifying draws for the Junior Championships, which begin tomorrow. The U.S. has two players in the boys qualifying: US Grass Court champion Devin Britton and Harry Fowler, and four girls: Lauren McHale, Alexa Guarachi, Nicole Bartnik and Monica Yajima. For the boys draw, click here. For the girls draw, click here.
At the Grade 1 in Roehampton, Melanie Oudin and Bradley Klahn of the U.S. have reached the semifinals, Klahn with a three-set win over Russian Alexei Grigorov and Oudin with another straight set win, her fourth of the week, over British wild card Heather Watson. Ryan Harrison and Klahn are also through to the semifinals in doubles. For draws, see the LTA website.
In college news, Duke has named Ramsey Smith to replace Jay Lapidus as head coach of the men's tennis program. Lapidus will become Director of Tennis at Duke, will Josh Goffi will leave Arizona State's women's program to become the Duke assistant coach. KJ Hippensteel will serve as volunteer assistant. Click here for the Duke website's announcement.
A former Blue Devil, Jon Stokke, is joining ACC rival Wake Forest, as an assistant for the women's team. That announcement is here.
And espn.com's Greg Garber talked with Bobby Reynolds, the former Vanderbilt star, about his second round win today at Wimbledon (scroll down for Reynolds story.)
6 comments:
Great move. My son worked w/ Goffi in the past - wonderful teacher and player. Additionally, KJ is a genuinely great guy as well.
OK, I have always thought the reported death of American men's tennis was a little exaggerated. But, if Roddick loses on grass to Tipsarevic along with Blake choking and Levine running out of gas, what are we left with? Again, I don't have expectations of a return to the Sampras/Agassi/Courier/Chang/Martin era but this has to be some kind of new low, doesn't it? Yikes. No real obvious bright stars coming behind either. I continue to believe that the Harrison brothers are our best shot, but Ryan has lost some momentum lately. Won't stop me from pulling for all these young guys though.
Wow. Tough loss for Fowler. 15-13 in a third set breaker.
Its just pathetic. Roddick and Blake are not top players right now. Top players dont continue to lose these matches over and over again. Blake is one the most overrated players on the ATP Tour, he has never even made a grand slam semifinal. Him and Ljubicic are neck and neck for the worst top10 players of all-time in majors.
LETS GO ROBERT REYNOLDS!!!
Blake is so soft between the ears. I would agree, he's the most overrated Top 10 player of all time on the big stages. It just drives me crazy how quickly this guy can blow a match and he blew that match today. His body language out there is so poor, it has to motivate his opponent when he sees that. It doesn't take much for James to go south.
As far as Roddick goes, the ESPN guys kept going on and on about him being a fighter. I just don't see it. I've seen him give up in many matches throughout his career. His attitude on the court stinks as well.
He still hasn't learned that you need more than a big serve and a forehand to win majors and it is helpful to break serve if you want to win a match. Andy's return of serve was paltry all day. Tipsarevic is hardly a big server, but Andy made it easy for him. That return at 30-40, 4-5 in the 4th, was the most pathetic thing I've ever seen. He deserved to lose just for that.
It just seems like the Americans don't have the drive or the fire that a lot of the players from overseas do.
One of the girls (Yajima) who tried to qualify at Wimbledon is ranked #42 among junior year high schoolers across the US.......she just lost to a "good" Midwest level player (ranked #94 for junior year high school players, at a level 2 USTA event. i just don't understand how some players/families rationalize tournament choices like that......more money than brains, i guess.......kids get an ITF ranking and think that means something.......it does for those with top ITF rankings....otherwise, just another number.......
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