Devvarman and Oudin in Lexington Finals; Play Underway at Boys 18s Team Championships
Lexington Kentucky is hosting both a men's and women's $50,000 challenger this week, and two of the most frequently featured players on zootennis, Somdev Devvarman and Melanie Oudin, have reached Sunday's finals.
Devvarman, who has yet to lose a singles match as a professional, reached the final when former ATP Top Twenty player Xavier Malisse retired, trailing 4-1 in the first set. As a qualifier, I'm sure Devvarman appreciates that he didn't have to go the distance in his seventh match of the tournament. The two-time NCAA champ faces Robert Kendrick in the final, having beaten the former Pepperdine star in the straight sets in the quarterfinals of the Kennedy Funding Invitational earlier this month. Kendrick, the No. 3 seed, downed top seed Dudi Sela 5-7, 6-1, 6-4.
The eighth-seeded Oudin has yet to drop a set in Lexington, as she disposed of No. 5 seed Ye-Ra Lee of Korea 6-4, 6-2 in Saturday's semifinal. She too will face an opponent extended to the max in the semifinals; unseeded Carly Gullickson came back to defeat No. 7 seed Chin-Wei Chan of Chinese Taipei 1-6, 6-3, 6-1. Oudin is also in the doubles final this evening, partnering Lindsay Lee-Waters.
The tournament's excellent website features Live Scoring and informative, well-written recaps daily.
Another website I recommend follows the USTA Boys Team event, in Champaign-Urbana, during its four days of action. Defending champions Southern California, the top seeds, had a bye in today's opening round. Southern is seeded No. 2, with Florida at No. 3. There was one minor upset today, with the Eastern Section defeating 5-8 seeded Northern 5-2.
In Futures action, two recently graduated college stars, Erling Tveit of Ole Miss and Arnau Brugues of Tulsa will vie for the singles title Sunday in Godfrey, Ill., while recent William & Mary graduate Megan Moulton-Levy meets Great Britain's Emily Webley-Smith for the Evansville, Ind. title. For complete results, see the USTA Pro Circuit results page.
I hope to have information on the Kalamazoo seeds available for Sunday evening's post.
4 comments:
Wow, the Florida team looks solid, as does Southern (especially with a top three of Jenkins, Britton, and Lipman), but SoCal is probably going to be too much.
Buchanan, Williams, and Harrison all got beat handily in Cincy qualifying. Scott Oudsema had a nice win over Odesnik though. Hopefully he can follow it up with a win over Yani and make it through to the main draw. My KC brethren didn't like me cheering for Oudsema last weekend in a Team Tennis match against the hometown Explorers but my West Michigan roots took over.
Random thought - how is James Blake ranked in the top 10 in the world? I feel like I follow this sport relatively close but I can't think of the last good run he's had on a big stage. He just lost 1 and 2 to Kiefer. Come on. Hopefully he can turn it around at the Open, but I wouldn't be planning on it.
brent-
i wouldn't get too excited about your friend oudsema. his win over odesnik is tempered by odesnik's continuing hip injury which has caused him to pull out of 4 tournaments in a row. he hasn't been healthy since the french.
to brent
did you hear anything if the ATP is looking into Harrison's win in Houston being tanked by the Latin American because of offshore gambling? Nothing to do w/ Harrison, just the latin american.
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