Entries Close Thursday at Noon for USTA National Championships; Bangoura Featured in Peoria; New D-I Men's Coaches; Evans Suspended by LTA
On Thursday at noon Eastern Daylight Time, entries will close for all the USTA National Championships which begin the first week of August. If you'd like to see who has already applied and for what age divisions, check out the main National Junior Tournament page on the TennisLink site, and then click on August. Of course there are wild cards still to be named for all divisions, and applications for wild cards are due within five days the deadline, according to this item on usta.com.
One of the Kalamazoo entrants in the 16s this year, Florida's Sekou Bangoura Jr., was the subject of this story in the Peoria Journal Star after his first round win over No. 7 seed Adam Fass. The 16s field in Kalamazoo looks to be especially strong this year, with Junior Ore, Jordan Cox, Denis Kudla, Raymond Sarmiento and Evan King joining Bangoura in the 16s. All have been playing mostly 18s or ITFs this year, but Kalamazoo is the one tournament where a chance to win the title in the 16s (and the US Open Jr. wild card) is an incentive to play your peers.
In men's college tennis, Bo Hodge has been named assistant at Alabama, according to this announcement on rolltide.com. Chuck McCuen, who was an assistant under Chuck Kreise for six years, was named head coach at Clemson Monday. For details, see the Clemson Tigers website.
And finally, another round of junior suspensions by the LTA. Daniel Evans and Dan Smethurst are the British pair running afoul of the authorities according to this story in the Daily Mail.
8 comments:
Another big boner move by the USTA. Some people might think the USTA knows what they are doing. Here is more proof they don't have a clue. James "Bo" Seal is a member of the USTA Junior team, which trains in Florida and gets support financially and with Wild Cards to travel to tournaments, not just in our country, but around the world. Yet, Bo is not even seeded at the National Clay Courts. Just another example of how the USTA doesn't have their ducks in a line.
For the 16s, seems Domijon, Harrison is playing 18s, while Cox, Fowler and Overbeek have applied for both 18s and 16s? How does that work when you apply for 2 age groups?
Read the article about the LTA suspending its top players for partying. Agree with the approach. Too bad the USTA does not do the same when its players cross the line pon USTA paid for trips.
Hi Collette! This is my first time to your blog here, and I'd like to say "great stuff!" It's nice to get news on the next wave of tennis players. I'll definitely be back!
I'll go over the seeding and the selection process in my post later today.
Doesn't the seeding just go by ranking for Clay Courts? I believe it is different for Hard Courts, but for clays, it goes by ranking.
dawn1g...Seeding at this level is a bunch of malarkey. Bo is a talented player but his being "high performance" shouldn't get him a seed because of it. He and others get plenty out of the USTA. I've seen plenty a tournament where it just shouldn't matter who is seeded and who is not. Ask Clint Bowles, last years 18's winner...who needed a last minute w/c to get in, wasn't seeded and won the tournament. Let the racket do the talking and not worry about who gets what seed!
Truthfully, if he wanted to get a seed, all the kids know what to do...so it isn't a "poor me" attitude. The USTA is doing what they have done for years...just wait to see you K'zoo when you have kids like Buchanan, Bangoura, Domijan, and Harrison with a slew of ATP points, who have fallen in their national ranking...and you will see some interesting seeding.
Tenniswatcher.....you're missing the point of these top players not being seeded. In junior tennis, 188 of the 192 competitors enter the backdraw, and it is silly for two top players to meet in R1 or R2. The USTA could help to correct this but they ignore the issue.....
So what I'm saying is, by not seeding a top player, it doesn't hurt THEM, it hurts the other top player they meet in the and so on and so on. Unless you are one of those that say once you lose, you leave the tournament.......I'm personally not a big fan of those players......which is an understatement.
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