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Thursday, August 21, 2008

Evan King Profile; Three Wild Cards Remain in USO Qualifying


My Tennis Recruiting Network post today is a profile of Evan King, who was easily one of the most-watched players by college coaches during the Nationals. King has a very busy autumn coming up, with tournaments, the Junior Davis Cup and official recruiting visits all on tap.

In today's second round of qualifying for the U.S. Open, wild cards Kristie Ahn, Shenay Perry and Ricardas Berankis moved within one win of a main draw berth with victories over seeded players.

Ahn downed No. 31 seed and former NCAA finalist Jelena Pandzic of Croatia 6-1, 6-3, while Perry took out No. 12 seed Tzipora Obziler of Israel 6-4, 6-4. Berankis was steamrolled by No. 1 seed and 2004 US Open Junior finalist Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine, but fought back for a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory. In Friday's final round, Ahn will play No 4 seed Anna Lapushchenkova of Russia, Perry gets No. 17 seed Olga Savchuk of Ukraine and Berankis faces No. 19 seed Bjorn Phau of Germany.

Six other Americans advanced, and at least one is guaranteed a main draw spot, as unseeded Ryan Sweeting will meet No. 23 seed Kevin Kim Friday. No. 4 seed Robert Kendrick plays No. 24 Simon Stadler of Germany, Alex Kuznetsov takes on No. 17 seed Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay and Ryler De Heart faces unseeded Diego Hartfield of Argentina.

The only U.S. woman beside Perry and Ahn to have a chance to earn a spot in the main draw is Californian Alexa Glatch. Glatch's opponent on Friday will be unseeded Nina Bratchikova of Russia.

The draws were released today (use the US Open widget at the top for access to the website) with Austin Krajicek getting Agustin Calleri of Argentina and Gail Brodsky facing No. 13 seed Agnes Szavay of Hungary.

For coverage of the U.S. Open qualifying, see collegeandjuniortennis.com. And for a free internet broadcast of several of Friday's final round qualifying matches, go to radiotennis.com.

6 comments:

birdword said...

Greg Garber has quite a lengthy profile of Jesse Levine on ESPN.com. Apparently, Levine's new coach Ricardo Acuna (provided by the USTA) was coaching Donald Young when the two met at Wimbledon.

"Donald wanted to do things on his own and with his parents," Acuna said last week. "I came free and Jesse was looking for some help. It just worked out."

By my calculation, Levine will be ranked around 90 when the new rankings come out Monday. Quite a rise from his ranking of 542 a year ago when he was still an amateur!

Anonymous said...

just read it, great article. best tennis article in a long time.

Anonymous said...

As an Illinois fan, I'm dreaming of Nevolo and King playing together and helping the Illini win another national championship.

Please let this happen!

Anonymous said...

Colette,
In the zootennis tradition how about a similiar pool as in the past (seperate article).

Winner and runnerup in in US Open juniors boys/girls and US Open Pro tournaments men / women.

Winner gets bragging rights!!

tchermosa said...

Where is Somdev Devvarman? For him not to have a wildcard into the USOPEN, or at the very least into the qualies, is disgraceful of the USTA, if in fact this is how it went down.

Anonymous said...

What happened to the awards for The Zoo this year? I havent seen one on ustaboys.com or here.