Krajicek Named Davis Cup Hitting Partner; U.S. Teens Go 0-3 Tuesday at U.S. Open
US Boys 18s champion Austin Krajicek, who finally takes the court for his first round men's main draw match against Argentina's Agustin Calleri Wednesday morning, has been selected as a Davis Cup hitting partner by U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe. The defending champions have a tough test in next month's semifinal tie in Spain, and world No. 1 Rafael Nadal is expected to anchor the team, although the players competing for both countries have yet to be officially announced. Krajicek decided against competing in the U.S. Open Junior championships once he received McEnroe's invitation, as the time commitment for the three tournaments (main draw, juniors and Davis Cup) would have proved too difficult to juggle with his classes at Texas A & M, which started this week.
Although four of the men's wild cards do not play until Wednesday, the last of the U.S. women's wild cards exited on Tuesday when Gail Brodsky, Melanie Oudin and Jamea Jackson lost. Brodsky held a set point against No. 13 seed Agnes Szavay in the opening set, but was defeated by the Hungarian 7-5, 6-3. The New York Daily News filed this story on Brodsky's loss.
Qualifier Kristie Ahn got some television coverage on USA Network early this afternoon when she took on No. 6 seed and Olympic silver medalist Dinara Safina in Armstrong Stadium. Safina looked less than her best, but Ahn, the tournament's youngest player, impressed commentator Tracy Austin with her shot selection and fighting spirit in the 6-3, 6-4 loss. Usopen.org provided this coverage of the Ahn - Safina match.
Melanie Oudin had the least daunting opponent of the three teens in fellow wild card Jessica Moore of Australia, but Moore, 18, took a 7-6(5), 7-6(5) decision. Jamea Jackson also lost, in three sets, to No. 27 seed Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine.
The women's and mixed doubles draws are posted. See usopen.org for all draws, and check collegeandjuniortennis.com for Marcia Frost's coverage of the Open.
19 comments:
According to John McEnroe, brother Patrick is trying to get Jose Higueras aboard the USTA Elite Player Development... any thoughts?
I was at the USO today. Kristie Ahn played well and kept her composure. She played some great points, showed her game. Oudin and Moore matched up very well against each other. They both strike the ball well and are mentally tough competitors. Moore's serve is bigger and she gets free points with it. Oudin's 2nd serve needs work, it cost her the match when Moore jumped on it down the stretch.
How about Trojan Kae's V and McClune winning first round of dubs today . I wonder how much they get in the first round ?
I think Higueras would be a great addition. I also heard from watching the Open, that Patrick is now going to coach Roddick? Good move for Roddick, but geez, Patrick M sure does have alot on his plate. His brother listed:
1) Twins on the way
2) Davis cup coach
3) Career as tennis commentator
4) In charge of USTA High Performance
5) coaching Roddick
talk about a busy life!
To nadalforgold said.
if Patrick M has all you say on his plate that does not bode well for a High Performance makeover for juniors. He will be more a jack of all trades and not have the focus to make real changes. Very discouraging. I was never a fan of his promotion anyway, thought he was too much of an insider. What USTA hibgh perfomance needs is an injection for fresh blood, new insights and no ties to the current players.
I agree with tennisjunky,
coaching Roddick is a full time job (emphasis added)
head of USTA High Performance is a full time job (emphasis added)
you can do other things when you coach the Davis Cup - but not what he has on his plate.
There just is no way -he will not be able to do justice to any of those very tough jobs, and all of those jobs will suffer.
Once again the USTA and Roddick are headed in the wrong direction.
Roddick did his best with Gilbert - but both are difficult to deal with -especially when they are together. They are both a handful.
Why wasn't someone like Gilbert considered for the High Performance job? Was he still with Murray at the time? I personally think he's one of the best coaches in the world, and a great judge of talent- his players win.
And don't forget, coaching Roddick isn't necesarily a full-time job. Connors wasn't there all the time, and he still has his brother with him alot.
As far as making changes, at least it seems he cleaned house in Carson in regards to women coaches, leaving the only good one (Ruffels). However, also agree with tennisjunky. Seems a tall task to be able to focus on everything he has going.
I love how right now were watching Kuznetsova on Ashe and Davydenko on Armstrong. Those are two REAL BIG crowd pleasers. Is everyone catching my sarcasim here, cause Im laying it on pretty thick. Baffles me. Just plain baffles me. I bet half the people watching her right now have no clue she has even won this tournament before. Least they coulda done was put Ginepri-Delic first-on instead of Davydenko. I bet the ratings are soaring for USA these first couple hours, haha.
Roddick or Blake need to hook up with Darren Cahill. If one of them did Im guaranteeing shooting up to #4 in the world and winning a grand slam within 18 months, especially Blake.
at the open and saw Agustin Calleri demolishing of Krajicek, just again shows the huge gap/leap between college and the pros. Good to hear Krajicek named hitting partner
tennisjunky -- Do you mean that huge gap that Becker, Isner, Anderson, Levine, and (soon) Devvarman have demonstrated by shooting up the rankings into the top-100 shortly after graduating college? *insert sarcasm*
age-wise Krajicek is really just finished being a junior because he graduated early and went to a and m. his loss to calleri definitely demonstrates the gap between a top junior and a top 50 atp player. there is also a gap between top college players and top 50 atp players too, to be fair to tennis junky.
atl tennis - Krajicek played mainly #2 & #3 last year for A&M and did not finish the year ranked among the top-125 players in Division I.
Isner, Anderson, and Devvarman all beat top-50 players within their first few months out of college.
And I could throw in Amer Delic, who had match points against Paradorn Srichaphan (ranked #11 at the time) at Indianapolis, and lost 5-7 in the 5th set to Sargsian (#52) at the US Open within his first few months on the tour.
There is not a "huge gap" between the *top* college players and top-50 ATP players.
I see your point Stephen. I guess I was thinking of the top college players to mean top 50 or so. But, you are right the very top end (top 3 or 5 or so, every year) of college players are not that far off.
I don't think it's even top 3-5 every year, though. It's more like top 1-2 in most years -- guys like Delic, Reynolds, Becker, Isner, Levine, and Devvarman who can compete with top-50 ATP players.
It's a small number, but they are there.
Some guys who are NCAA champs (and even 2-time champs) like Boeker or Dortsch are never competitive at that level.
To Stephen...
Not being sarcastic at all, just noting there is a big gap/leap from top college to the top 100 pros, you read into it much to much, which is why very few make the leap before a few years or year at college... It would have been great for Krajicek to win that match and have the OPen be his breakthrough tourney...
tennisjunky - I didn't take your comment as sarcastic. I was just pointing out that the very top players in college tennis have been competitive at that level lately, so I was questioning the "huge gap" statement.
If you're talking about the majority of college players, then yes there is a huge gap. But since there are only 50 top-50 players in the world (redundant, I know), it is difficult for anyone to reach that level, not just NCAA players.
Kohleffel would have been in that group had he cared, but he was quite open his senior year that he did not wish to continue onto the pro level. He was Kevin Anderson, but with a little better game.
Matty Boeker not panning out was fairly surprising. Another underachiever has been Jesse Witten. He has done nothing in the past few years. I was really hoping he could break through.
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