US Open Junior Preview; Coin Stuns Ivanovic in Second Round; Checking in with the Harrisons
It what many tennis journalists are calling the greatest tennis upset ever, qualifier Julie Coin of France defeated world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 late this afternoon. The 25-year-old Clemson graduate was expected to go away after being broken at 4-4 in the second set, but she was the player who hit out down 0-40 in the third set and overcame a double fault on her first match point. For Coin's thoughts on the match of her life, see this AP story. UCLA's NCAA doubles champions Tracy Lin and Riza Zalameda made good use of their wild card, advancing to the second round with a straight set win over Arantxa Parra Satonja and Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain this afternoon.
My weekly story for the Tennis Recruiting network is a preview of the US Open Junior Championships, which begin with qualifying on Friday. I haven't been able to find the junior qualifying draws (if anyone tracks them down, please leave a comment), but I do know that Nicole Gibbs has made the semifinals in the ITF Grade 1 in Canada, so she should get a special exemption into the main draw, leaving her qualifying wild card available for someone else.
Two of the U.S. players in the main draw of the juniors, brothers Ryan and Christian Harrison, were profiled today by Steve Pratt for usopen.org.
20 comments:
Colette, here's the address for the qualifying draws:
http://www.playerdevelopment.usta.com/content/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=439128&itype=7419
Devin Britton got in. The last wild card was given to Kandath.
Colette,
Please tell me you're joking. Really, there can't be any 'tennis journalists' who seriously think Coin's win is the biggest upset in history - can there? If there are then, RIP tennis journalism.
Why no mention of Van't Hof and McClune "making good use of their wildcard", Colette?
I should have, you're right. Thanks for mentioning it.
Andrew D:
Agreed that it's a bit early to raise that result to "biggest upset ever," even if confining it just to the US Open, but do you have some other upsets in mind?
I remember what I consider an even bigger one in NY back in 1993 when two-time defending champion Stefan Edberg lost in the second round to Karel Novacek, even if Novacek was a top-20 player at the time.
When Sampras lost to George Bastl at Wimbledon a few years back, that has to rank right up there in upsets. But must admit, this Coin win was huge, in fact when I first read it, I thought it was a misspelling, and it meant "Cohen", so I was thinking Julie Cohen! I had never heard of this girl Coin?
Julie Coin, I followed her when she was at Clemson. She was a stud or I guess studette in college. Couldnt believe she pulled it off.
Collette, I'll give you a great reason why this isnt even close to one of the biggest upsets...Ivanovic is OVERRATED. Shes one of the worst #1 ranked players in the world, EVER. Her ranking is smoke and mirrors based on the fact that Ive never heard a consenus say she was ever the favorite heading into a major. Its a great upset and all, but I dont like when people say things that just happened are the greatest, best, worst, etc.
Austin, agree with you 100% about Ivanovic being overrated. Also, though many players do it, her annoying fist pump, as she stares at her opponant really bothers me. Funny, just hers in particular? Go figure?
Did anyone hear john mcenroe mention ryan and christian today during cilic's match?
Name one top woman player that hasn't had a "bad" loss at a Slam -it happens. I guess she got a lot of defaults to get to number one.
How long until Henin un-retires?
to americantennis
I hope USTA High performace learned a lesson by too much hype with Donald Young and do not make the same mistakes with the Harrisons. I really dont feel we need to read/hear much more at this point about their development/progress, getting very redundant and not sure its good for them.
tennisjunky, not sure Colette will print this, but I agree with you. It cannot be good for these talented youngsters to receive so much attention and hype. Just love the game, (like it seems they do) and go out and play the matches. I would hope that their parents feel the same about the hype aspect.
Tennisjunky, incredible that you would come on this blog(like we all do) and say that you don't want to hear any positive hype about upcoming juniors. why does this blog exist and why do you think we write on here.(just for negative comments) i hope not, so why not actually talk about some positive ones for a change. i think the harrison boys have a lot different upbringing than donald young. they don't seem to have such an air of entitlement which goes a long way toward how you handle pressure and expectations. all this website does is bash american tennis and complain when we hear something good about up and coming jrs. its getting very ridiculous and redundant with this hypocritical attitude about our american kids.
Colette, just 5 Americans girls out of 14 survived to the 1R of Qualies. The scores showed the Americans in the draw are not that good. Most of them are not ready yet to play at high levels. That said, I'm just a bit disappointed by Lauren Embree and Jacqueline Cako, who could have won their matches. While Beatrice Capra did a good job. I saw Lauren fightin' against Kristie Ahn about 5 months ago in a very enjoyable contest. I would never thought Kristie would take the big leap in 5 months and Laurel stay at the same level.
to positive for a change said...
You took my comment way out of context. All I am saying is that the USTA is “Desperately Seeking the Next Sampras” and there is this constant hype surrounding the Harrisons which I don’t think is productive for those kids, sets the bar way to high to live up to. Let them develop because there is just NO way to tell if either will pop through in the pros, especially Christian, way to young. Ryan has not had Young’s results (won first jr slam at 15) at the same age, Young was constantly hyped and has not lived up to all the hype. I am not saying positive press is bad, but a constant stream of hype is a lot to live up to. Ryan and Christian are both very talented but don’t put the cart before the horse. That is all I was saying.
Does this blog exist mainly for the juniors and the parents to read their names and accomplishments? I wonder if this technology was available back in the 70's-90's..I wonder if Mr Mcenroe and his son's, or Mr Sampras, or even Mr Parker (Al) would have been so intent on reading press clippings on the internet. No, this site should not be negative, but it also should not overly glorify junior tennis players. List accomplishments, and compliment them for good results? Yes. Crown them as the next wave of American tennis? No.
Colette,
Peter Doohan's win over a peak condition (and at the hight of his powers) Boris Becker at the 1987 Wimbledon was an infinitely bigger upset. Becker was at the height of his powers (despite only being ) having won the previous two Wimbledons and was considered by many as being near-to unbeatable on grass. As someone else mentioned, Bastl's win over Sampras was also more shocking than Ivanovic's loss. Sampras might have been on a quick trip down hill but after seven Wimbledon wins you didn't expect him to be beaten by someone who, at age 26,had only ever managed to win two matches total at the majors.
Lets face it, Ivanovic was still struggling with her injury. Eight double faults and no aces illustrates that she was still troubled by her thumb. Fully fit she would have won in straight sets. If the injury had been to anything apart from her hand she probably would have won in three. Unfortunately, if you can't grip the racquet properly you can't hit the ball properly (or feel the shot) and you aren't going to win.
Seriously, what about Sharapova's loss to Alla Kudryavtseva? Ivanovic has never proven herself at the US Open, whereas Sharapova has actually won Wimbledon. The reason why no-one carried on about it was that a) it didn't happen in the States and b) we all knew Sharapova was injured.
Anyone saying Ivanovic's loss is the biggest or one of the biggest upsets in tennis history needs to actually read some tennis history. Otherwise, they should hand in their press credentials, grab a bucket and rag and go back to a more appropriate job cleaning the windows of cars stopped at traffic lights.
to steven S
My thoughts exactly...you put it better than I did
To Dumb and Dumber, What juniors and what parents are being referred to when asking if this website exist for juniors and their parents. It is a website for junior tennis. It is for all juniors and their parents and anyone else interested in what is going on in junior tennis. Is something wrong with people giving opinions on who they think are some promising juniors coming up. Are there any juniors in the world that seem to have consistent results that don't get hyped. It is up to the parents and coaches of the players who get a lot of attention to make sure they keep things in perspective. It is us tennis fans who like to voice our opinions on websites like this to say what we feel just as you have. Don't act so jealous of certain ones getting more coverage than others if people want to discuss them. I personally believe there are a bunch of very good American juniors coming up and find it exciting to talk about.
Hi Dumbest. For you to be so defensive in your response leads me to believe you are exactly what I am alluding to. A parent trying to live their life through their kid, or a junior reading his or hers press clippings. Regretfully, you do not see the difference between Colette's very informative topics on matches she watches, or juniors showing good results, AND, as you say, the informative and interesting comments that people make on them on this board, as opposed to the hyping of the Harrison kids (even John Mcenroe is guilty to an extent), and I only use them as an example. Obviously they are great players. But still juniors, and still a long way to go. I hear about IMG, I hear about hitting with Johnny Mac, I read people criticize the younger kid's WC, only because they (and others) are so glorified at such a young age. And on a reverse note, many people on this board are ready to put a nail in the coffin of that Egger kid, because his results have dropped. The Harrison father has posted on this website, and Colette has mentioned they are friends. This leads me to believe that the boys may read the comments as well.
Nothing is wrong with giving opinions of promising juniors coming up. But tennis has enough pressure as it is, and perhaps it would be good thing if these kids just played the match, without being so much aware of the hype, or in the Egger kids case, the expectations he needs to meet. Donald Young is a fine player, and seems to have a bright future, but if you dont think that any of his early hype has had some type of effect on his decisions (and his parents) and progress, then your name you use really does seem appropriate.
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