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Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Qualifying Complete at All-American; ITF Grade A Osaka Cup Underway

©Colette Lewis 2008--
Tulsa, OK--
Matches begin at 8 a.m. on Thursday at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, so this will be a brief post on the final day of qualifying, which was over before we arrived this evening.

Ohio State's Shuhei Uzawa won his sixth straight match, three in pre-qualifying and three in qualifying, to earn a spot in the main draw today and he is joined by teammate Balazs Novak. Two other schools also placed two players in the main draw via qualifying--Stanford with Bradley Klahn and Richard Wire advancing, and Virginia, with Houston Barrick and Michael Shabaz getting through. The team with the most qualifiers however was Ole Miss with three: Jonas Berg, Bram Ten Berge and Halle Norberg. I'll be trying my best to keep them all straight, but that's a lot of bergs to keep track of.

Doubles qualifying followed the singles morning matches, and eight teams advanced, most of them from the state of Texas.

TCU placed two teams in the main, as did UT-Austin, and Rice chipped in with one. The other three were from Pepperdine (Altmann and Beidas, the No. 1 seeds), Auburn and Nebraska. The Cornhusker team of David Bendheim and Calin Paar ousted No. 2 seeds Allare and O'Connell of Ohio State 9-7, the only match of the eight to play more than 13 games.

For complete results, and Thursday's main draws in singles and doubles, see the ITA tournament site.

The ITF Grade A Osaka Mayors Cup is underway in Japan, and unlike last year, when Ryan Harrison won it and Bo Seal made the semifinals, there is no American presence at all on the boys side. In fact the only boys from North or South America in the draw are Canadians Kelsey Stevenson and Milos Raonic. The only U.S. girl to make the trip was Noel Scott, who lost in the first round.

For complete draws, visit the ITF junior website.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

As for Osaka , pathetic that there is no US representation. Clearly the USTA does not put a premium on its players competing internationally. Canada can send to players but the US none? I guess USTA high performance finds it more important to take teams to ITFs in the US which are not much difference than a boys 18 USTA national open. Personally dont see much piont to that. No wonder most do not do well internationally because they only play each other.

Anonymous said...

Tennisjunky--

YOU WROTE: Clearly the USTA does not put a premium on its players competing internationally.

ANSWER: The USTA sends players on 4other Grade A international trips: Casablanca (Mexico), Australia, French, and Wimbledon. Also the junior davis cup teams (twice a year). They also take trips to Les Petite As and Teen Tennis. And I'm sure you are also aware the USTA just took a junior team to Spain last month during the Davis Cup Tie to compete against Spanish juniors. I could keep going on more international trips, but I'll stop now. Please do some research before blaming the USTA.

Apparently, you don't realize the high level of the ITF-Tulsa tournament that starts on Monday. That is certainly NOT the level of a Boys 18 National Open. Also keep in mind, the older players do take college trips in the Fall. If I was a parent and had to choose between Tulsa or Osaka, I'd choose Tulsa for financial reasons, especially with the high airline prices and stock market situation. Or is that the USTA's fault as well?

Relax on your venegance of the usta. I'm sure your critical blog is aimed at private coaches, parents, and academies as well for not sending their US juniors to Osaka.

love-tennis said...

Colette,
Do you know what happened in the Noel Scott match? Was it even close? Whew, long way to go.

Anonymous said...

To runningforehand...

Respectfully disagree with you.

The USTA, and correct me if I am wrong, did not send a team to the Grade A in Brazil last spring or compete in any of the cosat circuit which players come from all over the world to compete on the red clay. The USTA did not send a team to the Grade A in Italy, also in the spring, and was under the impression that players who went to the Australia Open last January went on their own. In fact, our top players play less high level ITF tournaments internationally than any of the top tennis countries BARE NONE. I do think our top kids should have been given the opportunity to play Osaka, as that is the tournament where both Harrison and Seal made their breakthrough last year. Canada managed to send a couple of players, as did Russia, Great Britain and Croatia. We have so few US players in the top 100 ITF because our kids are not given the opportunity to compete at that level. Yes the economy is in bad shape now but these decisions were made long before the stock market started dropping, it’s more the USTA’s philosophy.

Anonymous said...

Hope the Harrison's give kid time to heal. If not than oh well. As far as Osaka, it was a nothing tournament when he won it and it is nothing now. He should have competed in the ITF America. Than we could see if he was worthy.

Anonymous said...

Texas Dude: Be serious, To win the Osaka tournament Harrison beat the Yang kid who is the current Wimbledon champion and 2 months after that beat the champion from Tulsa in the 2nd rd. of the Orange Bowl. You clearly didn't look at his players record too good.