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Thursday, October 2, 2008

September Aces; Qualifiers Score Upsets at Riviera All-American; Oudin Downs Brengle Again


It's the first Thursday of the month, so my Tennis Recruiting Network weekly entry is about the most notable performances of the just-concluded month. The U.S. Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup teams lead off, and I want to thank Susan Mullane of CameraworkUSA for supplying me with the celebratory photos of both teams. And with the U.S. success in New York at the junior championships, I didn't have to search hard for additional American aces.

The first round of the Riviera All-American is complete and the top four seeds, as well as four qualifiers, are still in the running for the college tennis season's first major title. Freshmen qualifiers Chelsey Gullickson of Georgia and Irina Falconi of Georgia Tech continue to impress, earning their fourth wins of the week today. Gullickson, who has not lost a set nor more than five games in any of her wins, defeated No. 8 seed Lenka Broosova of Baylor. Qualifier Laura Gioia of Furman, a senior, surprised No. 5 seed Amanda Fink of USC, but none could top Miami sophomore Bianca Eichkorn, who, as a pre-qualifier, has won seven matches since last Saturday. For complete draws, see the ITA website. The men's D'Novo All-American prequalifying begins Friday.

The Pro Circuit this week has the women at a $50,000 event in Troy, Alabama, and today Madison Brengle and Melanie Oudin engaged in a rematch of their quarterfinal encounter at the U.S. Open juniors, which Oudin won 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. It also took three sets today, but Oudin again got the better of Brengle, 7-5, 1-6, 6-1, and will now face the No. 4 seed, 149th ranked Catalina Castano of Columbia, who beat Lauren Embree in straight sets. The only other junior in the quarterfinals is Anna Tatishvili, the Evert-trained 18-year-old from Georgia, who hasn't played a junior event in a very long time. Both U.S. Open junior finalists qualified in Troy, but CoCo Vandeweghe and Gabriela Paz both lost in the first round of the main draw. For complete results, visit the Pro Circuit results page.

The men are in Laguna Niguel, California for a $10,000 Futures, and there are no juniors remaining there, but two teams of recent college graduates will face off for the doubles title. Ryan Rowe (Illinois) and Colt Gaston (LSU) will meet Sheeva Parbhu (Notre Dame) and Treat Huey (Virginia).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Colette,

Madison Brengle's results seem to have stalled over the last 12 months. What do you think is holding her back?

Colette Lewis said...

I think fitness is an area she needs to address. Once Bethanie Mattek dedicated herself to being as fit as possible, it gave her a big boost, and I think Brengle could reap benefits from that kind of regimen too.