Signing Week Has Begun; King and Keys Win in Boca; Robson Takes First Pro Title; Forood Questions ITA Indoor
Signing Day is Wednesday, and The Tennis Recruiting Network is keeping track of the blizzard of announcements and decisions as seniors make formal commitments to join a school. Three of the most recent choices have Bo Seal to Georgia, Danielle Lao to USC and Rachael White to Illinois. Check out their coverage all week, and I'll be linking to my story on Kate Turvy's decision on Wednesday.
Top seed Evan King, who announced his commitment to Michigan on Thursday, won his first ITF singles title yesterday, defeating No. 2 seed Frank Carleton in the final of the ITF Grade 4 in Boca Raton. King and Raymond Sarmiento also won the doubles championship. Madison Keys, who at 13 is three years younger than King, collected her second ITF singles title in Boca Raton, where she trains at the Evert Tennis Academy. Keys, the No. 6 seed, beat unseeded Grace Min in the singles final and captured the doubles title as well, with Hana Tomljanovic. For complete draws, see the TennisLink site.
Fourteen-year-old Laura Robson, who like Madison Keys, is an Eddie Herr 12s champion, won her first ITF Women's Circuit event in Great Britain. It was a $10,000 tournament with a great many British juniors in the field, so it isn't a remarkable win, but it will boost her WTA ranking regardless. Mark Mark Hodgkinson of the Daily Telegraph has this report.
I'm not done with National Indoor--there will be a slideshow Tuesday and a wrap for the Tennis Recruiting Network next week--but for those of you who missed this link posted in a comment, Stanford Women's head coach Lele Forood is. Calling it a "boycott," the Stanford Daily explains the academic and economic reasons that Hilary Barte and Jessica Nguyen declined to participate in this year's event.
7 comments:
Big coincidence that Forood decides to take a stand when Stanford doesn't have any genuine female contender for either singles or doubles? No way she'd have said the same thing when she had Erin Burdette, Theresa Logar, Ann Yelsey and Alice Barnes in the lineup. Barte and Nguyen arent in that league so its easy to be pious when you know you've got nothing to lose.
Totally agree w/ Marsh ... Nguyen didn't play regional so would not have qualified anyway. And pretty unprofessional to take shots at a tournament Stanford has benefitted greatly from in the past through your school newspaper.
I second that . Also in the article she mentioned about funds as one of the issue . Stanford - worry about additional funds for indoor tournament ? A rich private school worry about funds - don't think so . Clayton was there .
Also interesting that it is a school that pretty much plays outdoors year round questioning an indoor event. Doesn't this basically disregard the high quality Big 10 & other "cold weather" schools who play indoors for a good part of the year
Stanford trying to find excuses, is not good enough .
The rest of the other participants were full time student-athletes, and manage to tacked tennis and academics . That's all I have to say about that .
For a big time program like Stanford, questioning the indoor event-is a slap in the face, for an organization like the ITA , who is college tennis biggest advocate .
hahahahhaha, ive been thinking the same thing since i found out they didnt participate, glad to see others think the same thing. They have a valid point, but its the same setup when Stanford was dominating and still participated.
Ive also noticed a few traditional matchups have been severed in recent years when the teams that have always had the advantage are not as good anymore. Coincidence???
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