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Thursday, January 8, 2009

Eight Intriguing Questions; Collins Wins Futures Wild Card; Devvarman Beats Moya; Harrisons Sign with Nike


My annual look ahead--it's hard to believe that I've been doing this piece for five years now--at The Tennis Recruiting Network is entitled Eight Intriguing Questions for 2009. I'm only 92 short of Todd Spiker, of WTA Backspin, who published his Intriguing 100 last week, and those are women's tennis only!

I ran across this press release with the news that 15-year-old Danielle Collins won a wild card tournament for the $25,000 Pro Circuit event in Lutz, Florida, which takes place the week of January 19. I was disappointed that Collins didn't play in the Eddie Herr or Orange Bowl last month, but this result shows she's as competitive as anyone in the state her age.

In second round action in the ATP tournament in Chennai India, two-time NCAA champion Somdev Devvarman caused quite a commotion when he beat No. 6 seed and former world No. 1 Carlos Moya of Spain 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. Already receiving plenty of attention due to his status as India's No. 1 ranked man, the accolades were quick to begin pouring out of the Indian press. This one from the Hindustan Times, which gives Devvarman the nickname AweSom, is a bit over the top; for a more conventional newspaper account, see this article from rediff.com.

And finally, Nick Bollettieri's blog Nick's Picks, reported yesterday that the Harrison brothers had signed an endorsement deal with Nike.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

does this mean that christian has turned pro??

Colette Lewis said...

He and Ryan signed with IMG in November of 2007.

Anonymous said...

collete

Any idea when Ryan will start playing again?

Anonymous said...

Who is more talented, Ryan or Christian?

love-tennis said...

Well, someone extremely close to them told me that Ryan is more talented but less hard-working. Christian is more hard-working but less talented. If you can call his success "less-talented", which no one would! Great kids.

Anonymous said...

I am certified tennis pro with a Professional rating with PTR. I am writing a book on how tennis is taught in the United States.

I have traveled around the country to several tennis academies (Evert,Bollieterri,Braden,VanDemeerand USTA elite players. I took lessons from pros at several different proficiency levels.

Unfortunately, what I found that most pros don't have a clue about teaching the "modern game". It seems that most have not cracked a book since they got certification. Almost none understood the word biomechanics.

Many tennis pros I saw try to tweak the game a player already has and make minor adjustments to a players stroke pattern. During the lesson the pro feeds easy balls and the player shows immediate improvement. They try the same thing during a match on balls not hit easy and right to them and they instinctively go back to their old stroke.
The player thinks that the pro knows best and they just have to practice more. The pro is happy to keep the same person taking lessons week after week after week. I think many pros don't think about what is really happening and think they are doing a great job.

I would be interested in getting the author of this Blog and any reader who wants to comment. If author oks comments can be left on this blog would be fine or you can email me at tomhowto@hotmail.com