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Friday, January 23, 2009

Vickery Defeats Duval for Teen Tennis Title; Cercone Qualifies for Australia Jrs., Domijan Reaches Hollywood Semis


Thirteen-year-old Sachia Vickery, the top seed, won the Aegon Teen Tennis girls championship, beating fellow Floridian and Bollettieri protege Vicky Duval, the No. 8 seed, 6-4, 7-5 at the prestigious 14-and-under event in Bolton, England. Nikola Milosevic of Serbia, also the top seed, took the boys title, with a 6-1, 6-3 decision over No. 6 seed Evan Hoyt of Great Britain. For complete results, see the LTA results page. The 14-and-under action now shifts to Tarbes, France, where Les Petits As began today with the opening round of qualifying. The website features live scoring once the main draw action begins on Tuesday.

Qualifying is complete at the Australian Open Juniors, and Alexandria Cercone of Seminole, Florida, who was the No. 4 seed, advanced to the main draw with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Tamara Curovic of Serbia. Cercone joins Lauren Embree, Beatrice Capra, Ester Goldfeld and Christina McHale in the main draw, which begins on Sunday. Nadiya Kichenok of Ukraine and Spain's Pablo Carreno-Busta won the singles titles at the Grade 1 Nottinghill. For complete results, see the Tennis Australia website.

In the Men's $10,000 Pro Circuit event in Hollywood, Florida, Alex Domijan has reached the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Tihomir Grozdanov of Bulgaria. The draws for this tournament, the women's $25K in Lutz and the qualifying for the men's $10K in Plantation are available at the Pro Circuit results page at usta.com.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand it is expensive to travel Down Under, but seriously, only one boy playing? Is that more about cost and desire or is it an accurate reflection of where we are right now?

Anonymous said...

It's not even close to an accurate reflection of the state of U.S. junior tennis, Austin.

Alex Domijan, Ryan Harrison, Chase Buchanan, Devin Britton, Rhyne Williams, Denis Kudla, Tennys Sandgren, Evan King, Bo Seal, Matthew Kandath, Jordan Cox, Bob Van Overbeek, Junior Ore, Raymond Sarmiento, J.T. Sundling, Sekou Coker Bangoura, and Denis Lin all could have entered the Australian Open if they had wanted to. (In Rhyne Williams' case, his ranking wasn't high enough, but that's only because he basically stopped playing juniors a year ago.)

Anonymous said...

David

The cut off for the main draw of the Aussie Open was 141 for year end rankings. So, Junior Ore, Raymond Sarmiento, J.T. Sundling, Sekou Coker Bangoura, and Denis Lin would NOT have been directly accepted to the main draw and would have had to qualify, which can be iffy and not worth the trip. Not sure why the USTA did not send a team, especially when they send a group of 14 year-olds to France and the UK, a predominately European tournament, which none of the top Latin American players or Australian players find worthwhile to go, and I don’t see how that really helps player development because except for that rare exception like Christian Harrison there to many variables to predict at 14 who will really be good at 16 or 17. So, why the USTA blows off a junior grand slam, which they also did last year as well, is beyond me. All these kids are good enough to compete, so why not give them the chance. I could understand why Domijan and Buchanan would not go because they are doing so well in the futures but the rest it would be a great experience in terms of their development, which is why most other countries with far less resources send teams.

Anonymous said...

tennisjunky, I didn't say they all would have received direct entry into the main draw.

I disagree about the value of tournaments like Teen Tennis and Les Petits. They have arguably the best draws all year in the 14-and-under division, despite the fact that few Latin Americans show up. Playing elite competition is always valuable. Yes, it's true that success at that level is not an extremely reliable predictor of pro success, but nevertheless, the players at those tournaments represent a high percentage of the best players in that age group at the current time. I also suspect that there's a higher correlation between success at Les Petits and success in the pros than at any other 14-and-under tournament.

Anonymous said...

hi david

respectfully disagree. the orange bowl has the toughest draw 14 draw bar now with a large qualifer and gets a higher % of the top kids for all countries. TOmic won it in 12s and 14s and never went to les petite etc. my point is more key to send a team to the Aussie Open when these kids have more to show than teen tennis. thats it , or do both but not teen tenis over the aussie open

Anonymous said...

IMO, I think the reason why the USTA isn't bringing the boys over to the Aussie is because they are slowly transitioning into futures. The girls have all established decent rankings, but the boys are a bit far behind. And, recently, Evan King qualified into the md of one of the past events, so maybe he is in the right place. Some of the others, maybe they should have gone down under. But maybe they want to make it big time and get a head start (or actually, a late start) on professional tennis.

Anonymous said...

abc

Am I missing a step here? Transitioning to the futures, what does that mean, win a round or two in the qualies of a 10K. What does that show? Unless you can get deep in the main draw like Buchanan or Domijan I don’t see the value to blow off a jr. slam when these kids can play futures all year. King qualied but lost in the first round. How about giving the kid a change to see if he could win the Aussie Jrs. Why not see if any one of them could dominate a jr slam, which I doubt any could at this point except for maybe King, Kulda, Domijan or Buchanan, but it makes sense for Domijan and Buchanan to play futures anyway as they have taken a leap in their game. Of course there is Ryan Harrison, but not sure when he will be competing again. There is no pressure for a 17 year old to win a few rounds in a 10K qualie rather then go to jr slam and compete at a level when they are EXPECTED to win because they are competing with the best in their age. France believes it is important to send their top juniors and believe me there track record at producing top ATP men is much better stronger than the USTA

bullfrog said...

tennisjunky, you are spot on....

bullfrog said...

On the girls side, all the top players played ITF juniors and especially the slams (ie, Kleybanova, Radwanska, Cibulkova, Azarenka...) They didn't try to skip this and play ITF Pro Circuits to get to the top. Huge mistake by USTA by promoting this route. Tennisjunky is so right...winning a few rounds in a Pro Circuit means nothing...advancing in draws against your peers is truly a developmental experience.

Anonymous said...

tennisjunky-

I agree with you as well. I'm just trying to look at this situation from the USTA point of view, not saying that this outlook is correct.