Diaz, Salazar Win USOC Coaching Awards; USTA National Junior Team Beats University of Miami
University of Georgia men's coach Manny Diaz has been named USOC National Coach of the Year for tennis and Frank Salazar of the Junior Tennis Champions Center has been honored as the Developmental Coach of the Year for tennis, according to this press release from the USTA. Rita Gladstone and Anne Smith were also honored for their contributions to the game.
This afternoon at the University of Miami's Neil Schiff Tennis Center, the USTA National Junior team defeated the Hurricanes 6-1 in an exhibition match. I'll have more details about this new concept in my February 12th Tennis Recruiting Network article, but I'll pass along the scores and lineups. Those familiar with the Hurricanes will note that Daniel Vallverdu and David Rosenfeld did not play in singles. Rosenfeld, who did play in doubles, is just coming back from surgery. Vallverdu had a recurrence of the shoulder injury that took him out of the Indoor last fall, and is not yet ready to return.
Doubles:
No. 1 Ryan Lipman & Rhyne Williams (USTA) def. Christian Blocker & David Simon 8-3
No. 2 Keith Crowley & Rosenfeld def. Evan King & Raymond Sarmiento (USTA) 9-7(4)
No. 3 Bob van Overbeek & Nathan Pasha (USTA) def. Carl Sundberg & Ignacio Taboada 8-6
Singles:
No. 1 Williams def. Blocker 7-5, 6-1
No. 2 Lipman def. Taboada 6-4, 6-2
No. 3 King def. Simon 6-0, 6-4
No. 4 van Overbeek def. Sundberg 6-2, 6-1
No. 5 Sarmiento def. Crowley 7-5, 6-4
No. 6 Hector Nieto def. Pasha in three sets 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(4)
Order of finish:
4, 5, 2*, 3, 1, 6
*clinched match
This story on the Miami website was published prior to today's match. Although former Miami men's coach Jay Berger was there, the USTA's head of men's tennis was probably more in the mode of a volunteer assistant. National coach Mike Sell was in charge of the team.
10 comments:
Colette, Is the USTA National Team that played today in Miami the same group of kids the USTA is taking to Barcelona next week to train and play Futures? I am very encouraged that Patrick McEnroe and Jose Higueras are getting our juniors training on red clay in Spain.
Four of the six are going to Spain. Buchanan and Kudla are going; King and Lipman are not.
I can't quibble with the USTA for taking Buchanan, Williams, Van Overbeek, Kudla and the two kids in their program to Barcelona. I do wish the group could be larger and they could include Domijan, Sandgren and Cox.
US National Team? I believe you are using that phrase loosely and inaccurately in that Lipman, Pasha , VanOverbeek may train at the USTA center in Boca but none of those juniors are on the USTA national team or have represented the US in an official capacity (Jr Davis Cup etc) Rather this was an exhibition match of juniors organized by the USTA to play Miami. Congrads to the juniors but this blog needs to accurately report….
To the old pro,
Doubt Domijan would go and was probably was invited. Also would not be surprised if Cox was asked but declined as well. Or how about Kandath ,Junior Ore or Fowler? Kandath almost took out the number 1 player in world at the Orange Bowl, beat Sandgren at Eddie Herr, destroyed Pasha in S. Carolina . Ore is very naturally athletic/ talented and beat VanOverbeek at Yucatan. Or, Fowler. Results not consistent, but still ITF 30. Semis at Yucatan (last US boy and a bunch played) and beat Julean Urigan, semis of Grade A in Casablanca (again last US boy and bunch played) and lost to Urigan in 3. With his athleticism/speed would not count him out either. Cleary USTA is taking players who train, who have trained with them(VanIverbeek, Pasha, Sarmiento Williams, Buchanan) or been on the National Team (Kudla), which makes sense if there is a small group and don’t see a way around that.
Just curious. Does anybody know if Emmett Egger is still training with USTA in Boca? Great kid, and hope his game is coming along!
thanks
I stand by my characterization of the boys as a National team. This is required by the NCAA regulations, so I don't think there is any ambiguity about the term.
In no way did i intend my post to be critical of any of the kids that the USTA is taking to Barcelona. I was only expressing my personal opinion that there are additional older kids in the junior/pro transition age group that would also benefit from the trip. i'm not concerned with individual match results as opposed to a body of work, with the emphasis on those results at the professional, futures or futures qualies level, with an eye towards upside. The upside being a combination (minimum 2, probably need 3) of obvious potential weapons that will be weapons at the ATP level and having the athleticism to take advantage of those weapons. the kids the USTA is taking have also shown plenty in the way of results to show that they have the ability to compete at a high level. These kids will have ups and downs, but the ups are way more important at this point in suggesting potential. They are still juniors, so they will have downs and slumps. All of this being said, after watching all of the kids being mentioned in these posts on numerous occasions, the USTA has pretty clearly gotten it right from the perspective of upside, especially if Domijan and Cox were invited but declined.
For everyone here, a copuple facts if anybody is interested.
1. cox was invited and declined.
2. emmett egger is no longer training at the usta training center.
Last thing. I totally agree with floridatennis. It is too bad they can only take a small group. All the players you mentioned would be great additions to the group.
To tennis
As we are only talking about a total of maybe 10 to 12 juniors ages 15-17, it would be great if the USTA would take two groups to support the development of all these players equally. Perhaps at some point under the new regime they will get the value of that.
And to the old pro, as for the USTA getting it right, the only two juniors that have shown consistent results really competing at the futures level are Domijan and Buchanan. I am not saying that any one of the others mentioned in this blog won't, but that is yet to be determined who it will be, and hopefully it will be a few of them, and, for that matter, there are no guarantees that Domijan or Buchanan will be successful at the Challenger level.
All I am saying is that no-one knows who will crack the top 50 or even the top 100 until it happens and all these kids have had some pretty good results so the USTA should support all of them. We can't forget all the hype/promise about Donald Young, article after article, and he very very gifted and still he is still hanging out at 133. It's really tough to pop through and the USTA needs to support all its promising players because we are not taking about a large group considering the resources of the USTA. That is all I am saying.
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