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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Nine Questions with Julia Boserup; Fratangelo Commits to High School Tennis; College Surprise of the Week

When Julia Boserup won the Orange Bowl in December, I had an opportunity to talk with her for SMASH magazine, in a regular feature I prepare for them, "Five Questions With..." Unfortunately, a last-minute ad led to cancellation of the story, which was scheduled to appear in the Spring issue. I didn't want the opportunity for a wider audience for her remarks to pass by, however, so I recently asked her about her Fed Cup practice partner stint and the story has resurfaced as Nine Questions, which is my weekly post for The Tennis Recruiting Network.


The Naples Daily News today published a feature story on 15-year-old Bjorn Fratangelo, the Pittsburgh, Pa. native who recently moved to Naples to train full time there and will play high school tennis for Barron Collier. There are several errors in it (not counting the typo in the headline): the Orange Bowl is in December of course, and Fratangelo lost in the third round of the 16s there after getting in as a lucky loser. (Attempts to get the newspaper to correct these mistakes have been unsuccessful). And his national title this "past January" was January 2008, when Fratangelo won the Winter Nationals 14s. But I did learn something that I forgot to ask Bjorn myself when I spoke to him after his win at the Tennis Plaza Cup last month. His first name is indeed after the Swedish superstar of the 70s and early 80s who won 11 Grand Slam titles.

And perhaps I'll start a Surprise College Result of the Week designation. It isn't the No. 14 ranked Clemson women's 4-3 win over Georgia Tech in the ACC opener for both teams yesterday, even if the Tigers' No. 1, Ani Mijacika, didn't play. No, this week's surprise is the No. 69 SMU women's 5-2 win in Fayetteville over No. 17 Arkansas. The Razorbacks' superstar, Aurelija Miseviciute, did play, and lost in a third set tiebreaker to the Mustangs' No. 1, freshman Marta Lesniak of Poland, a name to watch for this spring. SMU certainly had Arkansas outnumbered--they have 12 players on their roster, compared to six for the Razorbacks. For the complete story, see the SMU website.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Julia is really good. I think she will def be top 50 WTA. I hope she stays focused and determined. I think it is a good sign she is going to forgo college. It takes that single mindedness to make it big. I would hate to see her dilute her talents. Good luck Julia.

Anonymous said...

Julia did not only play two junior tournaments in 2008. In addition to the US Open and the Orange Bowl, Julia played in the USTA Girls' 18 National Championships. She placed fourth.

love-tennis said...

I am newer to the college tennis scene. Why do some of these coaches only have 6 kids on their roster? Most have 8 scholarships for girls so why don't they at least have 8? Or does that mean just 6 healthy kids and the others are injured?

Colette Lewis said...

Brett--
You are right, of course. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I will have it corrected to say ITF tournaments.

Anonymous said...

what about texas tech women over tcu. texas tech with 4 texans in the singles lineup and an interim coach!

Anonymous said...

Clemson was missing 2 girls. Van Adrichem is out too. A big question is what is going on with GT's McDowell? She does not seem to be playing with the same confidence & has lost a number of matches this spring. One comment about the match that would turn out to be the decider team-wise. McDowell was down 7-5 & 4-0 but Balda seemed to start feeling the nerves trying to close it out & McDowell played more aggressively, bringing it back to 4-4. McDowell was serving with all the momentum. At 30-30, Balda hits a forehand down the line just wide I'm a CU fan & I could see the mark/fuzz on the court. It happened right in front of Kristi Miller who was sitting on AM's bench. Well the ref on the other side of the court over rules. McDowell is beside herself & stands over the mark which in this case is clearly visible. She waits until the ref can be replaced. Jim Russell comes to sit in the chair. But she's lost all momentum & Balda regroups to break & then serve it out. Not that the call determined the match but it came at a critical juncture when AM was rolling. Not that I know much & it was just one match, but McDowell's confidence seemed shaky. Didn't look like the player she was last May. Hope she turns it around

scott said...

love-tennis,

I'm also amazed at the lack of roster sizes, with most schools having 8 scholarships. I'm a Florida fan and they only have 6 on roster(well, they just added 2 walk-ons, but neither would've ever been considered to play at Florida. The Gators are just desperate with injuries). In Florida's case, they had their top 2 transfer after last year, but the coach should've known at least one was leaving, he's had a transfer every year he's been there. At a place like Florida, to not fill up your scholarships and have depth, it's pretty sad. They are in for a very long year.

scott said...

Florida women lost to Florida State 5-2 today, the first time they've ever lost to the Seminoles. I think Thornqvist is living on borrowed time at UF. More than just the struggles on the court this season, the alarming trend of losing players to transfer, year in and year out, says there is something going on behind the scenes. Even if the transfers all left on good terms, it's pretty unusual to lose so many players over the last 6 years. When you're filling your roster with 2 walk ons, one who was unsuccessful at Georgia Southern and another who was a 3 star coming out of high school, you've got issues.