Update on Rain Delay at Spring Nationals and Other News
©Colette Lewis 2009--
Mobile, AL
The bulk of the rain appears to be moving out, and the plan remains to finish the eight boys first round singles matches in progress and play the second round singles matches. Even with 60 courts, this will make for a late night, and I'm not sure how much time I'll have to do a review tonight. So look for some Twitter updates, and perhaps a short summary of the highlights of the night action.
In the meantime, there are a few items I wanted to post while they are still timely. The first is the Tennis Recruiting Network's schedule for the upcoming spring signing period, with coverage beginning this coming Thursday. During all this rain, I've been able to work on one of the live announcements coming out the first full week of April, an assignment that has helped make the hours in the hotel room a bit more productive these past few days.
The USTA's website is featuring a short video on Ryan Lipman, one of the Talbert Sportsmanship Award winners, and a College Spotlight feature on Northwestern's Lauren Lui. After a week off, the U.S. Pro Circuit action resumes in Redding, Calif., where the women are contesting a $25,000 event. Among those playing in qualifying are Nicole Gibbs, Christina McHale, Anna Orlik and Ajla Tomljanovic. Laura Granville is returning to action after a long absence, and yesterday defeated Jacqueline Cako in the first round of qualifying. See the Pro Circuit page for complete results.
Charleston's The Post and Courier recently featured a brief article about local junior Shelby Rogers's trip to Costa Rica, where she was a semifinalist in the ITF Grade 3 there.
And finally, please check out the new spring merchandise at the Tennis Warehouse, via the link at the top of the sidebar. Purchases made through that link help pay my travel bills, and I appreciate your support!
3 comments:
Thanks Colette... Ryan Lipman is a great kid. Thanks for sharing that video.
Collete the spring nationals is beyond a joke. It is by far the weakest 18's supernational to ever occur. I thought winters was on the weaker side for supernationals and this is not even close to the level of that tournament. The usta national rankings are going to be so messed up from tournaments like this. I dont even know if there is a kid in the draw that will stand a chance at easter bowl. I guess in the long run it wont really make a difference. I think gold balls should be awarded with easter bowl still being as its only americans and the spring nationals should be eliminated or taken down to a lower grade.
I think the weak fields in the Spring and Winter Supernationals as well as the recent National Opens are an unfortunate consequence of the focus juniors and college coaches are placing on the tennisrecruiting head to head rankings.
Tennisrecruiting is a great website, providing a great service but perhaps some thought should be given to aligning the two ranking systems with tennisrecruiting providing a ppr ranking system by graduating class which would not undermine the usta system.
While the head to head system may be marginally more accurate its clear that a ppr system encourages more play and less avoidance within the junior ranks.
Post a Comment