Top Boys Seed Joins Rafa on French Sidelines; Mixed Results for U.S. Juniors
Rafael Nadal isn't the only No. 1 to, as the British say, "crash out" of the French Open Sunday, although the Spaniard was certainly the more surprising one. Boys No. 1 seed Liang-Chi Huang of Chinese Taipei lost to Richard Becker of Germany in three sets in the opening round of the French Open Junior Championships. It was deja vu for Huang, who also drew Becker in the opening round of the Australian Juniors in January, and also won the first set before dropping the final two. Most of Huang's points, which have earned him the No. 4 position in the junior world rankings, have been accumulated in Asia, so unlike Nadal, he was not a favorite to win in Paris, especially since he is still looking for his first single victory in a junior Grand Slam.
Another top junior still seeking a Slam victory is seventh seed Lauren Embree, who lost to 14-year-old Nastja Kolar of Slovenia 6-3, 7-6(5). The other two seeded U.S. junior girls won; qualifier Sloane Stephens (15) the Italian Open girls champion who has yet to lose a junior match in 2009, convincingly beat Quirine Lemoine of the Netherlands 6-1, 6-1 and Christina McHale (14) defeated qualifier Martina Trevisan of Italy 7-6(4), 6-2. Unseeded Beatrice Capra earned her first junior slam win with a 7-6(2), 6-3 decision over wild card Charlotte Rodier of France. Qualifier Mallory Burdette lost to Daria Gavrilova of Russia 6-3, 6-4.
Of the six U.S. boys seeing action today, four lost: NCAA champion Devin Britton to No. 11 seed Gianni Mina of France 6-0, 6-4, Evan King to Frederico Gaio of Italy 6-4, 6-4, qualifier Jordan Cox to Renzo Olivo of Argentina 6-3, 6-3, and Mitchell Frank to Filip Horansky of Slovakia 6-7(5), 6-4, 8-6. No. 13 seed Tennys Sandgren, who has been practicing with Rafael Nadal in Paris, defeated Stanislav Poplavskyy of Ukraine 6-0, 6-3 and Alex Domijan came back to take a 6-7(1), 6-1, 6-1 win over wild card Mick Lescure of France. Domijan will now take on No. 2 seed Bernard Tomic of Australia in a second round match on Monday. Tomic is the subject of this story from the ITF junior website. No. 7 seed Denis Kudla and Harry Fowler will play their first round matches on Monday. For complete draws, see RolandGarros.com.
13 comments:
devin britton has an injured hip flexor for anyone who didnt know
anyone see today when the commentators started talking about all the matches Nadal has played this year? funny how nothing was said until he was about to go down 2 sets to 1. didnt seem to bother him too much til then. i love tennis excuses...
nadal did no play a good match yesterday, plain and simple, soderling deserved to win. i dont think too many tennis matches lost him THIS particular match.
however, i think that he does play too much tennis and that his body cannot sustain this unbelievably high level for too much longer at the rate hes going, playing deep in EVERY tournament he plays in, winning a good share of them, obviously. I just believe that his knees will one day give out on him or he will just run out of energy. If any normal human being went this hard like he does, i dont think they would make it. he isone of a kind
word on the street is that denis kudla warmed up rafa before his match against soderling
Ive been thinking for awhile now that Rafa will be retired before he turns 30, possbily by 28. Without steriods I dont see how he can compete like that for too long.
Who knows the ATP drug rules? Do you get suspended for your first offense? This Gasquet suspension is ridiculous in my opinion. Im not condoning his actions, but come on, if they were giving out suspensions for this the 70's and 80's, some of the top guys would have never not been suspended. Gasquet certainly wasnt enhancing his performance, if anything he was hurting it.
Who could be competing in the French juniors for the U.S. but isnt? I assume Jarmere Jenkins, Rhyne Williams and Chase Buchannon are USTA eligible, but not ITF eligible anymore. Anyone know who all could be there?
Kudla and Britton getting bageled was dissapointing.
@Austin
Buchanan and Williams are still ITF eligible, as is Ryan Harrison. Jenkins is not. Buchanan may have been able to play French/Wimbledon jr qualies based on his ITF ranking, but the other two did not have rankings that would qualify them.
Austin, Jenkins,Buchanan,Harrison,Williams are all eligible. I think its safe to say that a lot of our top guys did not go over. Harrison is also eligible to go next year. These guys semm to be concentrating on Futures right now.
Austin, Made a mistake. Jenkins is not eligible.
it is safe to say that some of our top juniors did not go over and play the french open. And since our top juniors did not go play, I am sure that alot of other countries do not have their top juniors playing. Even some of the top ranked itf ranked players did not play, like bhambri and dimitrov.
It seems the theme for this year's French Open is that the seeds in all events are losing earlier than they should...first the boy's #1 seed goes out...and now Laura Robson is out as well. Who's going to be left now?
jr. fan, jenkins is too old to play itfs anymore, read the post prior to yours
interesting, the one seeds have been losing early every week, so not really that surprising. if they win the tournament, that would be a surprise.
i assume buchanan quit after the 0 and 2 loss to d nguyen in the ncaa finals, and that is why he is not in paris, or it could be the fact that ohio state is still in school
I was also referring to the fact that Nadal, Djokovic, and a whole bunch of high seeds lost in the men and womens draws. But I do agree with you about the juniors and the #1 seeds--it would be shocking if (especially the girls) #1 seed was able to win.
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