Zootennis


Schedule a training visit to the prestigious Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, MD by clicking on the banner above

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Goldfeld Reaches Singles & Doubles Finals in Brownsville; Roehampton Grade 1 Underway; Robson & Larcher de Brito Debut at Wimbledon Monday


Ester Goldfeld will have a WTA ranking when they are released on Monday (update: it appears it will be after Wimbledon before her points are added), now that the soon-to-be 16-year-old from Brooklyn has gained points in her third Pro Circuit event. At the $10,000 event in Brownsville, Texas, Goldfeld reached the singles final as a qualifier, winning six matches before finally falling to No. 1 seed Sacha Jones of New Zealand 6-3, 2-6, 6-0. Goldfeld has struggled in junior events lately, but she didn't lose a game in qualifying, and didn't lose a set on her way to the final. In addition to reaching the singles final, Goldfeld teamed with recent TCU grad Macall Harkins to make the doubles final, but again she lost to Jones, who was playing with Texan Ashley Weinhold. The Brownsville Herald spoke with Goldfeld for this story prior to today's final.

In the men's $15,000 Pro Circuit event in California, top seed Carsten Ball won the singles, while Lester Cook and Treat Huey captured the doubles. For complete draws, see the Pro Circuit results page at usta.com.

The ITF Grade 1 in Roehampton began today with mixed results for the U.S. players entered. Qualifier Jordan Cox, Alex Domijan, Harry Fowler, Denis Kudla, Bob van Overbeek and Devin Britton won their first round matches, but the two seeded U.S. boys, Tennys Sandgren (11) and Evan King (12) lost, as did Mitchell Frank. Few U.S. girls are competing this week, but qualifier Brooke Bolender, as well as Nicole Gibbs and Beatrice Capra, advanced to the second round. Alexandra Cercone lost her opening match.

For complete draws, visit the LTA site, and scroll down to find the junior order of plays and results at the left.

Wimbledon begins tomorrow, of course, and I was very disappointed that I will be unable to buy the Wimbledon Live webstreaming, after enjoying it last year during the second week. For rights reasons, it is not available in the U.S. and Canada, so we'll be at the mercy of ESPN2 (I don't have access to ESPN 360 either). That virtually guarantees no coverage of junior matches, which was such a great bonus last year.

Two teenagers who are guaranteed to get much of the attention on the women's side tomorrow at AELTC are wild cards Michelle Larcher de Brito and Laura Robson of Great Britiain--Larcher de Brito for her volume and Robson for her nationality. I could post links to dozens of stories about each, but I'll limit it to one apiece. Chris Clarey of the New York Times explains why he believes that Larcher de Brito has crossed the line that has been established by Seles, Sharapova and others in this article. Larcher de Brito plays Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic.

2008 girls Wimbledon champion Robson, a year younger than the 16-year-old from Portugal, is making her main draw debut Monday against Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia. Practically every grand slam winner, retired or active, has been asked by the British press to give Robson advice, and in this Telegraph story, Tracy Austin is called on to put her two cents in.

For the complete order of play for Monday, see wimbledon.org.

5 comments:

Jon King said...

The young lady has crossed the line with her yelling. Her yells go on a lot longer than anyone in the past. I like how she keeps saying how "hurt" she is, as if she is the victim. She is using her yell, extended sometimes into her opponent's stroke, to gain an unfair advantage.

Port Washington Authority said...

so why is it that when one of you guys in the media writes a story about the screamers you never mention that all of the worst ones come out of Bollietteri's academy? Is it because IMG owns the academy and the press is afraid of criticising them ?

Austin said...

yeah, thats complete bs we cant watch the Wimby videos.

Roddicks brother is the new coach at Oklahoma. Im guessing theyll be improving immediately. I thought they should have given him the Texas A&M a couple years ago.

Linda from FL. said...

Port Washington is right, IMG Bradenton trains the girls to scream.

Between that and the robotic baseline bashers they keep churning out, they are making ladies tennis hard to watch.

John said...

I'm a huge tennis fan and love to watch......but when a player like deBrito comes along, the noise is irritating and her poor sportsmanship makes it impossible for me to watch.

Since we are talking pro tennis and endorsements, etc, I hope her agent and sponsors take note and try to make a positive influence to her behavior.....if I was at an event in person I would just have to leave the area, I don't care how "good" she is.

For a sport that needs a bigger fan base, she is doing a lot to take it the wrong direction. Shame on her, and shame on IMG for promoting that behavior.