Sarmiento Profile; Levine, Oudin Reach Wimbledon Third Round; Britton in Roehampton Final
My weekly article for the Tennis Recruiting Network is a profile of Grass Court champion Raymond Sarmiento. Sarmiento shares his memorable encounter with Andre Agassi (who has just held a press conference about his participation in World Team Tennis with the Philadelphia Freedoms, joining Madison Keys on the roster) and his thoughts on the recruiting process that is in his near future.
Today at Wimbledon, U.S. qualifiers Jesse Levine and Melanie Oudin advanced to the third round with long, tough victories. Levine took a quick two-set lead on lucky loser Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, lost sets three and four, but eked out a 6-2, 6-1. 4-6, 4-6, 6-3 win. ESPN2 showed the end of the fourth set and all of the fifth, although I don't believe the match was taking place on one of the so-called "TV" courts. Oudin didn't get that same treatment--none of her match was shown, with a tape of Venus's routine win airing instead. I'm guessing that was due to the court and the lighting conditions, because it was after 9 p.m. when Oudin completed her 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan. Oudin was up 4-1 in the third, lost her break serving at 4-2, then saved a break point serving at 4-4. With Shvedova serving to stay in the match, she got down 0-40, saved two match points, but not the third, and Oudin had her second win at a major. Both Levine and Oudin were invited on the ESPN set as the telecast came to a close, and Mary Carillo and Mary Joe Fernandez conducted a lengthy interview with them. Levine revealed that he would be practicing with Roddick on Friday, and gave credit to the USTA for helping him. Chris Clarey of the New York Times wrote this excellent story about Oudin and Levine.
Devin Britton has reached the finals of the ITF Grade 1 at Roehampton, beating Alex Domijan 6-4, 7-6(3). He plays No. 10 seed Facundo Arguello of Argentina in the final. French Open girls champion Kristina Mladenovic and Australian Olivia Rogowska will play for the girls title Friday morning.
Britton and Cox are also in the doubles final, and got there the easy way, with their opponents giving them a walkover. Beatrice Capra and Alexandra Cercone lost in a match tiebreaker to No. 1 seeds Timea Babos and Ajla Tomljanovic in their semifinal. For complete results, see the LTA website.
After being so excited to find all the Wimbledon Junior qualifying information on wimbledon.org last night, there aren't any results from today's first round of qualifying that I can find. (Update 8:30 a.m. Friday--the ITF Junior website has the updated results from Thursday here.) The main draw is scheduled to be posted tomorrow, with play beginning on Saturday. The website's junior page is here.
4 comments:
About Devin Britton's outstanding performance...
It will be interesting to see what they do with him in the Wimbledon draw. His ITF ranking slipped way down during the school year (Winning the NCAA singles title along the way not withstanding) because he didn't play any ITF events. Then he lost in the first round on the clay at Roland Garros. But if they don't seed him he could really tear up the draw. Look what he did last year at the US Open.
anyone see the interview at the end of the day on ESPN with Levine and Oudin?
Oudin, GREAT personality, really hope she moves her way up the rankings.
Jesse can beat Wawrinka as long as the moment doesnt get to him. Ill go with Levine in four.
It was great to see ESPN give those 2 some face time. Oudin is a very likable personality, I hope she continues to improve. Could be a bright future for her. Levine's injury set him back a little at the start of the year, but I think he can play at this level for many years to come and eventually be a top 50 kind of guy.
Colette, can you confirm that Allie Will is going to Florida?
Yes, she is.
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