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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Blog Day; College Coaching Changes

Who isn't blogging from the Davis Cup in Croatia? Patrick McEnroe and hitting partner Ryan Harrison are blogging for usta.com this week, and the other hitting partner Devin Britton, who posted entertaining entries from Wimbledon for the USTA, has agreed to keep his racquet company, Prince, up-to-date on the goings-on in Porec. (I think you may need a Facebook account to read Britton's entries). If you follow the Bryan brothers on Twitter, you already know that Mike misplaced his passport (his girlfriend had it) and didn't make the private jet flight from London, that during practice Jay Berger got on a platform to simulate Ivo Karlovic's serve, that the food is excellent at their hotel (everyone seems in agreement on that), and that Harrison brought down the house at tonight's dinner singing "Don't Stop Believing." The Bryans also regularly send out photos on their Twitter feed, adding a lot more to their tweets than the 140 characters of text allow.


Cory Parr is posting regularly for the blog Big Time Tennis on his experiences on the Pro Circuit this summer, and he has a great entry on the USTA Pro Transition camp held a couple of weeks ago in Boca Raton. When I saw that he was in both the doubles final at Rochester and the Pittsburgh qualifying, I figured he was doing a lot of traveling back and forth last weekend, and he confirmed that in another post. And thanks for mentioning Zootennis, Cory! I appreciate that, and hope you'll continue these posts. It's a side of tennis that few people see or understand, and having an insider relay his experiences is the best way to educate all of us.

There have been some changes recently in the college coaching ranks. In addition to John Roddick taking the men's Oklahoma job and Kyle Spencer landing the Maryland men's head coaching position, there is a new women's head coach at the University of Pennsylvania, former Penn player Sanela Kunovac. She replaces 2009's interim coach Sara Schiffman, who was the assistant coach under Michael Dowd.

Okalahoma State is looking for a new women's head coach, with the retirement of Julius Lubicz-Majewski, who was in Stillwater for 20 years. Princeton is still seeking a replacement for women's head coach Kathy Sell. The highest profile men's position still open is at Purdue.

In addition to a new head coach in the Big Ten, the conference will also see two new faces at its two top programs. Buckeye Jeremy Wurtzman has returned to the University of Denver, where he was the men's assistant prior to his year at Ohio State, to become the women's head coach. And the University of Southern California announced today that George Husack, an associate head coach at Illinois the past two years, will take the same position there, replacing Brett Masi, who was named University of San Diego head coach in May.

9 comments:

eric said...

Off topic :

Anyone know where Hochwalt and Dadamo going ?

Plotinus said...

Two people close to me were at said Harrison concert and thought he shouldn't quit his day job.

FTCE said...

Feel better after knowing that. Thanks to provide the information.

Austin said...

Have we discussed this?

http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/11937930

So he was fined $24,000 for a racial slur, yet the ATP hands out $600 and $1,000 fines when players go biserk, smash racquets, demean referees, etc. I'm not condoning this even a smidge, but seems a little extreme to me. There has to be more to this story.

Lleyton said...

...and they did nothing when Hewitt made a remark about an African American linesman in his US Open match against James Blake several years ago.

jr tennis said...

collette..

Any information on who was selected into this years USTA Residency program?

love-tennis said...

Off the topic:

Did Christina Mchale go pro yet? What about Kristie Ahn? Bolender

TechGirl said...

Austin,

There might well have been a greater penalty handed out because the term Klein used, 'kaffir' (it is the most unpleasant term you can use to address a black South African - kind of like the 'n' word here in the States) is actually banned throughout South Africa. So not only did Klein use a racial slur, he used one which, had he said it in South Africa, could have had him thrown in gaol.
$24,000 might sound excessive but I think that puts it into perspective. Going beserk and smashing racquets are a looooong way from that.

The really interesting thing is that the Australian tennis authorities are saying that Klein got exactly what he deserved and are considering giving him their own fine. Perhaps Johnny Mac would have turned out better if he'd been treated that toughly when he was that age.

Colette Lewis said...

@jr tennis--USTA will be releasing the names of the Boca residents for 2009-10 next week.
@love-tennis--to the best of my knowledge, none of the three have relinquished their amateur status