Clays Begin Sunday; Indy Coverage First; Cox Interview, Southern Takes 16s Intersectionals
The USTA Clay Court Championships begin tomorrow, and, as I did last year, I'll be covering the girls 18s in Memphis, beginning with Tuesday's round of 64. Lily Kimbell and Ellen Tsay are the top two seeds, with Blair Seideman and Danielle Collins Nos. 3 and 4. As always, there are some dangerous floaters--Nicole Melichar who won the College Station ITF this spring, Alexa Guarachi, the Alabama recruit who recently won an ITA Summer Circuit event, ISC 16s champion Krista Hardebeck, Orange Bowl 16s champion Chanelle Van Nguyen, Emily Gelber, who won the 2007 18s Winter Nationals as a 14-year-old, and 16s Easter Bowl champion Caroline Price. One of Sunday's most interesting first round contests pits Price against Jasmine Minor. For complete draws, see the TennisLink site.
The boys 18s and 16s Clay Courts also begin Sunday at several sites in the Delray Beach area. Spring National champion Frederick Saba is the top seed in the 18s, with Jack Sock, whom Saba beat for the title in Mobile, the No. 2 seed. Zachary Leslie and Sekou Bangoura Jr. round out the top four. Unseeded players to watch in the 18s are Shane Vinsant, Nathan Pasha, Dane Webb, Jeremy Efferding and Marcos Giron. Bjorn Fratangelo and Jackson Withrow are the top two seeds in the 16s. For complete draws, see the TennisLink site.
On my way to Memphis, I am going to stop by the ATP tournament in Indianapolis, where qualifying got underway today. Illinois's Dennis Nevolo and Ohio State's Matt Allare won their first round matches and will play again Sunday. There are eight qualifying matches on the schedule tomorrow, and one main draw match, NCAA champion Devin Britton against fellow wild card and hometown hero Rajeev Ram, who won last week's ATP stop in Rhode Island. It is Britton's debut as a professional. For draws, results and the order of play, see tennisindy.com. Ken Thomas of radiotennis.com will also be webcasting from the tournament beginning Sunday.
Tennis Week's Richard Pagliaro posted this interview with Wimbledon boys finalist Jordan Cox yesterday. Cox received a wild card into next week's Lexington Challenger.
Tom Tebbutt, the esteemed Canadian tennis writer, brought Toronto's The Globe and Mail readers up to speed on Davis Cup hero Bruno Agostinelli in this feature on the University of Kentucky All-american.
And the Shreveport Times covered the USTA 16s Team Intersectional final, where the Southern section shut out the Midwest 8-0. Although I find it very difficult to negotiate the TennisLink site for team events, there are complete results available there.
19 comments:
Predictions for 18s Clays...
Round of 32
1 Saba over 17 Marmalat
14 Bernstein over 17 Bader
17 Guthrie over 5 Andrews
Wang over 11 Schanerman
4 Bangoura over Vinsant
17 Bloom over 16 Spindler
7 Novikov over 17 Ball
9 Sarmiento over 17 Brasseaux
Van Velzer over 12 Rovello
Egger over 8 Mengel
Webb over 13 Wolf
3 Leslie over Cheung
15 Federhofer over 17 Noble
Pasha over Efferding
Johnson over Flores
2 Sock over 17 MacMaster
Round of 16
14 Bernstein over 1 Saba
17 Guthrie over Wang
4 Bangoura over 17 Bloom
9 Sarmiento over 7 Novikov
Egger over Van Velzer
3 Leslie over Webb
Pasha over 15 Federhofer
2 Sock over Johnson
Quarters
14 Bernstein over 17 Guthrie
9 Sarmiento over 4 Bangoura
Egger over 3 Leslie
2 Sock over Pasha
Semis
9 Sarmiento over 14 Bernstein
2 Sock over Egger
Finals
9 Sarmiento over 2 Sock
Predictiosn for 16s Clays...
Round of 16
1 Frantangelo over 9 Simon
5 Curry over 13 Vancura
3 Matias over 11 Fickey
17 Halebian over 8 Tahir
17 Gardiner over 17 Tsodikov
4 Martinez over 12 Adams
10 Harrington over Bloom
14 Kreuger over 2 Withrow
Quarters
1 Frantangelo over 5 Curry
17 Halebian over 3 Matias
17 Gardiner over 4 Martinez
14 Kreuger over 10 Harrington
Semis
1 Frantangelo over 17 Halebian
14 Kreuger over 17 Gardiner
Finals
1 Frantangelo over 14 Kreuger
pasha, saba, sarmiento, and leslie are the four contenders in 18s.
Colette, what was the reason for Mallory Burdette replacing Christina Mchale on the WTT New York Buzz?
@Greg:
Good question. I don't know.
Brent you might be Emmett egger.
McHale got really ill after her European trip playing a ton of tennis...
Wow, I can confirm that I am not Emmett Egger. Just think he has a game that took some lumps the last couple years as a sacrifice for increasing his max potential, and now might be the time he starts seeing the fruit of that. Clay probably not the most likely place for that to happen but it is just a prediction. Predicing seeds to hold form all the way through wouldn't be a lot of fun, now would it?
Would love to see where you would correct me....other than having Egger getting blasted first-round.
brent,
i would definitely never pick egger to beat mengel and leslie in a row and probably not van velzer or hammond either. he used to be a superstar but he has dropped off in past years.
totally agree with wow. emmett egger lost to russel bader last year at clay courts and has done nothing in 2 years or so. egger has a game that was perfect for the 12's and 14's as he cant hit the ball hard enough. no racket head speed whatsoever. egger, will lose to mengel, no question, if he even gets that far.
Why do the Clays always allow some of the best players to be unseeded? Been happening for years. Ridiculous.
because players such as pasha for example, dont play many usta tournaments, therefore not having a high usta ranking. players such as vinsant simply hasnt played enough 18's tournaments(he won 16's easter bowl and reached finals international spring championship). it changes at kalamazoo because they change the way they seed players so you will not have many lurkers in the draw.
Tennis - what Austin is saying is why doesn't the USTA "fix that" for Clays just like they do for Hard Courts? It hurts the draw and players by ignoring circuit, ITF results, etc.
Tennis -- not sure Pasha is such a good example. He has played plenty of USTA and US ITF events this year to qualify for a high ranking but his results have been poor/mediocre at best, often losing to younger kids in the early rounds. Hopefully he will do some damage this week so he can get into the top 50 at least.
'Tennis' and 'wow', wanted to respond as the unintentional lone member of the Emmett Egger fan club. Haven't had time to dig up the details, but had remembered that he had taken a step back after a successful 12s to remake his game, approch the net far more, and taken a bunch of bad losses in that process. Thought he had shown some signs of life/progress here recently with some decent ITF results last fall and a good run at the Grass Courts. As I said before, didn't factor in the surface as much as I probably should have in my predictions, but do I have my facts wrong on Egger? Am I thinking about somebody else?
lets look at nathan pashas results in the last year why dont we tennisdad??
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last year at hard courts: EVAN KING
ITF Atlanta: Ryan Lipman
Itf Tulsa:Denis kudla(3 sets)
Itf south carolina:Matt kandath
Itf carson: Tennys sandgren(3 sets)
the only bad losses he has really had in the last year is daniel mccall at easter bowl, not that mccall is bad, but he is a 93. the other bad loss is dane webb(but that is on grass)
also, not a great tournament, but he won the peachtree beating kevin king.
nathan pasha is the perfect example.
'Wow' and 'Tennis'....just wanted to point you to one specific score from today's results...
Egger def. Hammond 6-0, 6-2.
to Brent
Mengel splits with cameron silverman(whoever that is)
egger loses to mengel 3 and 2
Tennis, Wow and Brent,
Egger is improving very well and should make inroads in the draws as he matures. I saw some of his match with McCall today and it was high quality, especially in the first set. Egger is definitely one of the best 93s in his development, and will continue to make progress.
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