A Wimbledon Thank You; Rochester Pro Circuit Slideshow; SoCal Sectional, Florida Open
Before we leave Wimbledon behind for another year, I want to give a big public thank you to Guy McCrea for his fantastic efforts in getting information about the U.S. juniors competing there to me every night. With his Wimbledon Radio duties increasing this year, he had every reason to bow out, but instead he took the time to send photos, comments and audio, often after a very long day on the air. There is no way to properly thank him for that dedication; I hope he realizes how much we all appreciate his interest and passion for junior tennis. Thanks again Guy. You made last week a lot more fun here at ZooTennis.
Another contribution was sent to me a few days ago, from Russ Tahir, who was in attendance at the $10,000 Pro Circuit event in Rochester, NY. As he said in his email, there were a lot of junior and college players in the draw there, and this slideshow of excellent photos proves it. Seventeen-year-old Filip Krajinovic of Serbia reached his second consecutive Futures final, but was again beaten handily in the championship match, losing yesterday to unseeded 29-year-old Vasilis Mazarakis of Greece 6-2, 6-0. Mazarakis was ranked as high as 115 in 2005, but has no ranking now, and received entry based on a protected ranking. Krajinovic is now at a career-high ATP ranking of 459. In doubles, Marcus Fugate and Wake Forest All-American Cory Parr beat Ohio State teammates Chase Buchanan and Bryan Koniecko 2-6, 6-4, 10-8. (Back to that doubles scoring format now, ugh).
In the women's $50,000 tournament in Boston, top seed Michaella Krajicek beat unseeded Rebecca Marino in the singles final; ironically they have drawn each other in the first round of this week's 50K in Texas. Vanderbilt recruit Alison Riske reached the semifinals, defeating No. 2 seed Lauren Albanese and No. 5 seed Valerie Tetreault before losing to Marino. In the doubles, NCAA singles champion Mallory Cecil of Duke and her partner, 2007 NCAA doubles finalist Megan Moulton-Levy, formerly of William and Mary, narrowly lost in the championship match to another unseeded team, Maria-Fernanda Alves and Ahsha Rolle, 6-1, 4-6, 10-6.
At the 50K Winnetka Challenger, two U.S. qualifiers met in the final, with Alex Kuznetsov defeating Tim Smyczek 6-4, 7-6(1). Top seeds Carsten Ball and Travis Rettenmaier won the doubles title 6-1, 6-2 over unseeded Brett Joelson and Ryan Sweeting.
The men are in Pittsburgh this week, for another $10,000 Pro Circuit event on clay. For results and draws, see the USTA Pro Circuit page.
The Southern California sectionals were completed late last month, and Rhiannon Potkey wrote a detailed account of the massive event for the Tennis Recruiting Network. Congratulations to all the winners of that prestigious title, including 18s champions Pamela Montez and Daniel Kosakowski.
There was quite of bit of coverage of the Florida Open from the Ft. Myers News-Press, including this unusual story about the reinstatement of a forfeited semifinal match involving Dennis Novikov and Matthew Braunworth. The "calm" referred to in the headline is probably a reference to the contrasting chaos of that semifinal contest.
2 comments:
Weak stuff from Novikov's parents. Let 'em play. And then to default the next morning because of sour grapes. Wow.
What a sad day for Novikov,his parents and his coach and for junior tennis. At 5-3 down in the 3rd set wouldn't you hope the coach at least would encourage their player to finish the match - win or lose. I've seen him play - he will never be a champion and this kind of behavior confirms that. I feel sorry for him.
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