Midwest Section Ends SoCal Streak; US Boys Won't Repeat in World Jr. Comp; Whoriskey Profile; Big Wins for Vandweghe and Harrison
The Midwest ended the five-year winning streak of the Southern California section today, capturing the USTA National boys 18s team championship by the score of 5-2. The second-seeded Midwest team, led by their top three players Chase Buchanan, Evan King and Greg Andrews, who did not lose a singles match in the four-day competition, overcame the loss of the opening doubles point to the top seeds. Played in the college format, with the best of three matches of 8-game sets deciding the doubles point, the Midwest lost at 2 and 3 doubles to fall behind 1-0, but won five of the six singles to complete the upset, although four of them went to three sets, which probably made for a very exciting finish. For the complete scores of today's final, see the tournament website, ustaboysteamchamp.com.
The ITF World Junior competition for 14-and-under players has begun in the Czech Republic, and while the defending champion U.S. girls, seeded No. 2 this year, have won two matches and will advance to the semifinals with a win over Argentina tomorrow, the boys, seeded No. 3 and also the defending champions, have lost their first two ties and have been mathematically eliminated. For a roundup of the day's action, see the ITF junior website.
After a two-month summer vacation, the College Spotlight is back at usta.com, with Tennessee's Caitlyn Whoriskey answering questions about her game, goals and experiences on the USTA Summer Collegiate team.
With media zeroed in on Maria Sharapova last night at the WTA Los Angeles Women's Championships in Carson, 17-year-old wild card CoCo Vandeweghe's biggest career win went all but unnoticed. Vandeweghe beat Tathiana Garbin of Italy, who has been ranked in the WTA year-end Top 100 for nine straight seasons and is currently ranked 58th. The U.S. Open Junior champion didn't need three sets either, taking the match 6-4, 6-4. In the brief comments posted on the WTA website, Vandweghe said she was happy to win her first WTA match and felt that World Team Tennis had helped her prepare for it.
In the $100,000 Challenger in Vancouver today, Ryan Harrison upset No. 2 seed Michael Berrer of Germany, ranked 109th, winning the match 7-5, 6-2. His next opponent will be the winner of the Taylor Dent - Ryler De Heart match later tonight.
In the women's $75,000 Pro Circuit event, also in Vancouver, all four of the qualifiers are Americans: NCAA champion Mallory Cecil, Christina McHale, Lena Litvak and Mashona Washington. For both men's and women's results, see the tournament website, vanopen.com.
And a final note, Marcia Frost, who is handling the media for the Girls 18 National Championships in Berkeley, informed me that there has been a seeding change. Ester Goldfeld goes from unseeded to No. 16, Grace Min moves down to an alphabetical 17 seed and Monica Turewicz falls out of the seedings. For the complete list, see the TennisLink site.
5 comments:
Funny how the seeding works and errors are committed. Seeding rules are rather inconclusive as given in ‘Friend at Court’, with a lot of discretion left to the tournament director. Seeds play one less match getting a bye in first round so it is somewhat important. Seems that although it is a USTA tournament it is much better to have higher ITF ranking, you just have to be able to afford to travel to those.
UVA's Devvarman notched the biggest win of his career beating Cilic in DC
Impressive about Harrison. He is clearly following up his already great results. With every tournamnet looking more like the real deal.
Impressive win for Harrison. The men's game is rough. Vandeweghe's win just not media-worthy. She's 18 this year (many of the LA seeds are also teens) and beat a 32 year old claycourter who is retiring. Great for her to achieve a personal best win, though.
John Isner knocked off Tsonga last night, not too shabby to beat the #7 player in the world after recovering from mono and a sprained ankle.
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