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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

U.S. Boys Win Opening Match in Junior Davis Cup; Blue Chip Commitments; Muhammad Feature

The first day of the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup saw several upsets, with three seeded boys teams and one seeded girls team suffering opening round defeats in their round robin groups. The seeds this year are:

Junior Fed Cup
1. Russia (the team doesn't consist of the three girls I mentioned in yesterday's post--only Gavrilova, who is joined by Ksenia Kirillova and Polina Leykina)
2. Slovak Republic
3. Japan
4. Germany
5. Tunisia
6. Ukraine
7. Canada
8. Argentina

Junior Davis Cup
1. France
2. Czech Republic
3. Australia
4. Uzbekistan
5. Spain
6. Great Britain
7. United States
8. Bolivia

Tunisia lost 3-0 to China in their round robin group, and will need a win over No. 4 Germany on Wednesday to keep alive their chances of winning the group, and advancing to the semifinals. The team from Mexico, which has Fremont, Calif. resident Giuliana Olmos playing No. 1 for them, lost to German 2-1, with Olmos posting a win over Annika Beck, who reached the third round of the U.S. Open girls championships.

In Junior Davis Cup, No. 4 Uzbekistan lost to Argentina 2-1; No. 5 Spain, playing without their No. 1 player Carlos Boluda, who was ill, lost to Mexico 2-1, and No. 8 Bolivia was soundly beaten by Korea.

The U.S. boys defeated Chile 3-0, but all three matches were very close. India is next up for the U.S. on Wednesday.

For the complete Junior Davis Cup results from Tuesday, click here. For more on the competition, see the ITF junior website. For Marcos Giron's blog from Mexico, click here.

There were several blue chips who made their verbal commitments public over the weekend. Ben Guthrie of Texas will be attending William and Mary. And both Kaitlyn Christian (Southern California) and Hanna Mar (Duke) announced officially what had been rumored for many months. For more commitments, see the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Qualifying is complete at the Las Vegas Pro Circuit event, with no juniors surviving the final round. Local resident Asia Muhammad, who was given a main draw wild card, is the subject of this feature in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She and coach Tim Blenkiron have pinpointed consistency and mental strength as areas where she needs to improve. Blenkiron is quoted as saying:

"We've got a couple of pieces of the puzzle to find," Blenkiron said. "Her lack of consistency in her performance is the biggest issue in her game. One day, she's serving like a guy and she's unstoppable. The next day, she can't serve at all. When she's relaxed, she's hitting the ball super. But when she's feeling the anxiety, she struggles. And that's the key that will open up everything. She has to learn to overcome her anxiety on the court."

4 comments:

Let them Rest!! said...

Marcos states in his blog that some of the players need to sleep on a cot...come on USTA...give those representing a decent night sleep, I think you can afford an extra bed!!

tennis said...

its a blog. hes exaggerating. also, all of the players stay at the same hotel during the tournament. no more, no less

GO USA said...

What is wrong with sleeping on a cot?

The usta isn't paying the room, the ITF pays for the room during the tournament AND even pays for the team's flights. Every country has 3 players to each room and every country has a player either on a cot or on the floor.

Why should the Americans be any different???

Give me a Break said...

Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

It has been said by many that the Americans are soft. The USTA would get critized if they were the only country paying for an extra room. And now the usta is being critized for having a player sleep on a cot.

Give me a break! Stop bitching people.