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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Georgia Tech Wins Two Matches vs. USTA National Team; Vania King Replaces Serena Williams in Fed Cup; Cavaliers Fill Draws at Challenger

The Georgia Tech women's team took two singles matches from the USTA girls national team on Saturday afternoon, the only two singles matches the USTA girls lost in their three-campus swing this week. All-American champion Irina Falconi downed Lauren Davis 6-4, 6-3 at No. 1 and sophomore Lynn Blau defeated Kyle McPhillips 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 at No. 3 to give the Yellow Jackets a split of the four singles matches that were played. Lauren Herring defeated Sasha Krupina 6-4, 7-5 at No. 2 singles and Breaunna Addison earned a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Hilary Davis at No. 4, giving the national team an 11-2 singles record. This is quite a contrast to the only other USTA girls national team result earlier this year, when the University of Miami team posted a convincing victory over the younger girls. National coach Jean Desdunes said at the time of the Miami match that he thought "they'll be better next time, because I think they'll know what to expect. It will be interesting to see what they'll do the next time they get an opportunity like that."

It certainly appears that they learned from that experience.

In the two doubles matches, the USTA teams swept both matches, with Herring and Grace Min defeating Falconi and Krupina 8-5 and Monica Turewicz and Chanelle Van Nguyen beating Blau and Davis 8-6.

For a recap of the match and comments from Georgia Tech head coach Bryan Shelton, see the Georgia Tech website.

Although earlier this month Serena Williams had stated that she would play Fed Cup unless she was in a wheelchair, she informed the USTA today that she would not be participating. No reason is given in this brief announcement from the USTA. Vania King, who just returned to California from Asia according to her blog post entitled "I'm finally home", won't be for long, as she was named to take Williams's place.

There is no men's Pro Circuit event this week in the United States, but there are two new venues next week, a Futures in Birmingham, Alabama and a Challenger in Charlottesville, Virginia. Qualifying is underway in both, and in today's opening round in Charlottesville, nearly half of the 32-draw is current or former Cavaliers. Although the draw hasn't yet been updated, the order of play for Sunday indicates that Virginia freshman Jarmere Jenkins defeated top qualifying seed Jamie Baker, and Virginia junior Sanam Singh beat No. 3 seed Ricardas Berankis. See the ATP challenger page for the draws. For more on the tournament, see this article from the Charlottesville Daily Progress.

6 comments:

Jerry said...

Serena...bloody shame. Just when we thought you were allright after all.

Wright Thinking said...

Great tennis at Tech today. And a good crowd for such short notice. In doubles Herring and Min played much better than Thursday. Davis and Falconi was a good match as was Herring and Krupina. I was also pleased to see excellent sportsmanship today from all the players. Thanks to Erica Perkins with USTA for putting this week's matches together.

curious said...

How often do college tennis coaches violate ncaa practice rules? I've been trying to verify the rule-20 hours per week, each player must have one day off per week. Is this correct? How closely is this enforced? Short of transferring or quitting, what kind of recourse does a player have?

Thomas Falcon said...

Serena - bloody disgrace. The only reason she's not playing Fed Cup is because she feels she's got something better to do than represent her country. Fake all the injuries you like she's just the least patriotic, least worthy player we've ever had. Sampras wasn't much better but he wasn't so lame. Perhaps now the USTA will finally realise that you just can't elect captains of Fed Cup or Davis Cup based on the misplaced belief that they'll be able to recruit the top players. Didn't work with , Connors Agassi or Sampras. Didn't work with Venus or Serena Williams.

Face facts, we wave the flag and we preach red, white and blue but when it comes to the crunch it's every man and woman for themselves (thinking only of themselves) and damn national pride, damn representing your country.

Colette Lewis said...

For several short videos taken at Georgia Tech vs. USTA, see the Andy Meek Tennis Courts channel on YouTube.

Give Me A Break said...

Tommy

Are you part of Serena's traveling group? If not, then you have NO IDEA about the injuries or non injuries Serena has. YOU ARE SERIOUSLY CLAIMING SHE IS FAKING AN INJURY?

Serena has done more for USA tennis then USA tennis can do for her. Serena hold up the tv ratings at the US Open every year for the past 10-12 years. What about ticket sales? She has inspired so many young kids in the united states.

Whose career would you rather have Andy Roddick's, who has one only one major and played in almost all Davis Cup matches or Serena's, who has won over 10 majors, 2 Olympic gold medals and a FED CUP Championship (1999)?

It sure takes alot of guts to criticize Serena, after ALL she has done for the game of tennis in the united states. Without her (and venus), where would the state of usa tennis be?

BE THANKFUL!!!!