Min Wins Grade 2 in Chile; John McEnroe Discusses His Academy; 92s News; Santa Cruz Faces Washington in DIII Men's Indoor Final
Fifteen-year-old Grace Min of the U.S. has won the ITF Grade 2 tournament Copa Milo on the clay in Santiago, Chile. Min, seeded 4th, defeated Agustina Sol Eskanazi of Argentina, the No. 6 seed, 6-2, 6-1 in the final. Unseeded American Chanelle Van Nguyen reached the semifinals before falling to Eskanazi. Of the U.S. boys competing in Chile, Shane Vinsant went deepest into the draw, reaching the semifinals as the fifth seed, where he lost to eventual champion Facundo Mena of Argentina. For complete results, see the ITF tournament page.
At the Grade 4 in Jalisco, Mexico, also on clay, No. 2 seed Julia Elbaba reached the singles final for the second straight week. She avenged her loss last week to fellow American Ashley Dai in the semifinals, but lost in the final this week to No. 1 seed Giovanna Manifacio of Mexico 6-1, 6-3. Harrison Richmond of the U.S. won the doubles title in Jalisco with Belgian partner Joseph Van Dooren. For complete results, see the ITF tournament page.
John McEnroe is in Delray Beach, Florida, playing in a senior event held in conjunction with the ATP tournament taking place there, and he was asked about the recent news that he was opening his own tennis academy in New York. There are no dates given in this story by Harvey Fialkov for the Sun-Sentinel, but there is a location--Randall's Island in New York City.
In qualifying today in for the Delray ATP event, 17-year-olds Ryan Harrison and Yuki Bhambri advanced to the second round with wins over Luka Gregorc and Marcel Felder respectively, while Jack Sock, also 17, lost to former Florida Atlantic and University of Texas player Olivier Sajous in a battle of wild cards. See the tournament website for more information. Another of the prominent 17-year-olds, Bernard Tomic of Australia, is the subject of this Sydney Daily Telegraph story about an upcoming meeting his father has with Tennis Australia's Craig Tiley and the possibility that Tomic will be named to the Davis Cup team on Tuesday.
The final of the Division III Men's Team Indoor is Sunday, with NCAA champion and No. 1 seed UC-Santa Cruz facing No. 3 seed Washington University of St. Louis. Santa Cruz beat No. 4 Kenyon 5-4 in today's semifinals, while Washington topped No. 2 Emory by the same score. Live scoring for the match is available via the host Gustavus Adolphus College's website. For much more about the teams and Division III men's college tennis throughout the season, see the excellent blog Division III Tennis.
7 comments:
Collette Saw that a group of our top 93 US boys did not make it through the qualies at a G2 in Argentia. Is that a US sponsored team? Seems a bit extravagent to go all the way to Latin America to play in the qualies of an ITF if they dont already qualify for the main draw.
getreal
Vinsant is in the main draw because he got a special exempt from getting to the semi finals of the previous tournament.
Of the players there is mixture of ages in south america. two-93s, one-94, one-95.
I think its GREAT for development for some of the players to play qualifying of events. too many americans get wildcards instead of earning it through qualifying. Ryan Harrison qualified into another Tour event today.
Qualifying is awesome for players, especially juniors to get tons of matches. They also do not get a sense of entitlement. but that is just my opinion.
to my opinion
Agree qualifying is not a bad thing but question whether such an expensive trip and time away from school for 94 and 95s makes sense for their development, especially if they are just getting one match per tournament. You dont need to travel to Argentia to that. Seems a bit premature and extravagent. Juniors like Jack Sock or Ryan Harrison never did that and they are doing just fine.
Another group of top 93s played the Futures tournament in Harlingen, Texas, much closer to home, and two of them (Efferding and McCall) made it to the finals of the qualifying draw with good wins on the way there. They are now playing in the main draw in doubles. Seems like a good overall experience for those players without the extensive travel.
to floridafan,
Agree there are many tournaments to develop players in the western hemisphere. Travel to far reaches of the globe make sense for juniors who have the game to get far in the main draws for G1 and GAs and they can get entrance into the main of those high level ITR events by winning in the G3, G4 and G1s here in the US. But to take young boys to G2s thousands of miles away to play the qualies, don’t see the point. For girls like Min makes more sense but for 94s and 95 boys, no wonder the USTA gets criticized for use of its limited development funds. How about taking that money and building a few red clay courts in the US.
Just asking....How does a college coach not know the rules of the ordering of the lineup, new coach or not? Or is there more leeway?
Go Ryan! Great job.
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