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Monday, March 8, 2010

ITF Junior, Pro Circuit Update; Abaza Wins MPS Qualifying WC; Indian Wells Underway; Bambridge Signs

For the first time in three weeks a US junior girl did not win an important clay event in South America, but No. 6 seed Beatrice Capra did reach the semifinals of the ITF Grade 1 Asuncion Bowl in Paraguay before falling to the eventual champion Veronica Cepede Royg, the second seed in her home country's tournament. Argentina Cup winner Chanelle Van Nguyen reached the quarterfinals. The boys champion was Renzo Olivo, the fifth seed, who also won the Coffee Bowl in January. Olivo defeated fellow Argentinian Federico Coria, the younger brother of Guillermo Coria, in the final. For complete draws, see the ITF junior site.

This week there are Grade 1s on two different continents, with the Banana Bowl in Brazil and the ITF/LTAT Junior Championships in Thailand underway. U.S. boys competing in Thailand are Mitchell Kreuger, Shaun Bernstein, Campbell Johnson and Dane Webb. Spencer Simon is also in Southeast Asia; he lost in qualifying. There are no U.S. girls in the Thailand draw. In Brazil, Dennis Novikov, seeded 11th, and Nick Chappell are the U.S. boys competing. The girls draw features Americans Jessica Pegula, Caitlyn Williams, Lauren Davis (11), Capra (8), Noel Scott and Annie Mulholland. Leyla Erkan of the U.S. lost in the final round of qualifying.

In last week's Pro Circuit tournaments, Jamie Hampton of the U.S. reached her second 25K final of the year, both times as a qualifier. Hampton lost to No. 3 seed Shuai Zhang of China in the final. Diane of the blog Women Who Serve attended the tournament's last several days; click here for her post on the final. In the men's McAllen, Texas 15K, Artem Sitak of Russia defeated Mario Ancic of Croatia in the final.

There is no Pro Circuit event for men this week. The women are in Clearwater, Fla for a 25K. Asia Muhammad of the U.S. and Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand have qualified, Heather Watson got in as a lucky loser and Jamie Hampton received a special exemption. The wild cards are Ester Goldfeld, Ahsha Rolle, Julia Ditty and Julia Cohen.

For the complete results from last week and this week's draws, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

The women's qualifying has begun for the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the main draw for the women was released today. Wild card Christina McHale has drawn Vania King, while Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia will play a qualifier. For draws and results, see the tournament website. Men's qualifying starts on Tuesday, with the draw coming out later tonight.


In the tournament held this past weekend to decide a qualifying wild card into the WTA MPS Championships in Ponte Vedra, Fla., 15-year-old Jan Abaza won it, defeating 14-year-old Sachia Vickery 6-2, 6-3. My photo of Abaza is more than a year old (ironically, it is from her quarterfinal loss to Vickery at the Junior Orange Bowl), but if you are on Facebook, you can view more pictures of the two at the First Coast Tennis Foundation page.

And a thank you to Liza Horan of tenniswire.org who tweeted that Luke Bambridge of Great Britain, the 2009 14s Eddie Herr champion, has signed with Lagardère. Lagardere, which represents Andy Roddick and Justine Henin among many others, has been very active in signing players of all ages recently. Click here for their release on Bambridge.

2 comments:

simonsaystennis said...

I'm a little concerned about Vickery. Since switching to Mouratoglou, she hasn't had any good results. I know it has produced some good players, but for every player it has helped, another player seems to struggle. Larcher de Brito and Cirstea are prime examples. Vickery's ITF junior ranking did not move much at all the past year, and I'm wondering, as other 1995 girls pass her on their way to the top, if she's progressing the way she should.

getreal said...

colette

The US girls are doing great in South America but noticed that the US boys in Tawain and Brazil all lost in the first round. Curious, are these also USTA sponsored trips?