McHale, Sweeting Win Wild Cards to French Open; Kudla, Domijan, Robson Reach Pro Circuit Quarterfinals; Carson WC Tournament; Conference POYs, etc.
Christina McHale and Ryan Sweeting have bypassed the qualifying rounds at Roland Garros next month, with hard-fought victories today in the finals of the USTA's French Open Wild Card tournament. Top seed McHale beat No. 7 seed Beatrice Capra 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 and No. 2 seed Sweeting downed No. 6 seed Ryan Harrison 6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in the best-of-five men's final. Harvey Fialkov of the Sun-Sentintel posted this story about the two matches a few hours ago. A couple of corrections that slipped by the editor--it's Capra who is from Maryland. McHale is from New Jersey. And Ryan Sweeting spent less than a semester at Florida before turning pro, in 2006, not 2007. Although the Miami Herald's Michelle Kaufman's article from today's matches in not yet up, her story from yesterday's semifinals can be found here.
In Pro Circuit action today, unseeded Laura Robson of Great Britain reached the quarterfinals of the $50,000 tournament in Charlottesville, Va. In the $10,000 men's event in Vero Beach, Denis Kudla and Alex Domijan have reached the quarterfinals with wins today. Bryan Koniecko, who played No. 1 for Ohio State last year, and Maciek Sykut, who played No. 2 and 3 for Florida State last year, teamed up in doubles in Vero Beach and have reached the finals. For draws and schedules, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.
There is a wild card tournament next week for qualifying wild cards into the joint $50,000 Carson Challenger later next month. There are many junior players entered, but Amanda Fink, the 2009 USC grad, is the top seed, with Sarah Lee seeded second. Yuki Chiang, the Junior Orange Bowl 14s winner, had a wrist injury that kept her out of Carson and the Easter Bowl, but she is entered in this event. In the men's tournament, Raymond Sarmiento is the top seed and at the other end of the age spectrum, Jeff Tarango, 41, is the No. 2 seed. There are several current USC men entered, but since the team will be Athens for the NCAAs during the Challenger dates, if one of them should win the wild card, they are not likely to be able to use it. For complete draws, see the TennisLink site.
The announcements of the college conference honors are coming fast and furious right now and I thought I would do a brief rundown of some of the major conferences' awards.
ACC
MEN:
Player of the Year: Henrique Cunha, Duke
Freshman of the Year: Henrique Cunha, Duke
Coach of the Year: Brian Boland, Virginia
WOMEN:
Player of the Year: Irina Falconi, Georgia Tech
Freshman of the Year: Francesca Segarelli, Florida State
Coach of the Year: Brian Kalbas, North Carolina
BIG TEN
MEN:
Player of the Year: Chase Buchanan, Ohio St.
Freshman of the Year: Evan King, Michigan
Coach of the Year: Ty Tucker, Ohio St.
WOMEN:
Player of the Year: Denise Muresan, Michigan
Freshman of the Year: Mimi Nguyen, Michigan
Coach of the Year: Ronni Bernstein, Michigan
PAC-10
MEN:
Player of the Year: Robert Farah, USC
Freshman of the Year: Kyle McMorrow, Washington
Coach of the Year: Peter Smith, USC
WOMEN:
Player of the Year: Yasmin Schnack, UCLA
Freshman of the Year: Mallory Burdette, Stanford
Coach of the Year: Lele Forood, Stanford
SEC
MEN:
Player of the Year: JP Smith, Tennessee
Freshman of the Year: Rhyne Williams, Tennessee and Ryan Lipman, Vanderbilt
Coach of the Year: Sam Winterbotham, Tennessee
WOMEN:
Player of the Year: Lauren Embree, Florida
Freshman of the Year: Allie Will, Florida
Coach of the Year: Roland Thornqvist, Florida
9 comments:
actually, the story is correct - Sweeting left UF halfway through the fall 06 term after serving as practice partner for US Davis Cup team in Russia and turned pro in 2007. congrats to Ryan, playing super tennis
@tennisistops:
Not that it's all that important, but here's the link to the Bob Larson story from 2006 that announced Sweeting had turned pro.
Not that it matters, but all you have to do is look at Colette's ZooTennis articles from early March 2006 to understand why Sweeting left Florida early. Just a minor mistake that young people make and can overcome
Looks like each conference coach of the year went to the regular season champion. Not really sure that means they were the best "coach." My grandma could have won the ACC title this year if she was the coach of UVA.
Completely agree with you Austin.
That doesn't say much about college coaching if conference coaching awards are only given to the best team.
Awards should be given to the coach that actually does the best job "coaching" and improving his/her team. It seems like these awards are more honorary awards and not truly justified.
Hey Austin so what do you think happens, kids just sit around and all say lets go to UVa, then they train on their own, set their own schedule and win the conference title every year. Just maybe the coach has something to do with that and thus actually is the "best" coach since he has the "best" team and they win the title. I'm just guessing but if your grandma was the coach at UVa they may not be in the top 50 next year more or less win conference titles.
I can't believe Ty Tucker got coach of the year. Any coach that refuses to play a dual match when the temperature is 49 degrees instead of the minimum of 50 is just looking for excuses.
I would love to see your granny, or you or anyone you would like to send, from your know it all but do nothing blog posting chair take over at UVA. UVA would be out of the NCAA tournament just as fast as Brian B. got them in. UVA wanted to cut the program before Brian was hired. For goodness sake, You have no idea NONE about coaching or the NCAA!!
I'm not in the ACC, but am well aware of the quality of that conference. For you to dismiss the great job Ramsey at Duke or Jeff at Wake and certainly Brian at UVA did is nothing if not biased and stupid even for a blog post, even from you
You should give real consideration to following another sport. It would improve tennis.
I'm really impressed by Ramsey Smith and what he has done with the Duke program, both in his recruiting & how he and his team conduct themselves. They are playing well and have a shot against anyone. Just ask SC or UVa. Going to be interesting to see what Cunha does. If he stays, they should be top 10 next year.
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