Tomic, Robson Fall at Wimbledon; Five Americans Make Round of 16 at Roehampton; Klahn Features; Moyano Named USTA National Coach
Thanks to ESPN3, I was able to watch the live streaming of American Mardy Fish vs. Australian Bernard Tomic's in their first round match at Wimbledon, not expecting that the Roger Federer and Alejandro Falla contest would offer much drama. Although the 17-year-old qualifier held a set point in the second set tiebreaker, Fish's serve was too much for Tomic, and Fish went on to claim a 6-3, 7-6(8), 6-2 win, hitting 25 aces in just three sets. I didn't watch any of 2008 Wimbledon girls champion Laura Robson's match with No. 4 seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, but she too fell in straight sets, although according to this story at wimbledon.org, Robson played very well in the second set of her 6-3, 7-6(5) loss.
Overall, U.S. players went 8-6 on the opening day of play, with wins by Andy Roddick, Venus Williams, Fish, Vavara Lepchenko, Melanie Oudin and qualifiers Shenay Perry, Brendan Evans and Taylor Dent.
For complete results, see wimbledon.org.
A few miles away in Roehampton, the second round of the ITF Grade 1 junior event was completed, with all three seeded U.S. boys advancing to the round of 16. Raymond Sarmiento (16), Mitchell Frank (11) and Denis Kudla (5) won, although all needed three sets, and Kudla needed a third set tiebreaker to down New Zealand's Ben McLachlan. Two U.S. girls remain in the hunt, with No. 14 seed Ester Goldfeld beating Akiko Omae of Japan in what must have been a thriller, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(7), and unseeded Krista Hardebeck defeating ecilia Costa Melgar of Chile 6-1, 6-2. Hardebeck faces unseeded Ksenia Kirillova of Russia in tomorrow's third round. Kirillova surprised No. 2 seed Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 6-4, 6-4.
Boys top seed Tiago Fernandes of Brazil was beaten today by Mathias Bourgue of France.
The doubles competition also began today, with Kudla and Sarmiento, seeded fourth, advancing to the second round, as did Lauren Herring and Grace Min.
See the LTA website for complete results.
In recent days there have been two features about recent NCAA champion Bradley Klahn of Stanford. This one, by the San Diego Union-Tribune
gives details on Klahn's rather late introduction to the game, his increased maturity since attending college and the likelihood that he'll return to Stanford in the fall.
ESPN Rise, which is geared more to high school students, interviews Klahn about the process he went through three years ago and his advice for others still making their way along the "recruiting road," as Rise refers to it.
And as mentioned previously by Doug Robson and others, Diego Moyano, the Argentine coach of Andrea Collarini, who is now training at Boca Raton, has been officially hired by the USTA as part of its Player Development staff.
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