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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Kudla, Stephens Win ATP, WTA Matches Tuesday; US Open Junior Fact Sheet; Rochester Futures Slideshow; Brad Stine Opens Junior Academy


Fresh from the Wimbledon Juniors, Denis Kudla and Sloane Stephens stepped up to the ATP and WTA Tours this week, and both earned victories today. The 17-year-old Kudla, who received a wild card into the Campbell Hall of Fame Championships on the grass at Newport, RI, collected his first ATP win by beating 119th-ranked Santiago Ventura of Spain 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. His next opponent is 18-year-old Ryan Harrison, who on Monday breezed past No. 6 seed and 89th-ranked Karol Beck of Slovakia 6-1, 6-2. Although the draws aren't currently updated, the order of play for Wednesday is out, with Harrison and Kudla playing the fourth match on Center Court.

Stephens, only one day removed from the grass at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, where she won the girls doubles title with Timea Babos, played on clay in Bastad, Sweden, receiving a wild card into the $220,000 WTA event. She made the transition with no problems, defeating 77th-ranked Alberta Brianti of Italy 6-2, 6-4, to set up a meeting with top seed Flavia Penetta of Italy on Wednesday. Stephens reveals in this interview on the tournament website that clay is her favorite surface, and that she practiced on it in England while still competing on the grass in the juniors there.

Stephens' partner Babos also received a wild card, into the $220,000 WTA event in Budapest, but she fell to another Timea, Bacsinszky, of Switzerland 6-4, 6-2.

Complete results from the WTA tournaments can be found here.

The fact sheet for US Open Junior Championships has been released, along with a very nice brochure with dates, times, and other vital news. Important dates are July 27, which is the last date to enter via the ITF site, (although with the deadline being 2 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time, it is effectively July 26th for the western time zones of the U.S.) and August 1, which is the last day to apply for a wild card. For the complete instructions, see the ITF junior website.

The Pro Circuit has moved on to Pittsburgh(men) and Dallas(women), but to view a great collection of photos from the Rochester Futures last week, featuring many college and junior players, go to Russ Tahir's website.

I've gotten to know Brad Stine over the past few years on the junior circuit, where he's traveled extensively with Northern California junior Dan McCall. Recently Stine called me to let me know that he now has a full-fledged junior academy up and running in Fresno, California. Stine, who is well-known in professional tennis circles for coaching Jim Courier, has worked with many ATP players over the years, and prior to that coached the men's team at Fresno State, and was a USTA team coach. Former Fresno standout Rudolph Siwy also will be coaching at Stine 360 Tennis Academy.

For more information, see the academy's website.

26 comments:

Brent said...

Kudla's big win yesterday caused me to start thinking about who will play and who will pass on KZoo this year. Thinking about pros and those with eligibility left who played college ball this year.

Among the pros...

Ryan Harrison - unfortunately, fear he will again decide to pass - disagree with the decision. The wild cards will be there after this tournament too. Only one more chance to get your name on the trophy. If you do that, something to tell your grandkids no matter what happens with your pro career.

Denis Kudla - assume he will play looking for the wild card, unless he goes on some huge run here this summer

Jordan Cox - assume he will play

College Guys

Tennys Sandgren
Matt Kandath
Sekou Bangoura
Bob Van Overbeek
Harry Fowler

Hope they will all play. Always makes it more fun.

Who am I forgetting about from either list?

Austin said...

Jack Sock...although I noticed he's skipping the Clays.

Colette Lewis said...

Tennys Sandgren is not eligible to compete in Kalamazoo this year. He turns 19 this month.

tennis said...

you forgot Evan King, undoubtedly one of the favorites, big 10 freshman of the year.

getreal said...

Collette How tall is Denis Kudla?

Colette Lewis said...

Haven't seen him since December, but I'd put him at 5 foot 10 tops.

Colette Lewis said...

I've been reminded via an anonymous comment that 2009 semifinalist Mousheg Hovhannisyan is still age-eligible as well.

Brent said...

OK, well let me throw out a wild guess as to 18s seedings at the Zoo. Based on a few assumptions as follows...

- Harrison won't play, but everybody else eligible will, including Collarini

- Kudla's main draw win moves him up to the highest ATP ranking at time of selection (he is 5th highest today but not much separation)

- selection process goes top 1000 ATP first, then top 100 ITF, then USTA rankings with special consideration for college players coming back (I think this is directionally correct but not sure how much freedom they take in placing people who haven't played a lot of juniors, with decent results, for reasons other than college)

- made some general assumptions on which 16s eligible players would play 18s vs. 16s

1. Denis Kudla (ATP)
2. Alex Domijan (ATP)
3. Jordan Cox (ATP)
4. Andrea Collarini (ATP)
5. Jack Sock (ATP)
6. Evan King (special)
7. Mitchell Frank (ITF)
8. Raymond Sarmiento (ITF)
9. Bob Van Overbeek (special)
10. Nick Chappell (ITF)
11. Dennis Novikov (ITF)
12. Dane Webb (ITF)
13. Bjorn Fratangelo (ITF)
14. Shane Vinsant (ITF)
15. Mousheg Hovhannisyan (special)
16. Matt Kandath (special)
17. Mitchell Krueger (ITF)
18. Junior Ore (ITF)
19. Harry Fowler (special)
20. Campbell Johnson (ITF)
21. Sekou Bangoura (USTA)
22. Emmett Egger (USTA)
23. Gonzalez Austin (USTA)
24. Billy Pecor (USTA)
25. Wyatt McCoy (USTA)
26. Casey MacMaster (USTA)
27. Blake Bazarnik (USTA)
28. Evan Song (USTA)
29. Daniel Kosakowski (USTA)
30. Marcus Giron (USTA)
31. Greg Andrews (USTA)
32. Nelson Vick (USTA)

Don't know if someone who would otherwise have been seeded anyway, like Bangoura, will get placed higher to account for his college success, etc. If this is the result, would tell me that Bangoura and Kosakowksi for sure are woefully underseeded.

This would also leave a ton of dangerous floaters in the draw, such as Berman, Saba, Halebian, Bernstein, Zhu, Shane, Pasha, Thompson, Newman, Efferding, Callahan, Harrington, Withrow, Mkrtchian, etc.

Interested in thoughts on who I missed or where the methodology is flawed. I agree in having some structure to it and can see why they want to reward kids who have played a bunch of USTA tournaments but does lead to some counterintuitive results.

abc said...

Sean Berman can play kzoo? I thought he went full out aussi on us...

Arizona said...

This list is my prediction of how the seeding will go and NOT by how I would seed them by strength of the player. Keep in mind that being seed 9 is the same as 16. They are all paired the same: 1-2; 3-4; 5-8; 9-16; 17-32.

1. Alex Domijan
2. Jordan Cox
3. Dennis Kudla
4. Andrea Collarini
5. Jack Sock
6. Evan King
7. Mitchell Frank
8. Raymond Sarmiento
9. Bjorn Frantangelo
10. Sekou Bangoura
11. Bob Vanoverbeek
12. Nick Chappell
13. Dennis Novikov
14. Dane Webb
15. Junior Ore
16. Shane Vinsant
17. Mitchell Krueger
18. Campbell Johnson
19. Emmitt Egger (USTA)
20. Gonzalez Austin (USTA)
21. Matt Kandath
22. Mousheg Hovannisyan
23. Harry Fowler
24. Billy Pecor
25. Wyatt McCoy
26. Casey MacMaster
27. Blake Bazarnik
28. Evan Song
29. Daniel Kosakowski
30. Marcus Giron
31. Fred Saba
32. Alexios Halebian

Some HUGE floaters in the draw. Nathan Pasha who just beat Bob VanOverbeek, Gonzales Austin and Daniel Nyugen. Then you have Daniel McCall, Clay Thompson, Hunter Harrington, Dennis Mkrtchian, and Jeremy Efferding also left out.

Also, Fred Saba and Alexios Halebian are too good not to be seeded if they are healthy.

The first changes I would make is that Chappell, Novikov, and Vinsant are seeded too high. I gave respect to Bjorn and Sekou for being #1 and #2 in the country but also because they deserve to have high seedings.

tennis said...

before you make your "scenario" know that daniel nguyen and fred saba are too old to play.

tennis said...

o, and also, sean berman cannot play, and i have heard there is a good possibility collarini will not play the zoo but instead will get a mens US OPEN qualifying wild card. im not sure how much is to this, but it seems somewhat fair

college tennis fan said...

Seeing as Domijan beat Kudla 2&1 in their last meeting, a May futures, it seems like Alex would get the nod as the top seed.

Brent said...

I think their relative ATP rankings is going to drive seedings - not recent head-to-head results.

Domijan is ahead today but believe that Kudla may pass him when his main draw victory hits the rankings.

college tennis fan said...

Domijan will still be ranked higher after this week. After looking at their points, Domijan has 47 points. Kudla will have 35 next week. 15 currently + 20 from Newport.
It's possible Kudla could overtake him by Kalamazoo since Domijan is playing WTT for the next few weeks.

college tennis fan said...

Also, based on your criteria, Bangoura should be seeded 6 or right after Sock. Bangoura is ATP top 1000.

Though his college coach played him below Van Overbeek in the lineup.

Seedings said...

In being more realistic of where the players should be, I am confident in the first 18 seeds, but after that it gets tricky. Leaving out Hunter Callahan, Sean Bernstein, Michael Zhu, Justin Shane was not easy. I beleive these are the best 32 players in the draw.

1. Alex Domijan
2. Jordan Cox
3. Dennis Kudla
4. Andrea Collarini
5. Jack Sock
6. Sekou Bangoura
7. Evan King
8. Bjorn Frantangelo
9. Mitchell Frank
10. Raymond Sarmiento
11. Bob Vanoverbeek
12. Junior Ore
13. Nathan Pasha
14. Daniel Kosakowski
15. Clay Thompson
16. Mousheg Hoyannisyan
17. Alexios Halebian
18. Harry Fowler
19. Nick Chappell
20. Dennis Novikov
21. Dane Webb
22. Mitchell Krueger
23. Campbell Johnson
24. Shane Vinsant
25. Daniel McCall
26. Emmitt Egger
27. Gonzalez Austin
28. Hunter Harrington
29. Marcus Giron
30. Evan Song
31. Jeremy Efferding
32. Dennis Mkrtchian

Questionable said...

Unbelievable you have Harrington in there let alone so high and not have shane or zhu in there...even kids like halabian dont forget shane beat king last year after not playing clays since he broke his ankle...just food for thought

Seedings said...

Questionabale

You are probably right that I should have not left Justin Shane out of the seedings. This is my opinion on the level of the players. Players do have some good wins but everyone also bad ones. I have a hard time seeing Novikov and Chappell possibly so high in the seedings. I think Ryan Harrison is not a lock to win Kalamazoo if he would have played it. I beleive the Top 8 seeds are really strong and play at a higher level than the rest of the seeds. My thinking for Hunter was he won 16s Eddie Herr and went deep in 16s Orange Bowl. He has struggled recently but in looking at the other players seeded 19-32 that he deserves to be there.

Socal observer said...

Seedings,

I agree with your picks. They are the most realistic in terms of recent wins and losses. Very logical and probably the most accurate of all the bloggers.

seniors10 said...

almost all of you are forgetting chris mengel justin shane and shaun bernstein. all of them should be seeded and i believe were seeded (maybe not bernstein) at kalamazoo LAST year.

Brent said...

Collette, can you remind us of the seeding rules for the Zoo? I thought there were fairly specific rules around ATP top 1000, then ITF top 100, then USTA rankings. How much freedom does the committee have to place people and how has that been used in the past? While I believe they have used that 'special' power for college guys like King or Fowler, have they used that in the past for kids who wouldn't be seeded based on one of the above criteria, but whom otherwise should intuitively be seeded (i.e. Clay Thompson, Justin Shane, Nathan Pasha, etc.). While I agree that Seedings' guesses make the most intuitive sense, but I don't think they do it from a blank sheet of music with full freedom. Interested in your thoughts. Thanks.

Colette Lewis said...

@Brent:
As recently as 2008, the Friend at Court mandated a specific formula: Top 1000 ATP, Top 100 ITF, USTA, in that order. Now the seeding criteria starts with USTA National list and the others, including Top 100 ITA, "may be considered for seeding."
It is much more flexible than it was in the past.

Seedings said...

Sadly as I did the seedings based on where I think players should be, I knew in the back of my mind that unfortantely the tournament officials have to follow a formula when seeding the players. This will result in bigger gaps in the draw, players seeded way too high and players left out of the seedings. As long as the top 16 seeds are the best players in the tournament, then the rest can be seeded from 17-32. But as we all agree, there will be some dangerous unseeded floaters.

tnisguy said...

hey colette, i am a player that will be at zoo this year. what about putting in a locker room somewhere close to the main stowe stadium courts?

Colette Lewis said...

@tnisguy--
I have no influence on that. You should contact the tournament director Mark Riley with your suggestion. His phone number is (269) 377-3940.