July Aces; Girls Nationals 18s Seeds Announced; Florida Wins Team Championship; US Open Jr. Acceptances; Nats Conference on Pro Tennis
My monthly installment of aces is up today at the Tennis Recruiting Network. Look for the annual preview of Kalamazoo on Thursday.
The seeds for the Girls 18s National championships in San Diego have been announced. They are as follows:
1. Sloane Stephens
2. Beatrice Capra
3. Shelby Rogers
4. Nicole Gibbs
5. Krista Hardebeck
6. Lauren Davis
7. Whitney Kay
8. Ester Goldfeld
9. Robin Anderson
10. Courtney Dolehide
11. Madison Keys
12. Grace Min
13. Emina Bektas
14. Monica Turewicz
15. Chanelle Van Nguyen
16. Ellen Tsay
17. Elizabeth Begley
17. Kaitlyn Christian
17. Danielle Collins
17. Lorraine Guillermo
17. Lauren Herring
17. Sarah Lee
17. Jessica Pegula
17. Caroline Price
17. Kayla Rizzolo
17. Sanders, Britney
17. Santamaria, Sabrina
17. Shankle, Blair
17. Vrabel, Julie
17. Xepoleas, Lynda
A bit surprising to see Rizzolo receive a seed when Nicole Melichar and Brittany Augustine did not, despite having higher WTA rankings. In all, there are 15 girls in the draw with WTA rankings, versus 11 boys with ATP rankings in the 18s at Kalamazoo. Kyle McPhillips is the only player competing in the 16s with a professional ranking.
On a side note, I understand Krista Hardebeck is featured in this week's Sports Illustrated as part of the "Where Will They Be?" section.
No. 3 seed Shelby Rogers, one of the wild cards into the girls 18s, also received a wild card into the $75,000 Pro Circuit event in Vancouver, and she got off to a good start today, beating Canada's Valerie Tetreault 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 in the first round. Tetreault is ranked 166. The final round of qualifying was completed today, and all four winners are from the U.S., three with college roots. Georgia Tech's Irina Falconi, LSU's Megan Falcon and Stanford's Hilary Barte advance to the main draw, along with 2008 Girls 18 champion Gail Brodsky. Lauren Albanese, the 2006 Girls 18s champion, beat top seed Kai-Chen Chang, ranked 85th, 6-0, 7-6(8) in first round action today.
At the Mercury Insurance Open, qualifier CoCo Vandeweghe had a much easier match in the main draw today against Gisela Dulko of Argentina than she did against Sloane Stephens yesterday in qualifying. Vandeweghe advance to the second round when Dulko retired trailing 6-0, 3-0.
In the USTA boys team championships today, the Florida section, a 5-8 seed, defeated the defending champions from the Midwest, seeded third, 4-3, to take the title. I believe Marcia Frost will have more on the competition for the Tennis Recruiting Network. The results can be found on the TennisLink site. The girls team event began today in Claremont, Calif., with the Southern California and Midwest sections the top seeds. The TennisLink site is here.
The acceptances to the US Open Junior Championships are now up at the ITF junior website. Every Top 10 boy is entered, and 9 of the Top 10 girls, with Wimbledon finalist and fifth-ranked Sachie Ishizu the only absentee. Note that a lot can change in the next three weeks as far as withdrawals. Monica Puig, Beatrice Capra, Lauren Davis, Ester Goldfeld, Krista Hardebeck and Sloane Stephens are accepted on either their ITF or WTA rankings. Laura Robson has entered as have all three 2010 slam winners-the Pliskova twins and Elina Svitolina.
Yuki Bhambri of India has entered and received acceptance based on his ATP ranking, the only boy in via that method. All three 2010 slam winners--Tiago Fernandes, Agustin Velotti and Marton Fucsovics--are also entered. Denis Kudla, Raymond Sarmiento, Nick Chappell, and Dennis Novikov are the U.S. boys directly accepted, with Dane Webb the next player in. I don't know why Mitchell Frank is not on the list.
Finally, there will be a panel discussion on Thursday, August 5th, entitled "Junior Tennis & Beyond: The Pathway from Junior Tennis to Collegiate/Professional Tennis." Panelists will include former USTA Junior and Collegiate Competition Director Timon Corwin, former ATP pros Todd Martin and Sergio Casal, exhibition participants Scoville Jenkins and Jan-Michael Gambill, and North Carolina State's head coach Jon Choboy. For more information, see ustaboys.com.
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