Pro Circuit Update; Devvarman and Singh Win Asian Games Gold; Yucatan Cup Underway
The final two events on the U.S. Pro Circuit calender for 2010 were played this past weekend, although there remain Americans scattered across the globe still trying to earn the last precious points available this year.
At the Amelia Island Futures, top seed Philip Bester of Canada took the title, his second Pro Circuit title in the past month. Bester beat No. 3 seed Adam Kellner of Hungary 7-6(2), 6-4. Former Ole Miss star Robbye Poole joined with Embry-Riddle Small College champion Mislav Hisak to take the doubles championships. The No. 3 seeds beat No. 4 seeds Dimitar Kutrovsky, the former Texas All-American, and Jack Sock 6-2, 7-6(3).
At the Champaign Challenger, the 2003 NCAA champion Amer Delic had his best result since returning from a year-long injury and recovery, reaching the final as a wild card. Returning to his alma mater, Delic scored one upset after another before finally falling to Alex Bogomolov 5-7, 7-6(6), 6-3. If it's been a long way back for Delic, it's been nearly as difficult for Bogomolov, who hadn't won a Challenger in six years. Outside the Top 100 since 2003, Bogomolov, 27, has kept plugging away and now finds himself at 201 after finishing 2009 at 313. Andrea at the blog A Change of Ends, covered the Challenger Friday and Saturday.
Marcia Frost also made several trips to the Challenger for her Big Ten Tennis blog, and filed this report on the Illini Alumni weekend this fall for Tennis Recruiting Network.
Also, congratulations to former Cal-Berkeley standout Conor Niland, who won the Salzburg Challenger last weekend, defeating Jerzy Janowicz of Poland 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 6-3. The 29-year-old from Ireland is now ranked a career-high 131. For more on Niland, see this article.
Former Virginia Cavalier Somdev Devvarman and current Cavalier Sanam Singh captured the men's double gold for India at the Asian Games today. Devvarman will play for the men's singles gold tomorrow against top seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan. For more on the tennis from the Asian Games, see this article from The Hindu.
The big junior tournament this week is at the Grade 1 Yucatan Cup in Mexico, where Lauren Davis is defending her title from 2009. The top seed in the girls event is Irina Khromacheva of Russia, the boys top seed in Juan Sebastian Gomez of Colombia, the Youth Olympic Games gold medalist. Americans in the boys draw include Connor Farren, Emmett Egger, Trey Strobel, Evan Song, Eric Johnson, Daniel McCall, Mitchell Krueger and Robert Livi. In addition to Davis, there are a large number of U.S. girls competing: Elizaveta Nemchinov, Gabrielle DeSimone, Alanna Wolff, Vicky Duval, Lynn Chi, Kelsey Laurente, Blair Shankle, Tristen Dewar, Julia Elbaba, Maci Epstein, Alexandria Stiteler, Christina Makarova, Jennifer Brady and Stephanie Nauta.
For complete draws, see the ITF junior site or the tournament website.
3 comments:
It is sad to see how bad the level of the ITF tournaments are getting. Maybe it is a blessing that all of our better Americans are playing Futures. If the Sections can pass a rule that the only way into Nationals (Kalamazoo)is to get endorsed through your section. You would see better developed American juniors!
To back to the old days….more to the point...correct me if I am wrong , but Roddick, Harrison, Querry ect did not travel around the globe non-stop as juniors to develop their games. If an American junior is good enough to play the junior slams they can qualify with points through the G1s and Orange Bowl (GA) in the US. It is beyond ridiculous that some 16 and 17 year olds continue to spend all their time traveling outside the US to play ITF tournaments, both in terms of cost and missing school, when they can develop their games to the top level in the U.S. Way too young to be touring like a tennis professions. What could their parents and coaches be thinking.
I could not agree with you more. If you are good enough to qualify through the ITF tournametns in the States, then go play in the main draw of junior grand slams, etc. American juniors lost their identity when they started traveling all around the World playing ITF junior tournaments, and not playing most Regional and Super Nationals in the States.
The top international players who played ITF tournaments over the past 10 years also had great ATP rankings, like above 250-400. Now, its rare to see any of the juniors with even decent ATP rankings. It's more like 700-1500. Which shows the top international players are not playing ITF's anymore.
First dominate Nationally before playing Internationally.
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