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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Krueger, Styslinger and Makarova Reach Australian Junior Quarterfinals; Vanderbilt Selected as Top Men's Recruiting Class for 2011: Capra to Duke


Today was a travel day, but I wanted to do a short post to update Wednesday's results from the Australian Open junior championships. In the past few years there hasn't been much to write about when it comes to Americans in Australia, unless you consider 2010 finalist Sean Berman as American, which Tennis Australia certainly does not. This year however, there are three U.S. players in the quarterfinals, and none of them are Lauren Davis, the No. 3 seed, who was beaten in the third round by Eugenie Bouchard of Canada 6-0, 6-3.

Qualifier Mac Styslinger is having a Milos Raonic-like Australian Open. The big right-hander dropped the opening set in his first qualifying match, and hasn't lost a set in his five wins since. In Wednesday's third round, Styslinger beat Australian wild card Nick Kyrgios 6-3, 6-4 and will play the winner of the match between No. 6 seed Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain and Leonard Stakhovsky of Ukraine.

Texan Mitchell Krueger will face top seed Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals after Krueger's 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 win over wild card Mark Richards of Australia, and Vesely's 6-4, 6-1 victory over Sean Berman of Australia. Krueger is also in the doubles quarterfinals with Brazilian Karue Sell.

The third American is 14-year-old Christina Makarova, who Wednesday defeated last year's Les Petits As winner Kanami Tsuji of Japan 7-5, 6-4 in exactly two hours. Tsuji had upset top seed and reigning US Open girls champion Daria Gavrilova of Russia in the opening round. Makarova didn't play the warm-up event in Traralgon, so I wasn't even sure she would be in the draw, but she's got to be very pleased with her performance in her first junior slam. She will play either Emi Mutaguchi or No. 5 seed Monica Puig of Puerto Rico.

Davis and Gavrilova weren't the only two big names to fall early. Dominic Thiem of Austria, the No. 2 seed, went out in the second round to Luke Saville of Australia, and No. 3 seed Mate Pavic of Croatia exited in the first round. US Open girls finalist Yulia Putintseva of Russia, the No. 7 seed, lost in the third round to Anna Schmiedlova of Slovakia 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

For complete draws, see the Australian Open website.

The Tennis Recruiting Network published its first set of rankings for the men's 2011 recruiting classes and Vanderbilt came out on top, followed by UCLA and South Carolina. The women's rankings will be out next Monday, but the voting has already closed, so Duke's signing of Beatrice Capra last November, which was just announced yesterday, will not be included until the spring rankings are released.

3 comments:

Mens Class said...

Collette,

What do you think about the class rankings? Vanderbilt, UCLA, etc.

Love to hear your thoughts.

Colette Lewis said...

No disrespect to the other voters, but I look at it from the perspective of what impact the group will have in getting the team into the Final 16. So I tend to favor classes with players who can contribute immediately, especially on a proven Top 25 team. That said, I don't always know who that will end up being. Sometimes players I think will be great in college are not, and vice versa.

Just saying said...

UCLA should be one....Vanderbilt's class is just a bunch of guys that are 'could be-s' except for gonzales. Overrated.