UCLA Men Beat Baylor in Waco Thriller; Anderson Downs Devvarman to Win First ATP Title; Qualifying Underway at Dow Corning
There was an exciting football game tonight in Texas, but in the same state there was an equally thrilling college tennis match that didn't quite as much attention and didn't end as well for the green and gold. The sixth-ranked UCLA Bruins beat the ninth-ranked Baylor Bears 4-3 in Waco, with the match coming down to No. 4 singles. UCLA freshman Clay Thompson defeated Baylor senior Sergio Ramirez 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(8) to deliver the road win for the Bruins. And that wasn't the only close match; five of the six singles matches went three sets. For more on the match, see baylorbears.com. UCLA's website will have more later, I'm sure, when they return to Los Angeles.
In another high profile contest today, fourth-ranked Ohio State beat No. 11 Georgia 6-1 in Columbus. Ohio State won the doubles point and at 2, 6 and 1. In a tweet after the match, Georgia coach Manny Diaz wrote, "@osutennis you guys have a great team. ExtraTough 1&2!" For more on the match, see ohiostatebuckeyes.com.
Former Illinois All-American Kevin Anderson won his first ATP title today in South Africa, defeating collegiate rival Somdev Devvarman 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. It had to be especially sweet for Anderson to win the title in his home country. For more on his victory, see fightingillini.com and atpworldtour.com. Former Brown University doubles teammates James Cerretani and Adil Shamasdin won the doubles title over Scott Lipsy and Rajeev Ram 6-3, 3-6, 10-7.
At the Palm Coast Futures, Wayne Odesnik won the singles title over Italian qualifier Nicola Ghendin 6-2, 6-1, while Dimitar Kutrovsky and Jack Sock won the doubles title over Greg Ouellette and Blake Strode 6-3, 3-6, 10-8. In Rancho Santa Fe, Michelle Larcher de Brito won the women's $25,000 event, beating Madison Brengle 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. I understand Larcher de Brito did get into the main draw at Midland with a late withdrawal.
I'll be on site at the Dow Corning Tennis Classic on Monday for the second round of qualifying. In today's first round, top qualifying seed Beatrice Capra and former North Carolina all-American Sanaz Marand had quite a match, with Capra getting through 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(8). It didn't go well for the juniors in the draw, with Brooke Austin, Kyle McPhillips, Nicole Robinson, Ester Goldfled, Brittany Lashway and Lauren Herring all losing, although Robin Anderson and Jan Abaza did advance to the second round.
Irina Falconi is blogging this week for usta.com, and I'm sure you can tell from her first entry just how special the tournament is.
See the Pro Circuit page at usta.com for results and draws.
The final round of qualifying for the SAP Open in San Jose was completed today, and Robert Farah, Jesse Levine, Alex Kuznetsov and Roman Borvanov earned their way into the main draw.
1 comments:
Events like that are very important. Dominating juniors like Brooke Austin learn how the game played by even the 400th ranked pro is much different than juniors. All our top juniors should be sure to enter some ITF/Pro tour competition to learn where they really stand in the grand scheme of tennis.
That may better help them decide whether they should be aiming for college tennis first.
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