College Recruiting Tips from Expert Panel; Wimbledon Juniors Begin; Broady, De Vroome Win Roehampton Titles

I had an opportunity to be part of a college tennis recruiting information panel that USTA Player Development put together at the NCAAs last month at Stanford. Although there was no way I could transcribe the entire presentation, panel discussion and question and answer session, I thought there was way too much good information there to confine it to those who could attend. I pulled out a few of the many great comments from the panelists into this feature for the Tennis Recruiting Network. If you think you might want to play college tennis, or your son or daughter might, please read it and then try to find an upcoming college forum or showcase in your section to attend. There is a lot of great information out there if you take a moment to find it.

There was more rain today at Wimbledon, but it came late enough in the day so that the junior qualifying could be completed. Catherine Harrison and Dennis Novikov were the two Americans who qualified into the main draw. Harrison was not even in qualifying, but was an alternate when she went over to England for the two grass court events, so she has to be pleased to have gotten inside the AELTC gates.

There are eight US girls and six US boys in the main draw, with eight of those 14 in action on Saturday. Madison Keys, who was injured and withdrew at Roehampton, is on the schedule for tomorrow, as is Roehampton semifinalist Krista Hardebeck, Stephanie Nauta and Grace Min. The other four US girls who will play their opening matches on Monday are Harrison, Christina Makarova, Gabby Andrews, and Vicky Duval, who is, at No. 16, the only US girl seeded. Keys plays No. 8 seed Victoria Bosio of Argentina, none of the others has drawn a seed. Interesting to note that French Open girls champion Ons Jabeur of Tunisia was given a wild card into the event, although she is the No. 4 seed and would obviously have had no difficulty obtaining entry through the normal means. Stephanie Myles, the Canadian tennis writer, reported today on twitter that Carol Zhao is not playing Wimbledon due to an computer entry problem, which is the same thing that happened to Shane Vinsant this year in Australia.

The US boys playing Saturday are Alexios Halebian, Mac Styslinger, Mitchell Krueger and Marcos Giron. Halebian has drawn the same player who beat him in the opening round at Roehampton, Bruno Sant'anna of Brazil. Krueger gets No. 8 seed Mate Pavic of Croatia and Giron has drawn No. 14 seed Andre Artunedo Martinavarr of Spain. In addition to Novikov, who will play Roehampton finalist Evgeny Karolvskiy of Russia (a special exempt entry), Shane Vinsant is the other American boy set to start play on Monday.

Top seeds in the tournament are the same as for Roehampton, Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic, the 2011 Australian boys champion and Daria Gavrilova of Russia, the 2010 US Open girls champion.

For the complete draws and order of play, see wimbledon.com. The ITF's preview of the Wimbledon juniors is available on their website.

At Roehampton today, No. 13 seed Liam Broady of Great Britain and unseeded Indy De Vroome of the Netherlands were the somewhat unexpected winners of the ITF Grade 1, which is held alongside the Wimbledon qualifying. De Vroome beat No. 4 seed Yulia Putintseva of Russia 6-4, 6-4, while Broady took out unseeded qualifier Evgeny Karolskiy of Russia 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.

In the girls doubles, No. 2 seeds Ashleigh Barty of Australia and Ons Jabeur won the title, but it looks as if the boys doubles rain into darkness/rain problems without being completed.

For the Roehampton results and the complete results of the qualifying, see the LTA site.

And congratulations to 18-year-old Australian Bernard Tomic, who has made the third round of a Grand Slam for the second time this year after a two-day, five-set, come-from-behind win over Russia's Igor Andreev. Tomic will play No. 5 seed Robin Soderling of Sweden on Court 1 Saturday.