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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Halebian, Andrews Top Seeds at Clay Courts; Atlanta 10K Quarterfinals Set; Stephens, Vandeweghe Prepare for US Open Series

Although not all the draws have been posted for the USTA National Clay Court championships, the seeds for each of the eight tournaments are available at the TennisLink sites, which are linked below.

In Delray Beach, Alexios Halebian is the No. 1 seed in the boys 18s, followed by Emmett Egger, Spring National champion Zack McCourt and Anthony Tsodikov. Halebian lost to Bjorn Fratangelo in last year's final. I was surprised to see wild card Spencer Newman go unseeded, after completing a dual match season at SEC tournament champion Florida. He also has recorded a couple of wins in Futures events in the past few months. The draws are out for the boys 16s and 18s, and the seed in Newman's part of the draw is No. 13 seed Nolan Paige. Jeremy Efferding is also not seeded, and he could face longtime friend and rival Egger in the round of 64. Thai Kwiatkowski is another dangerous floater and not who No. 5 seed Andrew Adams was hoping to encounter in his opening (second round) match, should Kwiatkowski beat Max Schnur in the first round.

Easter Bowl finalist Ronnie Schneider is the top seed in the boys 16s, followed by Winter National champion TJ Pura, International Spring champion Noah Rubin and Luca Corinteli. Henrik Wiersholm and Stefan Kozlov are both playing up prior to leaving for the ITF World Junior Tennis 14-and-under competition in the Czech Republic. Kozlov is seeded 12th, Wiersholm is not seeded.

Gabby Andrews is the No. 1 seed in the girls 18s at Memphis, which I will cover live beginning on Monday. Andrews, the Winter National champion and Easter Bowl finalist, is followed in the seedings by 2010 finalist Whitney Kay, Spring National champion Danielle Collins and local star Catherine Harrison. Defending champion Caroline Price is seeded No. 11.

In the girls 16s in Virginia Beach, the top seed is Shannon Hudson, playing in her hometown, with Quinn Gleason, Alanna Wolff and Lauren Marker in the 2, 3, and 4 spots.

Martin Joyce, Robert Seby, Tommy Paul and Francis Tiafoe are the top four seeds at the boys 14s in Ft. Lauderdale. At the girls 14s in Plantation, the top seed is Katerina Stewart, followed by Lauren Goodman, Marie Norris and Rebecca Weissman.

The top seed in the boys 12s in Winston-Salem is Noah Makarome, with Noah Schachter, Patrick Kypson and Nathan Perrone at 2, 3, and 4. Catherine Bellis in the No. 1 seed at the girls 12s in Boca Raton, followed by Ryan Peus, Kayla Day and Anna Bright.

The quarterfinals are set at the $10,000 Women's Pro Circuit event in Atlanta, with top seed Lauren Davis among those advancing. Davis, who won the tournament in Buffalo last week, will play former Bollettieri student Di Zhao, an 18-year-old from China. No. 3 seed Amanda McDowell, who won the US Open Sectional Playoff earlier this month in the Southern section, will play wild card Lauren Embree in the other quarterfinal match in the top half. In the bottom half, Taylor Townsend, who is the No. 5 seed in this pro tournament and the No. 5 seed in the 18s Clay Courts next week, meets No. 4 seed Angelina Gabueva of Russia, and 16-year-old qualifier Hayley Carter will play No. 2 seed Alexis King, who was Alexis Gordon when she starred at the University of Florida in 2001-2004.

For more on the tournament, the Daily Forehand website is providing onsite coverage. And Ken Thomas will be webcasting again on Friday at radiotennis.com, beginning at 9:30 a.m. The complete results can be found at the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

Checking in with some of the US teens who are professionals now, Sloane Stephens did a conference call yesterday to promote her appearance at the new WTA event in the Washington DC area, the Citi Open, which begins July 23rd in College Park, Maryland. For more on that call, see Tennis Panorama's coverage.

CoCo Vandeweghe has played World Team Tennis for the Boston Lobsters the past ten days or so, but is leaving the team to prepare for the WTA Bank of the West Classic at Stanford later this month. This Boston Herald article explores her popularity with Lobster fans and her reluctance to excuse herself from the WTT competition, although she will play one more match for the Boston team when they travel to Newport Beach, California.

1 comments:

Brent said...

18s Clays predictions...

Round of 128 upsets
Kwiatkowski over 5 Adams
Offerdahl over 17 Hu
Narayana over 17 Steinroeder
McCall over 17 Wood
Newman over 13 Paige

Round of 64 upsets
Elortegui over 17 Damrongski
Mudge over 17 Sidney
Mays over 7 Redlicki
Rinaldi over 11 Naumann
Papa over 17 Yee
A.Van Cott over 10 Clark
Kumar over 17 Kay
Cahn over 17 Bloomfield

Round of 32
1 Halebian over 17 Lederman
14 Karl over Elortegui
Kwiatkowski over 17 Richmond
9 Farren over Mudge
3 McCourt over 17 Lin
15 Callahan over 17 Strobel
Offerdahl over Mays
Rinaldi over 17 Hundal
Papa over 16 Watson
6 Riggs over Narayana
12 Delcore over 17 Steer
McCall over 4 Tsodikov
17 Gordon over A.Van Cott
8 Haworth over Kumar
Newman over Cahn
2 Egger over 17 Petrone

Round of 16
1 Halebian over 14 Karl
Kwiatkowski over 9 Farren
15 Callahan over 3 McCourt
Offerdahl over Rinaldi
Papa over 6 Riggs
12 Delcore over McCall
8 Haworth over 17 Gordon
Newman over 2 Egger

Quarters
1 Halebian over Kwiatkowski
15 Callahan over Offerdahl
12 Delcore over Papa
Newman over 8 Haworth

Semis
1 Halebian over 15 Callahan
Newman over 12 Delcore

Finals
Newman over 1 Halebian