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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Burdette and Hoh Win ITA Summer Circuit Titles; Bodo on Confidence; McEnroe Family on Player Development


Mallory Burdette of Stanford and Stephen Hoh of Illinois won singles titles at the ITA National Collegiate Summer Championships in Bloomington, Ind. today. Burdette, the top seed, beat incoming Michigan freshman Emina Bektas, a No. 5 seed, 6-4, 7-6, and Hoh, a No. 9 seed, beat No. 2 seed Daniel Whitehead of Texas 5-7, 6-1, 10-8. Courtney McLane and Taylor Lindsey of Alabama, a No. 5 seed, won the doubles title, beating Georgia Tech's Alexandra Anghelescu and Caroline Lilley 9-8(3). The men's doubles title went to Ohio State's Peter Kobelt and Connor Smith, the top seeds, who defeated No. 2 seeds Ricky Doverspike and Carlos Taborga of Alabama 8-2. Anghelescu has transferred from Georgia to Georgia Tech, and Smith has transferred from Florida State to Ohio State since the end of the 2010-11 school year.



With their wins today, Burdette and Hoh have received wild cards into the main draw of October's ITA All-American championships, as have McLane and Lindsey and Kobelt and Smith. Bektas and Whitehead will receive qualifying draw wild cards, as will the doubles finalists.

Complete draws can be found at the University of Indiana's iuhoosiers website.

The ITA has also recently announced the departure of Jason and Allie Berney, with Josh Rey, one of my freelance writing colleagues, joining the organization, along with former Alabama media relations employee Nick Snow. Ellah Nze, who concluded her playing career at Duke in May, will be joining the ITA as an intern. For more on the staff changes, see the ITA website.

I'm still catching up on all the usual tennis reading I miss when I'm covering a tournament, but here and a couple of interesting links.

Peter Bodo at tennis.com has some very interesting things to say about the nature of confidence and ambition. He is writing about the extraordinary year that Novak Djokovic is having, but it is relevant to any player who is on a notable winning streak, which right now would include both Catherine Bellis and Peggy Porter, who each won the Clay Courts and followed that win with a championship at the National Hard Courts three weeks later.

Confidence is both an appetite booster and suppressor; winning begets the desire for more winning, but it also consistently reminds a player that winning is not just possible, it's probable—at maximum flow, confidence might even make winning appear. . . pre-ordained. Confidence makes a player less greedy, because he knows he can eat all he wants.

Richard Evans discussed the state of player development in the United States with all three McEnroe brothers in this piece for FoxSports.com. HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel is also looking into the decline of tennis in the US tonight at 10 pm. The preview of that show can be found here.

3 comments:

Brent said...

Things that make you go hmmm....

What is the cutoff date for rankings into the US Open? I think Harrison has been in the top 100 since mid-July...do they really cut it off that early such that he would need a wild card? If they do that, what would be the possible rationale?

I must have missed the announcement where Williams turned pro.

Wonder who will replace Young in the wildcard playoff now, and wouldn't they have known he was going to get a wildcard before they announced him as playing in the wildcard playoff two days ago?

WC said...

Brent, the answer is simple. After Young was announced as a participant in the WC tournament his camp made a fuss and the Open caved in. Happiness prevails. One wonders what happened to the statement "the USTA ...... for the last time". Lost in the sands of time.

CIA INFO said...

WC

Based on your comments regarding the Donald Young scenerio, you have ZERO clue as to the events that took place.

The Open did not cave into anything. Donald is Top 100 and deserves a wildcard. Even though his camp makes a fuss about everything, Donald earned this wildcard.

However, he could be lucky that Australia gave their wildcard to Hewitt which gave the US another wildcard because past champions get high consideration for those regardless of country.

Harrison Top 100 ranking just missed the entry deadline by a week, but it looks like he won't ahve to deal with needing a wildcard again the way he is playing. Credit to his father and scott mccain.