July Aces; Texas Wins National B18s Team Event; US 14-U Teams Advance in Czech Republic

My monthly column on July's aces appears today on the Tennis Recruiting Network. There's a whole lot of Tennessee orange at the bottom, with the Volunteers three Futures titles last month. My Kalamazoo preview will be published there on Friday. I'm doing research for that article now, and to make sure you read it, I'm revealing that I've discovered an interesting fact about this year's 18s field. A couple of notable 18s withdrawals: Christian Harrison and Andrew Korinek.

The No. 2 seeds Texas won over No. 1 seeds Southern 4-3 at the USTA National Team Championships today at the University of Illinois. Marcia Frost was there, but I was not, so I can't add much what I can observe from the scores. Texas won the doubles point, taking two of the three 8-game sets, none of which were close, and the teams split the singles matches. All were decided in straight sets, and I don't know who clinched it for Texas, but Mitchell Krueger at No. 2, Harrison Adams at No. 3 and Nicholas Naumann at No. 4 were the Texas winners. Southern's Austin Smith beat Dane Webb 7-5, 6-3 in a battle between the No. 15 and No. 16 seeds here in Kalamazoo at the No. 1 position. Harrison Richmond and Vikram Hundal won at No. 5 and No. 6 for Southern. For the complete results of today's final, see the TennisLink site.

The girls USTA National Team event began on Monday, and after two days of play, the top four seeds have reached the semifinals. No. 1 seed Southern will play No. 3 seed Midwest and No. 2 seed Southern California will play No. 4 seed Florida (and it's good to see Danielle Collins back on the court after her illness during the Clay Court semifinal). For scores, which also includes a live scoring option during play, see the TennisLink site.

In the Czech Republic today, both US teams posted 3-0 victories again and will play their final round robin matches on Wednesday. The boys will play China for a spot in the semifinals, while the girls play Great Britain for a place in the semifinals. The girls article from the ITF website is here; the boys article from the ITF website is here.

Stephanie Myles, who is on top of everything in Canadian tennis, reports that Eugenie Bouchard has received one of the three main draw wild cards for next week's Rogers Cup, a WTA Premier event. For the complete list of wild cards, see her blog at the Montreal Gazette.

At the Vancouver Open $100,000 challenger today, 2010 NCAA champion Bradley Klahn advanced to the second round with a 7-6(2), 6-2 win over Michael McClune, while fellow wild card and 2011 NCAA champion Steve Johnson beat qualifier Travis Rettenmaier 7-6, 6-4.