My Q and A with Georgia's Manny Diaz; College Coaching News; Frank, Townsend Features; Martin, Fusano Win Mixed WC; USO Order of Play for Monday

While he was in Kalamazoo, I spoke with Georgia head coach Manny Diaz for a question and answer piece that appeared yesterday on the Tennis Recruiting Network. Although I've found it challenging to find the time to schedule these interviews with college coaches, as I have very little down time when I'm covering tournaments, the many rain delays at Kalamazoo this year had the silver lining of this conversation.

Summer is traditionally full of coaching musical chairs, and this year is no exception. Penn State has announced a replacement for men's head coach Todd Doebler, who is moving to Division III Colorado College, with Wake Forest's men's head coach Jeff Zinn taking the position.

Several of the prominent assistant coaching positions have also been filled. Former Texas A & M All-American Conor Pollack has been named men's assistant at Georgia Tech, former Boise State star Luke Shields has been named women's assistant at University of Washington and Mark Merklein has left USTA Player Development for the University of Michigan's men's assistant coach position. Kelcy Tefft, an All-American at Notre Dame just a few years ago, is now the women's assistant at her alma mater and Melissa Schaub, formerly a coach at Middle Tennessee State, has been named women's assistant at Ohio State.

The University of Maryland women's head coaching position, vacant since Howard Joffe left for Texas A & M, is being filled on an interim basis by assistant Dianne Matias.

The Fairfax County Virginia Times recently published this feature about 2011 Kalamazoo finalist Mitchell Frank, who is beginning his collegiate career at the University of Virginia this fall.

And today, the New York Times published this article about Taylor Townsend, who lost a heartbreaker to Laura Robson yesterday in the second round of qualifying at the US Open. Townsend led 5-2 in the third set and served for the match at 5-4, but was broken in that game and in her next service game as well. Townsend was able to break Robson when she served for the match at 6-5, but lost the tiebreaker quickly 7-0 in the 6-3, 46, 7-6(0) loss to her fellow left-hander.

The finals of the US Open National Playoffs for the mixed doubles main draw wild card were held today in New Haven, Conn., with top seeds David Martin and Christina Fusano defeating Eric Roberson and Yasmin Schnack 2-6, 6-1, 10-5. Fusano, who played at Cal, and Martin, who played at Stanford, have competed in Grand Slams before in women's and men's doubles, but this is their debut in mixed doubles.

The US Open's order of play for Monday has been posted at usopen.org. Americans on the schedule are Mardy Fish, Venus Williams, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Varvara Lepchenko, Ryan Harrison, Christina McHale, Melanie Oudin, Michael Yani, Irina Falconi and Madison Keys and Jill Craybas, who play each other.