ITA Women's Team Indoor Live Coverage Starts Friday; Racquet Club of the South Sold; Martin Blackman Leaves USTA, Starts Academy

I'm en route to Charlottesville, Virginia where the ITA Women's Team Indoor starts on Friday morning. I won't be at the Boars Head Tennis Club until late afternoon, so I will miss top seed Duke vs. Ole Miss and No. 8 seed Michigan vs. Clemson, which are the 9:00 a.m. matches. No. 4 Georgia vs. Texas and No. 5 California vs. Miami are the noon matches, and those may also be over before I arrive, but I should see most of the four matches in the bottom half of the draw. Scheduled for 3:30 are No. 6 North Carolina vs. Southern California and No. 3 Baylor vs. Tennessee. At 6:30, Northwestern will play No. 7 seed Virginia, the host school, and No. 2 UCLA faces Georgia Tech. Live scoring can be found here.

A few other notes before plunging into college team tennis again.

The Racquet Club of the South, which was one of the first USTA Regional Training Centers, has been sold to Life Time Fitness, a Minnesota-based company. The new owners are planning major renovations, and according to this Atlanta Business Chronicle article, a 4,000-seat stadium. For more on the sale, see this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which emphasizes Melanie Oudin's connection to RCS.

Martin Blackman, who was hired for the newly created position of Senior Director of Talent ID and Development three years ago, has left the USTA, and is now offering private coaching in Delray Beach, Florida. Kent Kinnear, formerly a National Coach based in Boca Raton, has been named to succeed Blackman. For more on Blackman's new venture, see his website.

Today at the $25,000 Pro Circuit women's tournament in Rancho Mirage, 16-year-old Allie Kiick continued her run, beating fellow qualifier Nicole Melichar 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals, where she'll play Valeria Solovieva of Russia, who beat wild card Krista Hardebeck 6-4, 6-4 today.

Lauren Davis, the No. 8 seed, came back from a 2-5 deficit in the final set to down Heidi El Tabakh of Canada 6-0, 2-6, 7-6(3). Former USC All-American Amanda Fink also reached the quarterfinals, defeating No. 5 seed Lina Stanciute of Lithuania 0-6, 6-4, 6-4. Complete results are below:

Thursday, February 9 – RESULTS
Singles – Main Draw
Amanda Fink, USA, def. Lina Stanciute (5), Latvia, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Lenka Wienerova (6), Slovakia, def. Yi-Fan Xu, China, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(6).
Valeria Solovieva, Russia, def. Krista Hardebeck, USA, 6-4, 6-4.
Alexandra Kiick, USA, def. Nicole Melichar, USA, 6-3, 6-3.
Johanna Konta, Australia, def. Zuzana Luknarova, Slovakia, 6-2, 6-3.
Claire Feuerstein (1), France, def. Jing-Jing Lu, China, 6-1, 2-6, 7-6(6).
Lauren Davis (8), USA, def. Heidi El Tabakh, Canada, 6-0, 2-6, 7-6(3).
Zuzana Zlochova, Slovakia, def. Elizaveta Ianchuk, Ukraine, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles – Main Draw
Maria Sanchez/Amra Sadikovic def. Anamika Bhargava/Sylvia Krywacz, 6-2, 6-3.
Sofia Shapatava/Ekaterine Gorgodze def. Giola Barbieri/Zuzana Luknarova, 7-5, 6-3.
Lenka Solovieva/Lenka Wienerova (3) def. Katerina Kramperova/Nicole Melichar, 6-1, 6-3.
Amanda Fink/Elizabeth Lumpkin def. Chen Liang/Jing-Jing Lu (2), 6-4, 3-6, 10-4.