My Interview with Parenting Aces' Lisa Stone; Great Britain Boys Down USA's Team at Eastbourne; Kozlov Qualifies for Roehampton

At the NCAA tournament last month, I had an opportunity to talk with Lisa Stone, the tennis parent behind the blog Parenting Aces. Although we had gotten to know each other via the email-twitter-blog route so common these days, a face-to-face meeting was welcome, as was the chance to talk with her about the motivation and the challenges of starting a personal blog.

Unlike Zootennis, which I think of as a personal blog in some ways, but mostly consider a information source, Parenting Aces reverses that ratio, I think. Stone provides advice from experts regularly, but she also directly addresses her own emotions and experiences as the mother of a 15-year-old junior tennis player. For all the tennis parents who are out there, few want to tread that bumpy path publicly for a variety of good reasons. But when someone is bold enough to undertake that, and willing to do so without the cover of anonymity, she deserves the thanks of all of us who care about the sport.

In this interview, which went up today at the Tennis Recruiting Network, Stone shares her inspiration for starting the blog, the impact it has had on her relationship with her son and husband, and why she thinks she'll continue to explore junior tennis issues in the next few years.

She has written two interesting posts this week, one on the difference between a pusher and a grinder (such a critical distinction among junior tennis players) and the second on 'the other' tennis parent in a family.

The LTA Junior Challenge Trophy exhibition between boys teams from Great Britain and the United States wrapped up today in Eastbourne, with Great Britain's team of Peter Ashley, Luke Bambridge, Liam Broady, Kyle Edmund and Joshua Ward-Hibbert  defeating the United States team of Mitchell Krueger, Alexios Halebian, Mackenzie McDonald, Spencer Papa and Noah Rubin 6-2. I believe the two US wins came from Papa (over Bambridge) and Krueger (over Ward-Hibbert).

The next competition for all those boys will be at the ITF Grade 1 in Roehampton, which starts on Sunday. The qualifying was completed today, with Stefan Kozlov the sole American to advance to the main draw. Thai Kwiatkowski lost in the second round, while Austin Siegel and Catherine Harrison lost in the first round.

At the $10,000 women's Pro Circuit event in Williamsburg, Va., 16-year-old qualifier Caroline Doyle defeated No. 6 seed Jacqueline Cako 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the semifinals. She will play No. 5 seed Nika Kukharchuk Saturday.  For complete results, see the Pro Circuit results page at usta.com.