Girls 18s Clay Courts Recap, Slideshow, Videos

My recap of the Girls 18s Clay Court Championships is up now at the Tennis Recruiting Network. While you are there, please read the articles on all the other seven finals, which are part of Clay Championship Week at TRNet. Earlier today Marcia Frost described the dispiriting end to the Boys 18s final, which, of course, produced no winner.

Hindsight is always 20-20, but there's no denying that this is not the first time the tournament has ended this way. Because there is absolutely no indoor backup in South Florida (which is not true here in Kalamazoo), every effort should be made to play the finals as early as possible, and unless the weather forecast was horribly off, playing both the boys 16s and boys 18s final at the same time would have been sensible. As would playing the final on Monday morning. Tennis players pay airline change fees as often as they buy Gatorade, and that is certainly a choice for the players to make, not the tournament or federation. Perhaps when the draw size is reduced next year, the tournament can use the extra day as a rain day, and play both the finals early on Sunday.

The slideshow from the girls clays and videos of the two finalists are below: