Duval Wins Girls 18s, Plus Other National Championship Winners; Johnson Claims Aptos Challenger and (another) US Open Wild Card; ITF 14U World Junior Tennis Underway in Czech Republic
As is always the case during the week I'm covering Kalamazoo, I am hard-pressed to keep up with the other junior and college news of the week. The major story was the other National Championships, of course, and this week, the Tennis Recruiting Network will feature coverage of all the tournaments, beginning with Tuesday's articles on the 12s. I will be providing the articles for the boys 16s and 18s on Thursday and Friday.
I tried to tweet the results of all the finals, but here they are again, if you don't follow twitter. The TennisLink draws can be found via a link in the division header.
Girls 12s:
Abigail Desiatnikov(1) def. Ellie Douglas(2) 7-6(4), 6-4
Henrik Wiersholm(12) def. Alexandru Gozun(32) 6-4, 6-1
Victoria Duval(17) def. Alexandra Kiick(3) 3-6, 6-1, 6-0
Dennis Novikov(3) def. Alexios Halebian(8) 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
It's fair to say that Vicky Duval can now be pronounced fully recovered from the injuries that kept her out of competition from November until May. For more on her win of the Girls 18s, as well as a recap of the girls 16s, see the tournament website.
Earlier this month, wild card Mallory Burdette, the two-time NCAA doubles champion at Stanford and a finalist in singles this year, won the $100,000 Vancouver Challenger, and with it a US Open main draw wild card. Burdette didn't play the Yakima Challenger, the first of three events that allowed US women to earn WTA points that would decide the wild card, but she reached the quarterfinals at the Lexington Challenger, and with the win in Vancouver, her best two results topped those of all other US women. For more on Burdette's path to the wild card, see usta.com.
Steve Johnson, who was given a main draw wild card to the US Open last year as NCAA champion, topped the men's version of the competition that Burdette won. There were four men's events, with the best two results counting, but Johnson only played last week in the $100,000 Aptos Challenger. He won the tournament, beating former USC teammate and good friend Rob Farah in the final 6-3, 6-3, and rather than give Johnson a discretionary wild card (there are five remaining, not including the French and Australian reciprocals and the US junior champion's wild cards, which are not subject to a committee decision), he will be selected instead from this result. For more on Johnson's wild card see tennispanorama.com.
The remaining US Open wild cards should be announced later this week, with qualifying beginning next Tuesday.
At the $10,000 Futures in Edwardsville, Ill., 2012 NCAA finalist Eric Quigley from Kentucky made the finals unseeded, falling to No. 2 seed Ante Pavic of Croatia 7-6(3), 7-5. Unseeded Daniel Nguyen and Ryan Rowe won the doubles title. For the complete draw, see the Pro Circuit page.
Usually the ITF World Junior Tennis team competition is the same week as the US Nationals, but not this year, although it is too close to have allowed any of the players representing the US to play their national championship.
The USA is the top seed in both the boys and girls events. Representing the US are William Blumberg, Michael Mmoh, Francis Tiafoe, Tornado Black, Nicole Frenkel and Emma Higuchi. The round robin portion of the competition began today in the Czech Republic, and only two of the 16 seeds lost.
See the ITF junior website for news coverage and the link above for results and standings.
7 comments:
happy to see that Rajeev Ram got a us open wildcard. well deserved. Shows that the usta is finally looking past only younger players to those who deserve it
the large mountain of wildcards continue for sock. unreal. the us needs a new young player to come up so jack will stopped getting wildcards and actually qualify into an event.
Why does the usta skip on Ryan Harrison getting a us open wildcard a couple years ago and give it to Kudla this year? Does not make any sense.
Harrison didnt want one, said he wanted to go through qualifying.
Wish they gave a wildcard to someone other than James Blake, he's had enough opportunities to make his comeback.
Lleyton Hewitt has received a wildcard to EVERY major this year.
TO Austin....pr how about Jack Sock. qualifying yes/maybe, main draw well based on what... What the USTA does not seem to get it does not do these young players any advantage to skip levels like they did with Donald Young did, to many tour WCs without the results to back the WCs. I am not much of a fan of Ryan Harrison as I find his behavior way to much self absorbed but I do admit he earned his stripes.
Harrison has gotten probably 11-12 WCs this yr alone, including Cinci this yr. Plus probably another 10 last year. Is that what you call earning your stripes??
At least Sock has been winning matches with his WCs. He got the the qtrs of Atlanta giving Isner a tough match, beating Steve Johnson along the way.
Austin, You are wrong once again. Harrison turned down the chance to play the French Open qualifying tournament last year when D.Y. had his episode and said he would play qualies. Was never offered one to the U.S.Open 2 years ago when he qualied and reached the 2nd rd. As for James Blake and Lleyton Hewitt.. You lose credibilty if you question those. Former no.1 and no. 4 ranked players in the world. Hewitt gets his as part of the reciprocal agreement with Australia.
Rob C. I think you are talking about the wrong Harrison. Ryan hasnt needed wildcards to get in tournaments as he is in the top 60 You people really need to get your info straight before posting on here. It makes it difficult to come on here even once in a while.
Factchecking: Ryan Harrison had a wild card this week into Cincinnati
http://www.cincytennis.com/news/western__southern_open_awards_wild_cards_to_brian_baker_ryan_harrison__sam_querrey_/
Correction, No he didnt. Look at the draw. It says who the wildcards are. He was in on his own ranking. You people have to know what you are talking about. Its getting hard to pay attention to this blog cause there are so many misinformed know it alls on here. The article was wrong. They would have given him one if needed but it wasnt. You stand corrected.
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