My Tennis Plaza Cup Recap; Steden Endows USC Scholarship; Bryans Treat Juniors to Davis Cup Experience; National Open Results From November

My recap of the Tennis Plaza Cup, completed Monday, is now available at the Tennis Recruiting Network. It was a busy weekend for me, with the Kick-off Weekend final at the University of Miami too, and getting great late January weather always adds to the fun of seeing new faces and new games.

While catching up on the news from last week, I saw this announcement from the University of Southern California on a new endowment for a scholarship for women's tennis.  Former All-American Heliane Steden, now a managing director at Merrill Lynch, has endowed a scholarship in her name, which will primarily go toward funding an international student. There has been a great deal of perhaps unintended negativity directed toward international student-athletes competing in US colleges, but reading this release provides a look at what a positive impact such an opportunity can have.

The Bryan brothers are another example of former college players giving back. After winning their record 13th grand slam title as a team in Australia (Bonnie Ford at ESPN has an appreciation of not just their accomplishments, but their personalities here), the Bryans are back in action in this weekend's Davis Cup, with a chance to clinch the tie against Brazil Saturday after Sam Querrey and John Isner won their singles matches today to give the United States a 2-0 lead today.  The ATP website published a question and answer session with the Bryans today, which includes this about their invitation to eight juniors to be their guests at the Davis Cup.

The Bryan Brothers Foundation has brought eight deserving juniors they sponsor to the Davis Cup. How did you come up with this idea?
Bob: We were inspired to play tennis by seeing events like this. We went to see Davis Cup when we were 10. It gave us lofty dreams. We feel like we’re living our dream by being on this team. So we had the idea to select eight kids who showed improvement both on the court and in the classroom, and really taking care of business with their lives in a positive way. So we wanted to reward them. They’re going to do workouts in the mornings and then watch the matches to support the team. We’re excited to be able to do this.

It's great to hear that the twins are not contemplating retirement for many years and continue to appreciate the unique stature they enjoy in professional tennis.

This is so late as to be embarrassing, but I realized a week or so ago that I never published the National Open winners from the late November tournaments. I usually get them up sometime in January (late, but not this late, due to my long stay in Florida), but somehow the month flew by without that happening.  I hope to be much more prompt with the results from the National Opens taking place in three weeks.

B12s:

Michael Sun def. Magnus Johnson(1) 6-2, 6-2

Steven Sun(1) def. Jonathan Mascagni 6-2, 6-2

Brandon Nakashima(1) def. Alexey Lunin(5) 6-4, 3-6, 10-3

Bill Duo(2) def. Nicholas Williams(5) 6-3, 6-2

G12s:

Anna Brylin(1) def. Marcella Cruz(3) 6-1, 6-3

Nicole Stephens(1) def. Yekaterina Alferova(2) 6-2, 6-3

Carson Branstine(1) def. Eryn Cayetano(5) 6-3, 6-2

Nicole Roc(1) def. Katya Townsend(6) 6-0, 7-5

B14s:

Alexander del Corral(1) def. Aleks Huryn(4) 7-6(5), 6-4

Justin Lee(2) def. Nathan Perrone(1) 6-1, 6-0

Gui Gomes def. Hady Habib 6-4, 6-1

Alexandre Rotsaert(1) def. Chase Wood(2) 6-4, 6-1

G14s:

Rachel Papavasilopoulos def. Alexa Corcoleotes(2) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4

Caitlin Calkins(4) def. Grace Joyce(5) 6-2, 6-4

Claire Liu(1) def. Ryan Peus(3) 6-2, 6-1

Marybeth Hurley(4) def. Alyvia Jones(3) 6-1, 6-1

B16s:

Daniel Grunberger(4) def. Charles Shewalter 6-3, 6-2

J. T. Nishimura(1) def. Victor Pham(5) 6-4, 6-3

Xavier Gonzalez(2) def. Emil Reinberg 6-2, 6-0

Sameer Kumar(1) def. Johnathan Small(4) 6-1, 6-0

G16s:

Emma Davis(5) def. (1) Melissa Lord(1) 1-6, 7-5, 6-3

CiCi Bellis(3) def. Rebekah Anderson 6-2, 7-5

Brienne Minor(3) def. Natalie Whalen 6-2, 6-0

Chuyang Guan(3) def. Alexandra Letzt(5) 6-1, 6-1

B18s:

Trey Yates def. Christian Langmo 6-3, 5-7, 6-4

Hayden Sabatka def. Jack Murray(2) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4

Felix Corwin def. Vincent Lin 7-6, 6-4

Gage Brymer(1) def. Mitch Stewart 6-1, 6-2

G18s:

Sydney Campbell(6) def. Brittany Lindl(1) 6-1, 6-3

Monica Lin(4) def. Olivia Sneed(1) 6-4, 6-1

Taylor Ng def. Cassie Mercer(2)  6-1, 7-5

Mayci Jones(5) def. Jessica Perez 6-4, 3-0 Ret (inj)