Roland Garros Junior Acceptances Feature Remarkable Fields; Singh Update; Embree Profile; Gomez Turning Pro?
The Roland Garros Junior acceptances were posted today by the ITF, and the fields are incredibly strong for both girls and boys. Every boy ranked from 1-44 has entered, including No. 1 and Australian Open boys champion Nick Kyrgios of Australia, who will be the top seed. That puts the initial boys cutoff at 44, after last year's final main draw cutoff was 63.
Kyle Edmund of Great Britain received direct entry based on his ATP ranking of 511, and No. 76 Lucas Gomez of Mexico received direct entry as the Central America/Caribbean representative.* In addition to those 46, there are two special exempt spots, eight wild cards and eight qualifiers.
Five US boys made the main draw: Thai Kwiatkowski, Stefan Kozlov, Noah Rubin, Luca Corinteli and Spencer Papa. Martin Redlicki is in qualifying, four out of the main draw. The qualifying cutoff is 69, with Spain's Albert Alcaraz Ivorra receiving entry into the qualifying based on his ATP ranking of 610.
The girls have just two players in the Top 45 missing--No. 4 Francoise Abanda of Canada, who has played just one match this year, a first round loss in March at the $25,000 Innisbrook Pro Circuit event, and No. 32 Samantha Crawford of the United States.
No. 55 Sara Tomic, Bernard's 15-year-old sister, received entry as the Oceania representative*, and both Allie Kiick and Vicky Duval are in the main draw via their WTA rankings of 298 and 285. The other US girls receiving direct entry are: Taylor Townsend, Christina Makarova, Sachia Vickery and Jamie Loeb. Louisa Chirico is the only US girl in qualifying, which has a cutoff of 74, and she is currently eight out of the main draw. Two girls, Mayya Katsitadze of Russia, with a WTA ranking of 375, and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain, with a WTA ranking of 398, received entry into qualifying based on their WTA rankings.
ITF No. 1 and Australian Open girls champion Ana Konjuh of Croatia, who has played only one $10,000 tournament and Fed Cup since Australia, will be the top seed in Paris.
*the explanation for admittance to these players, from the ITF regulations: In addition the highest ranked entrant from each of the following areas – South America, North America, Central America and Caribbean, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania, if not already included in a) or b) above shall be accepted for main draw if their ranking is 80 or higher or qualifying if their ranking is 150 or higher. (Note: a & b are ITF junior ranking and WTA/ATP ranking).
In the wake of the news yesterday that KU Singh had left the team at the University of Georgia, website Dawgs247 posted this article with comments from Singh on his departure. This article from Macon's The Telegraph provides additional details on Singh's departure, which he informed Georgia head coach Manny Diaz of Tuesday afternoon. Diaz says he did not try to talk Singh out of his decision. "...He had already made a decision. He had already purchased his ticket.”
If there is a polar opposite of Singh, it would probably be Florida's Lauren Embree, who is the first player to be named SEC Player of the Year three straight years and has been most outstanding player of the past two NCAA team events. For more on Embree's career, see this feature from the Orlando Sentinel.
I do not speak or read Spanish, but Google Translate provides me enough information to comprehend that Emilio Gomez is not planning on returning to Southern Cal for his senior year. Here is the article from ESPN Desportes, with the title translated as "Gomez and his step to professionalism."
And Cal is reporting that Campbell Johnson, who was the second alternate in singles, has moved into the main draw. I'm not certain, because the NCAA list hasn't been updated, but I suspect BYU's Patrick Kawka and Singh are the two players who are out.
5 comments:
A little ironic, don't you think, that Singh's quitting UGA gives Campbell Johnson a birth into the NCAA draw when Campbell Johnson was the top player who quit UGA's team last year?
Karma? Or perhaps some sort of unconscious or subconscious solidarity between the two?
That is kind of weird. And also, is Campbell Johnson really an NCAA singles quality player? I dont know, seems weird how his ranking is that high, he has 6 losses playing #3 for Cal.
Gomez turning pro is a strange one, heard that as well. Dont think he is on the level of turning pro early, but if that's what he wants, good luck.
I don't think there's any relationship between Singh and Johnson's actions. Campbell wanted more playing time and found it with Cal, and back in his home state on a pleasant transfer basis. Singh is simply a quitter.
feel so bad for the players on UGA's team. Whether we believe they had a chance or not to win it all, they will never know what a full strength squad could have achieved.
As for Singh quitting the UGA tennis team right before the NCAA Championships, there are always two sides to every story and with this one we have not heard either side except for PR spin and probably never will unless some of the team members speak out. Would be interesting as there must have been some really bad karma for Singh to do that to the coach and his team.
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