Hibi Wins Las Cruces Pro Circuit $25K; Another Doubles Title for Wong; Bortles, Zlobinsky Win ITF Junior Events
Carson ISC and Easter Bowl champion Mayo Hibi picked up her first title at the $25,000 level yesterday at the Pro Circuit event in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
The 17-year-old Irvine California resident, who plays under the Japanese flag, defeated Petra Rampre of Slovenia, who at 33 is nearly twice her age, 6-3, 6-0 in the final. Hibi, the No. 8 seed, and Rampre, the No. 2 seed, had already met twice before this year, splitting three-set decisions, so the outcome may not have been a surprise, but the score was. With the 50 WTA points she earned are added next week, Hibi will be close to the Top 300.
Former Clemson All-American Keri Wong picked up her third pro doubles title in New Mexico, and as the case with the previous two, her partner was Maria-Fernanda Alvarez-Teran of Bolivia. Wong and Alvarez-Teran defeated Hibi and her partner, former Pepperdine star Anamika Bhargava, 6-2, 6-2 in the final. Neither team was seeded. For more on Wong's recent doubles success, see this article from the Clemson website. For more on both the finals, see this article from the Las Cruces Sun-News.
In the $10,000 Futures in Innisbrook, Florida, former Tulsa standout Marcelo Arevalo swept the titles. The 22-year-old from El Salvador, who turned professional with two years of eligibility remaining, defeated unseeded Fernando Romboli of Brazil 6-3, 7-6(5) in the singles final, as the No. 2 seed. He won the doubles title with recent Baylor graduate Roberto Maytin of Venezuela, with the No. 3 seeds defeating No. 4 seeds Eric Quigley and Sekou Bangoura 3-6, 6-4, 10-7.
Former Alabama star Saketh Myneni, who was one of my May Aces for his four Futures titles last month, continued his winning ways, taking the title at a $10,000 Futures in Guam. The top seed, Myneni won all five of his matches in straight sets, defeating unseeded Masato Shiga of Japan 6-0, 6-1.
Former Florida Gator Antoine Benneteau won his second Futures title since leaving Gainesville in 2010, taking the singles championships at a $10,000 tournament in Israel. Benneteau, the No. 2 seed, beat unseeded Igor Smilansky of Israel 6-2, 6-2 in the final.
In ITF junior competition outside the French Open, US players took a total of four titles. Julian Zlobinsky won both singles and doubles at the ITF Grade 3 in Kazakhstan, and Alexa Bortles won singles title at the Grade 4 in Costa Rica, with Sydney Riley and Hada Chang winning the doubles.
The unseeded Bortles beat compatriot Helen Altick, the No. 6 seed, 7-5, 6-1 in the girls singles final. It is the first ITF title for Bortles, who turns 15 next month. Riley and Chang, who beat Bortles and Altick in the doubles semifinals, defeated No. 2 seeds Alexandra Miller-Krasilnikov and Elizabeth Sutherland of the US 6-7(4), 6-4, 10-4 in the final.
Zlobinsky, the No. 1 seed, defeated No. 7 seed Timur Khabibulin of Kazakhstan 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the singles final, and partnered Ivan Liutarevich of Belarus to take the doubles title. Zlobinsky and Liutarevich, the No. 1 seeds, defeated Khabibulin and his partner Roman Khassanov of Kazakhstan 6-2, 6-4 in the final.
Last week, I neglected to mention Olivia Hauger's title at the Grade 4 in Estonia, and Dennis Uspensky reaching the final at the Grade 2 in Hungary.
6 comments:
Former Ole Miss player Tucker Vorster teamed up with current Rebel Nik Scholtz to win the doubles in Konya, Turkey.
Random question but I'm interested in others' thoughts about The Tennis Channel. I, for one, find it very lacking in terms of original content. I am not sitting in front of the TV all day so this will be based on a less than full set of data, but as a relative tennis junkie, I definitely flip past the channel frequently and am frequently disappointed. The latest incident was the NCAAs. I heard comments about the disappointment that ESPN or Turner didn't continue / pick up coverage of the NCAAs. Why on earth would The Tennis Channel not be the obvious candidate to cover that? Thanks for doing the highlight show but that is a drop in the bucket. Maybe there just aren't enough people out there like me that would actually watch it but I'm not sure how they are making a go of it at all if their next best alternative is to show the re-run of a February Davis Cup match for the 397th time. I am also surprised at the number of ATP tourneys that don't appear to have a deal with The Tennis Channel at all. Maybe, between paying any rights fees and the cost of production, there just aren't enough viewers to make the math work. Interested in others thoughts.
Andy Jackson, former Florida coach, new coach at Arkansas, wow.
Brent, I too have those same thoughts. I turn it on randomly and see some 'so-so' show about "Destination Tennis" if I want to go on a tennis vacation or whatever. No, I want to see the SEC Championships. I want to see Georgia men versus Texas A&M nailbiters. I want to see the match point where the guy accidentally touched the net and didn't get the match.
Those old Davis Cup matches are like "AGH". I guess they just must not have enough money.
I'm really happy that tennis channel exists. Get to see alot more tennis, like today's matches from Halle, than I otherwise would. But I too think they could do a better job, especially in covering college and junior tennis.
One of things tennis needs to do is develop stronger bonds between fans and players beyond the obvious connections we have with Rafa, Federer, and Djokovic. For most fans most tennis players are just names on a draw devoid of an identity. Who the heck is Denis Kudla? Where did he come from to beat Paire today and probably vault himself into the top 100? (ps. rhetorical question on my part.) So why not show the Junior slams, Kalamazoo, Orange Bowl? Why not televise the collegiate indoors or top ten NCAA match ups? Let's see these guys early and develop an early rooting interest for players who catch our eye and might become threats to win slams. No one is paying for these TV rights now so it should be cheap. Heck their cameras are already at the slams.
I would agree with both Brent and been-there, the channel when compared to the Golf Channel is a huge disappointment. I like some of the announcers and some of the tournament coverage, the rest is poor. Take an opportunity to grow the game by showing American tennis, we need to see the young guns who are trying to make it. It has to be funding and that's understood,backers of the channel seem to be an issue. Lots more could be done.Great win for Kudla, keep working.
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