January Aces; Draws for ITA Women's Indoor Posted
An early and brief post today, as I am in College Park, Maryland to speak to parents and provide media training for the Junior Tennis Champions Center coaches and players before heading to the ITA Women's Team Indoor in Charlottesville, Virginia.
My monthly look at top performances is available today at the Tennis Recruiting Network. Without including the eight USTA Winter National champions, I still found 14 standouts to feature in January.
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| The Boar's Head in Charlottesville, Virginia will again host the ITA Women's Team Indoor |
1. Florida
2. North Carolina
3. Georgia
4. UCLA
5. USC
6. Cal
7. Duke
8. Texas A&M
The seeding does not follow the latest rankings, with Miami, currently No. 9, not being seeded, despite the absence of No. 1 Stanford. Duke, currently ranked No. 10, was given a seed instead.
Friday's first round matches:
Florida vs. host Virginia(14)
North Carolina vs. Vanderbilt(15)
Georgia vs. Miami(9)
UCLA vs. Texas(17)
USC vs. Alabama(12)
Cal vs. Clemson(13)
Duke vs. Michigan(11)
Texas A&M vs. Northwestern(16)
The ITA has done a thorough preview of each team here. The draw, with times, can be found here.
10 comments:
Has Ryan Harrison become a counter-puncher tennis player? I have never seen him so passive and reactionary in the match with Steve Johnson. Seems like he is really confused on the tennis court.
HIs coach and medical trainer were in the stands watching him, he has alot of help. I hope he can find his way. He is a great tennis player.
Any idae why they did not follow the rankings? Without some sort of explanation, it looks like Miami got cheated a bit. Instead of Michigan, they now have to play Georgia in the 1st round. Doesn't seem right.
Duke and North Carolina in the same Quarter?
Florida and Texas A&M in the same Quarter?
UCLA and USC in the same Quarter?
C'MON MAN!! How many more times will those teams play each other during the year?
Why can't the ITA separate the Top teams from conferences in different quarters?
Its' so simple to do. Even the ITF juniors do it.
Saving Private Ryan: You are correct. While Harrison still has a powerful serve, he lost his powerful forehand about a year ago which has been the root cause of his decline. Since he lost his forehand power he has been forced to become a retriever which is not a recipe for success on the ATP Tour.
This just confirms my long held belief that weapons are the most important thing to have to succeed at this level. I completely disagree with Patrick McEnroe and other so called USTA "experts" that claim that the most important development tool for junior development is to train on red clay to develop your defensive and "point construction" skills. (See McEnroe's letter back to Wayne Bryan which incorrectly states that U.S. players have no problem generating power but that they need to work on these other things). Creating weapons is more important and clay court training tends to encourage defensive players to play even more defensive because they can win that way on clay. Harrison's defensive and point construction skills are fine but they aren't doing him any good as he gets blown off the court.
That Harrison can't get his power back on his forehand is also a sad commentary on the limits of the USTA and the professional player coaches' ability to teach stroke power because none of them seem to be able to help Harrison.
Jay Berger has taken over the reigns coaching Ryan Harrison. That pretty much sums up why Harrison can't win anymore.
Ryan can still win but he lost his identity on who he is as a tennis player. The last time Jay Berger has had proven results as a coach was with Ashley Harkleroad. Ryan needs to be more offensive and more aggressive. He stopped looking to play first strike tennis, to hurt his opponent during the point. Ryan is a hard worker and looks like he lost weight. We pray his dad gets involved with his tennis again. Ryan is a Top 50 player and hope you can regain his form.
Northern Cal - I appreciate your point but he can't hit a powerful forehand when he doesn't have the stroke anymore. It's not merely an attitude problem because he is having no problem blasting his serve as big as ever up to 140 MPH. It's largely a question of stroke mechanics not just attitude.
While I am not a fan of the USTA or their coaching staff or their ridiculous cuts to junior tennis, it is hard to believe people are going to pin the whole thing on Jay Berger.
Jay Berger made him change his strokes?
If yes, then the next question that begs to be asked - Does Ryan Harrison have a mind of his own?
Anyone out there know about the decision to use the red clay at Davis Cup? Seems like a disaster surface for Americans.
Robert GA- I totally agree with you. Harrison's problem with his forehand started way before Jay Berger got involved. Berger has only gotten involved recently and Berger did not change his forehand or cause the problem. He should not take hardly any of the blame this time.
I also agree with you that the Clay Court Davis Cup decision was a disaster and didn't make any sense for a US team especially.
Harrison's development stalled over a couple years ago. His strokes and game seem to have changed completely in that time and not for the better. NorCal hit the nail on the head. With his dad not involved he has gone progressively backwards. Why isnt he involved any more?Hard to imagine what he accomplished at a young age and what he looks like now. Hope it changes again soon.
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