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Thursday, April 24, 2014

Virginia's Brian Boland Named National Coach of the Year by USOC; Five Americans in Charlottesvile $50K Quarterfinals; Herring, Scholtz Named SEC POYs; Conference Tournaments Underway


The USTA provided a release announcing the USOC's 2013 coaching awards for tennis, with University of Virginia's men's head coach Brian Boland named National Coach of the Year.  Boland's team went undefeated in 2013, winning the National Indoor team and the  NCAA team championship after finishing runner-up to the University of Southern California the previous two years. Virginia senior Jarmere Jenkins was a finalist in singles and won the NCAA doubles title with Mac Styslinger last May in Illinois.

As previously announced at the USTA's Coaches Awards at the Easter Bowl earlier this month, Joseph Gilbert was named Developmental Coach of the Year.  Gordon Uehling was given the Doc Counsilman Award for Sports Science and Jan Beeman was named Volunteer Coach of the Year.

The complete release can be found here.

The second leg of the women's USTA's Har-Tru Wild Card Challenge is in Charlotteville this week for a $50,000 tournament, and as was the case in Dothan last week, Americans are doing very well.  No. 8 seed Grace Min, who won Dothan to take the lead in the points race for the French Open wild card, reached the quarterfinals with a win today, and she will play Nicole Gibbs, who at this time last year, was preparing to defend her 2012 NCAA titles.  Min and Gibbs met in the final of the $25,000 Pro Circuit tournament in Innisbrook this winter, which was also on the green clay, with Min winning 7-5, 6-0. 

Vicky Duval, who reached the final last week in Dothan, is still in the running for the wild card, and she will play Sanaz Marand(North Carolina) in the quarterfinals Friday.  Sixth seed Duval and the unseeded Marand split their meeting last year, with Marand winning in three sets in Charlottesville and Duval winning in three sets indoors in Midland.

The fifth American in the last eight is Taylor Townsend, who, like Marand, is a wild card recipient. Townsend beat No. 4 seed Irina Falconi in the first round and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia today 6-3, 6-1. Her next opponent is Sesil Karatantcheva of Kazakhstan.

Seventeen-year-old qualifier Francoise Abanda of Canada has also reached the quarterfinals.

This week's men's $50,000 Challenger in Savannah has only one US player remaining eligible to win the wild card, with No. 5 seed Alex Kuznetsov, who won the Har-Tru Challenge last year, reaching the quarterfinals today. Kuznetsov defeated Evan King (Michigan) 6-1, 6-3, and will play 18-year-old Nick Kyrgios of Australia tomorrow in the quarterfinals. Kyrgios won the Sarasota Challenge last week. The other American still in the draw is Jack Sock, the No. 2 seed, who is already in the main draw of the French.

The SEC, which completed its tennis season last week with the conference championships, announced its awards. Georgia's Lauren Herring and Mississippi's Nik Scholtz were named Players of the Year.  Jenny Mainz of Alabama was named Women's Coach of the Year, and Steve Denton of Texas A&M was named Men's Coach of the year.  The complete list of all-conference teams are here for the women, and here for the men.

Most conference tournaments are being held this weekend, with the majority of the top teams starting play on Friday. The only exception to that was the Duke women, who are the No. 5 seed in the ACC tournament, and so had to play in today's second round. They beat Wake Forest 4-0, to set up a quarterfinal meeting Friday with Clemson, who beat Duke last weekend.

The ITA has links to all the tournaments' live scoring and video, if available, at their Matchday Central page.

9 comments:

Actually said...

Colette,
This time last year Nicole Gibbs was actually getting ready to play the quarterfinals of the Charlottesville event, just as she is doing this year. Hopefully, she will make a deeper run in 2014. Nicole also made the finals of doubles in 2013 with Shelby Rogers. After Cville 2013, the focus turned to the NCAAs. I am really nitpicking a point. Thanks for your hard work Colette.

Laura said...

Colette,

I read your article on TRN from Player Development team coach and I am just surprised as a journalist that it is not a balance piece. It reads more like like an advertisement about how great the USTA PD coaches are - Of course it is rebranded under a new warm fuzzy name, in this case Tom is the USTA Lead National coach

Some of the quotes from the article -

One of (USTA president) David Haggerty's focuses right now is making the family bigger ...

inclusiveness and collaboration ....

Having been to some tournaments and have USTA player development coaches clap, cheer and COACH on their players while I couldn't afford a coach for my daughter was not a heart warming experience. She was a blue chip ( freshman at college) and we were ignored until the end when I guess they thought it was a good idea to tag onto her at the Junior US Open and try to freeze out her own coach.







slip of the tongue said...

OOPs…on the Indiana Mens Tennis Website…it states that the #1 doubles team defeated the Illinios #1 doubles team 7-6. Illinois won on cts 2 and 3 of the doubles and won the point. The ct 1 doubles didn't finish. A correction is needed on the website….the win was wishful thinking

The one sided truth said...

Laura,

Could you be anymore dense in your comment about a "one sided piece". I mean it was an interview. Do you want Collete to make up what Coach Gullikson said in order to make it a slanderous piece against the USTA?

If anything Collete probably errors on the side of not giving Player Development enough credit for what they are doing. My kids have been going to match play camps this year where the vibe has been something way different then I have ever seen before. USTAPD is really making a big change and it shows out in the field. Look at the EB for example. Patrick McEnroe, Jose Higueras, Jay Berger, Andy Brandi, Kathy Rinaldi, Jamea Jackson, and about four other coaches where all at the event talking with parents and coChes and really being a resource. They even taped a few of my children's matches and are sending me the link to view. So why don't we give these people a Chance. They are working just as hard as all of us to try and help American tennis.

Ted Anderson - SC said...

Laura

You are most of the problem within American tennis, you are the person who is critical instead of doing something to help/promote/support American Tennis.

Colette does an incredible job promoting tennis, Tom Gullikson does as well. Then there is you trying to point a finger.

It is easy to critize when things are not going well. The tough part is to help and be positive.

I feel for your kids if they happen to spill their milk.

Igor said...

Well, I didn't find the experience at EB positive in regards to the USTA and PD. Maybe, instead of having all those folks there, they could have done a better job, or even a job, of figuring out this was a TERRIBLE time to have this event. Does the USTA realize that most people have to fly here and rent a car? Should the hotels be completely sold out and exorbitant? Are the parents now suppose to be millionaires to stay here?

First, who planned this? It couldn't be a surprise to anyone about the festival??????

Last year, when I Ieft the hotel and booked for 2014, I was told the prices would jump due to the festival.

How did the hotel know about it, and not the USTA?

Did they jump? Yes, by $200. We ended up at a different hotel this year, that was still expensive with 6 people in one room.

Refs? Where were they?
18's was a joke!!!!
ITF high level and no chair till the QF???


To the parent that already has a child at the match play camps, maybe that's why your kid got videotaped.

My kid is a low blue chip and the matches were not a quiet affair with the PD coaches clapping for the opponent ( a PD player), how do you root against a fellow American?

It might have been a great experience for you, but most parents were very unhappy. Not sure what the USTA is thinking. But, maybe instead of having so many PD coaches there to root for their players, they could actually use that money to help fund the tournament and obviously pick a different time.

Dan - GA said...

Kudos to Colette for even printing these letters.
That being said, I think she dropped the ball on EB
interview with USTA and asking the hard question on
who planned this and how did they think parents could afford it. Hotels were completely sold out and the few left were out of my price range. Disappointed my kid and he had to pull out after getting in.

Scott said...

How long are we going to have the same comments over and over again on the USTA PD...
Folks have got to realize that when your job and salary ( mortgage payments) are based on a teenager performing well, that is going to influence how you as a PD coach is going to behave as a spectator/coach on the sidelines of the court.. Get over it. They will continue to coach the kids in Spanish and your kid just has to be better.

Colette Lewis said...

I conducted the Gullikson interview at the Mobile tournament, not at the Easter Bowl.