My Conversations with Pros on Next Gen Experiments; Qualifying Begins Saturday for Eddie Herr ITF; Noel Reaches Grade 1 Yucatan Final

The Next Gen experiments, and recently, the Grand Slam committee's recent announcement of changes have been a hot topic in the tennis world, so  when  I was at the Champaign Challenger last week I spoke to a half dozen pros and other tournament officials to get their thoughts on the experiments held during the 21-and-under tournament the ATP held for the first time earlier this month.  In the first of a two-part series for the Tennis Recruiting Network, I sought their opinions on the all-electronic line calling, the 25-second serve clock, the four-game best-of-five sets and no-ad scoring.  In Friday's second part, the discussion turns to playing lets on serves, allowing coaching and fan movement, and reducing the number of medical timeouts.

The qualifying draws have been released for the ITF Grade 1 Eddie Herr, which begins at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. Both boys and girls draws are full this year, but only two wild cards were needed to fill the girls draw.

Twenty US boys are in the 64-player qualifying draw, with five of them seeded: Jaycer Lyeons[1], Nathan Han[2], Sumit Sarkar[5], Boris Kozlov[14] and Pierce Rollins[15].

Twenty-three US girls are competing for a place in the main draw, with nine of them seeded: Kianah Motosono[2], Chloe Beck[4], Kacie Harvey[5], Chloe Hamlin[7], Victoria Hu[10], Lauren Stein[12], Abigail Forbes[14], Jenna Dean[15], and Jennifer Gadalov[16].

The order of play for Saturday's ITF qualifying matches is here.

Rain this week has put the qualifying for the 12s, 14s, and 16s behind schedule, and with four matches needed to determine the eight qualifiers, girls 16s will double up on Saturday, playing two rounds.  The weather forecast is good, with just a small chance of precipitation for the weekend and the week of the main draw.

At the ITF Grade 1 Yucatan Cup, Alexa Noel has reached the final after defeating No. 12 seed Sada Nahimana of Burundi 6-0, 6-1.  The 15-year-old had beaten top seed Maria Carle of Argentina 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday, and has now run her winning streak in Mexico to 11.  Understandably, Noel has withdrawn from the Eddie Herr, as has Andrew Fenty, who lost today in the Yucatan semifinals.  Fenty, the No. 2 seed, lost to No. 6 seed Juan Cerundolo of Argentina 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 in singles, but he and William Woodall have advanced to the doubles final, a result that puts Woodall into the main draw at the Eddie Herr.

Drew Baird, who lost in the first round of the Yucatan G1 after winning the Abierto Juvenil last week, has been given a wild card into the Eddie Herr. The other boys main draw wild cards:
Ronan Jachuck
Emilio Nava
Tyler Zink
Brandon Nakashima
Toby Kodat
Martin Damm
Manoel De Alencar(BRA)

The girls ITF main draw wild cards:
Katya Townsend
Sanyukta Gawande
Ana Geller(ARG)
Angelica Blake
Nikki Redelijk
Carolyn Campana
Elvina Kalieva
Alexandra Yepifanova