USTA Names Dowse to Succeed Smith as USTA CEO; Top Seeds Reach Quarterfinals at Osaka Grade A; ITA Cup, Division I Regionals Underway
The USTA today announced that Michael Dowse is their choice to succeed Gordon Smith as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director. Smith announced his retirement earlier this year. Dowse, who has been president of Wilson Sporting Goods since 2013, was not one of the names I heard mentioned as a contender when I spoke with several people about Smith's replacement at the US Open, but it is reassuring to me that he has a tennis background, including an earlier position as Director of Tennis Footwear at Nike. Dowse will officially begin on January 1, 2020 and will be based in Lake Nona. For more on Dowse's background and responsibilities, see this article from usta.com.
The quarterfinals will be played in the next few hours at the ITF Grade A in Osaka Japan, with top seeds Diane Parry and Harold Mayot, both of France, in action. No Americans remain in singles or doubles. Below are the quarterfinal matchups:
Girls:
Diane Parry(FRA)[1] v Ya Yi Yang(TPE)
Erika Andreeva(RUS)[13] v Mai Nirundorn(THA)[7]
Punnin Kovapitukted(THA) v Alexandra Eala(PHI)[4]
Maria Bondarenko(RUS)[9] v Mara Guth(GER)[15]
Guth defeated No. 2 seed Natsumi Kawaguchi of Japan in the third round.
Boys:
Harold Mayot(FRA)[1] v Jerome Kym(SUI)
Keisuke Saitoh(JPN)[4] v Dominic Stricker[5](SUI)
Jeffrey Von Der Schulenburg(SUI)[10] v Shunsuke Mitsui(JPN)[3]
Leandro Riedi(SUI)[7] v Bu Yunchaokete(CHN)[2]
I can't recall ever seeing four Swiss boys in the quarterfinals of a Grade A before; it's rare to see two.
The ITA Cup is underway in Rome Georgia, with Division II, Division III, Junior College and NAIA players competing for places in the main draw of next month's Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in Newport Beach, California. The singles champions of each division will compete against Division I players in one of the Division I major individual championships, formerly the National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships.
The following players are seeded No. 1 in their respective ITA Cup draws (via the ITA release):
NCAA Division II Men
Alvaro Regalado (Columbus State)
NCAA Division II Women
Kim Moosbacher (Oklahoma Baptist)
NCAA Division III Men
Leo Vithoontien (Carleton)
NCAA Division III Women
Danna Taylor (Carnegie Mellon)
NAIA Men
Jose Dugo (Georgia Gwinnett)
NAIA Women
Maria Genovese (Georgia Gwinnett)
Junior College Men
Yassir Kilani (ASA Miami)
Junior College Women
Tatiana Simova (ASA Miami)
The ITA Division I Regionals, which will help determine many of the participants in the National Fall Championships, have begun at several locations across the country. I haven't seen any draws posted on the ITA site, but some results are being posted by individual schools on twitter, with the hashtag #ITARegionals
1 comments:
Michael Dowse has his hands full. In Florida, a tennis hotbed, they can not convert tennis courts to pickleball fast enough. Kids tournaments that used to draw over 120 kids across the 12-18 age groups, now draw half that. But then again, his hiring is part of the problem. Obviously he will be very, very well paid like all the USTA executives. Of course his job and others at the USTA could be filled by tennis loving folks making far less. If all those millions were funneled into making youth tournaments well organized and fair by hiring lots of refs, more kids would play tennis, not quit and the future would have more players.
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