My Kalamazoo 18s Recap and Video Highlights; Jovic's Sweep in San Diego; USTA Creates Player Development Advisory Council; College Park ITF J300 Qualifying Begins Saturday

My annual article on the USTA Boys 18s National Championships for the Tennis Recruiting Network was posted this morning, with comments from champion Matt Forbes, Michigan State head coach Harry Jadun and finalist Jack Kennedy. With TRN's article this afternoon on Iva Jovic's sweep of the girls 18s titles, that wraps up Championship Week on the site (there is an error in the results, with Julieta Pareja defeating Kristina Penickova in the feed-in consolation final, which was initially reported as a victory for Penickova, but a correction was made on the USTA draws after the tournament's daily recap went out).  See this page for links to all eight articles on the USTA National Championships last week.

My video of the 18s final is below; as with the B16s video I posted yesterday, it's lengthy, with the match spanning more than three hours and featuring quite a few entertaining points, particularly in its last half.

I have been hearing that USTA CEO Lew Sherr is beginning to implement a more a hands-on approach regarding player development since the Jose Higueras email and the subsequent response to it from many of those who have regular interactions with Player Development. In the US Open virtual press conference on Wednesday, Sherr mentioned the number of US juniors in the ITF top 50, which is the most of any country, and that's not a reference I can recall a USTA CEO ever making.

One result of Sherr's interest is an announcement today by the USTA that it is forming a Player Development Advisory Council to assemble "experts from across the U.S. tennis ecosystem to provide in-depth input on how the USTA can best enhance and optimize its support for high-performance American players at all levels of the game". 

The initial members of the Advisory Council:

• Chris Boyer:  Chief Marketing Officer of Good Solutions Group, Inc.; USTA Southern California Board Vice President; Committee Chair of the SoCal Pro Series (part of the USTA Pro Circuit); pro player parent
• Bob Bryan: Former world No. 1 professional doubles player; U.S. Davis Cup Team Captain
• Jim Courier: Former world No. 1 professional singles player; former U.S. Davis Cup Team Captain; International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee
• Lindsay Davenport: Former world No. 1 professional singles and doubles player; U.S. Billie Jean King Cup Team Captain; International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee; junior player parent
• Chris Eubanks: Current professional player and former D-1 collegiate player at Georgia Tech
• Mary Joe Fernandez: Former world No. 4 professional singles and doubles player; former U.S. Billie Jean King Cup Team Captain; 2012 Olympic Team USA Women’s Tennis Coach; collegiate player parent
• Madison Keys: Current professional player
• Dana Mathewson: Current professional wheelchair player
• Ben Navarro: Entrepreneur and philanthropist; pro player parent; founder of Beemok Capital, which owns the combined ATP and WTA Cincinnati Open and the WTA’s Credit One Charleston Open
• Kurt Palmer: Chief Investment Officer of Beemok Capital; former collegiate tennis player
• Jessica Pegula: Current professional player
• Walter Porter: Principal, Deloitte Consulting; former college tennis player at Hampton University
• Michael Russell: Professional coach (Taylor Fritz); former professional player
• Bryan Shelton: Former head coach of Georgia Tech women’s tennis team and University of Florida men’s tennis team; former professional singles and doubles player; pro player parent and coach

I know several of those listed above discussed their concerns over the PD budget cuts with the USTA board, and it's heartening to see their concerns addressed by creating a more formal way for them to give input.

Lindsay Davenport, Bryan Shelton, Ben Navarro and Mary Joe Fernandez have all had or have children who interacted with Player Development on a regular basis in the past four years, and I'm sure all will provide valuable feedback to Sherr and the USTA board.  

Chris Boyer, who is the father of ATP No. 210 Tristan Boyer, has developed the very successful SoCal Pro Series, which should be serving as a template for all the USTA sections as a way to keep costs and travel to a minimum, while providing myriad opportunities to earn valuable ATP and WTA points.

I would love to see a Division I collegiate coach and a top junior development coach added to the council, but this a promising start that I hope results in more communication between the USTA board and Player Development and its constituencies.

The USTA's press release can be viewed here.

Qualifying for the ITF J300 in College Park begins on Saturday, and I'll be onsite covering the tournament for the tenth year Sunday.

Raphaelle Leroux of Canada, ranked 177, and Gabriella Mikaul, ranked 179, are the top two girls seeds in qualifying, with six byes.

Cesar Cruz of El Salvador, ranked 123, is the top boys qualifying seed, with Ronit Karki, ranked 125 seeded No. 2.  There were no byes in boys qualifying, with all 48 slots filled. There are two rounds of qualifying scheduled for Saturday; six qualifiers advance to the main draw

Links to the qualifying draws and order of play can be found at the Junior Tennis Champions Center ITF tournament page. I'm not sure if it will be available for qualifying, but there is a live scoring app: https://score-widget.matchscorerlive.com/public/completed/7twSDXi0QUqrGiSW1o4T0Q