Wild Card Hui Caps Three Week Stay in New York with US Open Junior Girls Title; Fonseca Rides Crowd Support to Boys Championship; Gauff Wins Women's Title; Danilina Takes Mixed

©Colette Lewis 2023--
Flushing Meadows NY--

Little did Katherine Hui realize, after losing her first round women's US Open qualifying match to Eugenie Bouchard, that 19 days later she would join the 2012 Wimbledon girls champion in the record books as a junior slam winner.

Hui, a wild card who begins her collegiate career at Stanford in ten days, defeated No. 9 seed Tereza Valentova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-4 in the lightning-delayed final of the US Open Junior Championships Saturday. 

"I think I honestly dedicate a lot of this win to her," Hui said of Bouchard, whose 6-2, 6-3 victory stoked the competitive fires of the 18-year-old from San Diego. "I was very discouraged from that match just because I felt like I had too many expectations and put too much expectation on results and wasn't able to execute my game."

Hui, who didn't drop a set in her six wins, which included victories over four ITF Top 20 juniors, took notes on Bouchard's game, which she recognized as similar to her own.

"Obviously she takes balls early and steps in and was hitting really deep," Hui said. "I took inspiration from that, and I have been here since then practicing on-site. So these last two weeks I have just been really working. I think a little bit of my anger fueled the motivation during practice."

Hui and Valentova were at 1-1 in the championship match when it was suspended for lightning in the area; more than four hours later and a few sprinkles later, they resumed. Before long, the 16-year-old Valentova had leads of 3-1 and 4-2, but Hui began to find her range, taking the final four games of the set.

While Hui had put up some gaudy numbers in her earlier wins, often with twice as many winners as unforced errors, the final was not played on her terms until she made an adjustment midway through the first set.

"She plays with a lot more power than some of my past opponents, so it was harder for me to step in," Hui said. "I think she was dealing with it well, and I think she knew what to expect. But I adjusted my strategy a little bit after going down 2-4 and tried to open up the court a little more and kind of dictate on my own terms. I think that worked out really well."

The tough part came with the title in sight. Hui built a 5-1 lead, had two match points at 5-2, three more with Valentova serving at 3-5 and a sixth serving for the match for the second time at 5-4. But on match point No. 7, Hui took her time and hit a big first serve up the T, with Valentova sending her forehand return long.

"I think I did get some nerves," said Hui, who had shown none of that in her previous five victories. "Obviously I have never been in the final of a junior slam, and this is my second junior slam. It was a little bit of that, and I think she did step up and I give her a lot of credit for it. I think she started playing really freely."

Valentova agreed that she changed her mindset down 5-1. 

"I wanted to try to enjoy the match," said Valentova, who hopes that her run to the final has helped her secure a spot in the ITF Junior Tour Finals next month in China. "And I think she was a little bit nervous then, she had like nine match points. It was shame, I want to win, but it was a very good experience for me."

Hui, who was inspired by the roars she heard emanating from Ashe as Coco Gauff closed out the women's final, said she looks up to the new women's champion, just one year her senior.

"I was cheering Coco on, but when I went on, I think she was 3-0 in the third," Hui said. "I didn't know what happened after, but I heard some really loud roars come across, so I just assumed she won. Yeah, it just got louder and louder. I heard a cheer and I thought she had won and then an even louder one.

"She's obviously such a big inspiration to me. I never met her or anything, but, I mean, just being that young and accomplishing so much with so much pressure is amazing."

Hui, who undoubtedly would have received a qualifying wild card into next week's WTA 500 in San Diego had she not gone on to reach the US Open Junior final, said the title her in New York confirms what she has always known about her game.

"I think it gives me confidence going into college, and I know the competition is strong and there are a lot more players deciding to go that route," said Hui, who is the first US Open girls champion to attend college since Beth Herr claimed it in 1982 and enrolled at USC, where she won the NCAA title the following spring. "But I think I just believe in my game more. I mean, I always have. I think it just kind of proves it, which I'm really happy about."

Joao Fonseca will be a hitting partner for the Brazilian Davis Cup team as it plays in the World Group next weekend in Denmark. And if the 17-year-old can bring the crowd that attended his 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over American Learner Tien with him to support the Brazilian team, the Danes could be in trouble.

The group of 75 committed fans of the 17-year-old waited out a rain delay for the second consecutive evening, and outnumbered Tien's American fans when the match began on Court 11.

 

Although No. 11 seed Tien played controlled and basically error-free tennis to take the first set 6-4, breaking at 4-all and holding to take the lead, the Brazilian supporters did not let their energy flag. Tien went up 2-0 in the second set, but lost that lead when the unforced errors he had avoided began to surface. Serving at 4-5, Tien had a 40-0 lead, but lost four straight points to give Fonseca a set point, which Tien saved with a forehand winner.  With a second set point, it was Fonseca's turn to go big, and he crushed a backhand winner, sending the crowd into a frenzy.

The third set started much like the second, with Tien taking a 2-0 lead, but the enthusiasm of the Brazilian contingent didn't wane, even as more American fans began to fill the stands and politely applaud points won by Tien. As the chants of his name began to get louder with every point won, Fonseca wasn't shy about inviting even more noise from them.

"There was one break at 2-1," said the seventh-seeded Fonseca, who had lost in the quarterfinals of the previous three junior slams. "I broke him and I called the crowd, and I just had confidence with myself, and things just came true."

The next three games were battles, but Fonseca won them all, then held at love for a 5-2 lead. Tien held to make Fonseca serve out the title, and he did, converting his first match point at 40-30 with a laser of a forehand winner in the corner.

Fonseca said his willingness to go big throughout the match was the difference.

"I was playing more aggressively," said Fonseca, who had lost to Tien in three sets in the quarterfinals at this year's Roland Garros. "I was missing more, but I was playing more aggressive. I was more confident and had more courage. That's what made the difference."

Tien, who is not prone to emotional demonstrations and lets little faze him, said the crowd was more a positive for Fonseca than a negative for him.

"I think I was able to deal with it pretty well," said a subdued Tien after the match. "I don't think it was the reason things went wrong on my end. I think it could be a big reason why things went up for him. I think he really fed off it, really raised his level with the support of everyone watching. But it did play a part in the match."

Fonseca agreed with Tien's assessment.

"Learner has good mental strength and he's very calm during the whole match," Fonseca said. "But I think they just like, support me, gave me some strength to keep fighting to the last point."

Fonseca said the key result in his run to the title was his 7-6(8), 3-6, 6-3 quarterfinal win over No. 3 seed Cooper Williams.

"I think it was the most difficult matches of my life because of the sun, because of the pressure, everything else, and I think that makes me believe," said Fonseca, one of only three tennis players sponsored by On athletic shoes and apparel, with the other two Iga Swiatek and Ben Shelton. "After the match I knew that I had the skills and mentally the strength to win this tournament."

Tien, who also lost the Australian Open boys final, was disappointed in the result, but gave credit to Fonseca. 

"He's a player that takes a lot of big cuts, and when he can build confidence in those areas, he has a lot of firepower," Tien said. "So when he's in that zone, it's tough to play against."

Tien wasn't aware of the ITF Junior Finals in China next month, so is not sure if he'll be competing in that year-end event for the Top 8 ITF juniors, while Fonseca said he may opt to build his ATP ranking at the South American Challengers during that time period.

"I was planning to take a few weeks off after this, work on a few things and refocus on putting everything towards the last couple of months of the year," Tien said. "It's a decision I'll make when I'm in a better state of mind."

The doubles championships were also determined in matches played under the lights, with No. 8 seeds Mara Gae of Romania and Anastasiia Gureva of Russia taking the girls title and the unseeded boys team of Max Dahlin of Sweden and Oliver Ojakaar of Estonia earning the boys championship with two wins on the day.

With the doubles semifinals canceled Friday, two victories were necessary Saturday, and fortunately all the four semifinals were completed before the lightning delay shut down competition for the afternoon. 

Dahlin and Ojakaar defeated the unseeded team of Hayden Jones of Australia and American Alex Razeghi 7-5, 7-6(6) in the semifinals, then saved two match points in their 3-6, 6-3, 11-9 win over No. 6 seeds Federico Bondioli of Italy and Joel Schwaerzler of Austria in the final. Bondioli and Schwaerzler had beaten top seeds and Roland Garros champions Yaroslav Demin of Russia and Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 in the semifinals. 

"At the start of the tiebreaker I was a bit shaky," said Ojakaar, an 18-year-old right-hander. "But as the tiebreaker went on, a bit of the shakiness went away and at some point we went for it. But at 9-7 down, I was completely shaking, some crazy points."

With Bondioli serving, Ojakaar saved the first match point with an overhead winner; a good serve and a Dahlin putaway at the net saved the second.

At 9-all, Ojakaar hit another big serve, with Bondioli missing the return, and on their match first match point, Dahlin poached off the Ojakaar return, hitting a forehand volley winner for the title.

"It feels amazing, especially to win this tight match from two match points down," said Dahlin, a 17-year-old right-hander. "It's a really sick match to win."

Ojakaar and Dahlin have had success since they began playing as a team, with a J300 title, a J500 final and now this, a first junior slam for both, all since April.

"It feels amazing," Ojakaar said. "It's a small dream come true. Now we keep grinding and see how it goes in men's."

Gae and Gureva came from a set down in both their matches Saturday, defeating two unseeded Japanese teams. In the semifinal they beat Hayu Kinoshita and Wakana Sonobe 2-6, 6-3, 10-7, and in the final defeated Sara Saito and Nanaka Sato 1-6, 7-5, 10-8. Saito and Sato had defeated top seeds Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia and American Kaitlin Quevedo 6-2, 6-3.

"It got better and better and better," said Gae, 17. "We focused on our strengths, which is the serve and the plus one. They were a new team, and we hadn't seen them play and they played weird."

Down a set and 3-1, Gureva took to heart her partner's advice.

"When it was 1-3, she just told me relax and play," said Gureva, 18. "And that worked."

"I said, we have nothing to lose," said Gae, noting the irony of that concept. "But it was a grand slam."

In the tiebreaker, Gae said the confidence was there after their win in the semifinals.

"We started out great, we were always leading," Gae said. "But then we were 7-4, then it was 7-8," added Gureva, "and it was my two serves." 

Gureva came through, hitting two huge first serves, the second an ace, and when Saito hit an approach long on the next point, the title belonged to Gureva and Gae.

"I was not expecting this result," said Gae, who did win a J300 title with Gureva earlier this year. "When you don't expect it, it's so surprising when you win the trophy. It's so amazing."

The women's singles title went to American Coco Gauff, who came back to defeat new WTA No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. For more on Gauff's title, see this article from the WTA website.

In the mixed doubles final, former University of Florida standout Anna Danilina of Kazkhstan and Harri Heilovaara of Finland defeated top seeds Jessica Pegula and Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) 6-3, 6-4 for their first slam titles.  For more on Danilina's doubles success, see this article from the WTA website.

Shelton and Paul to Meet in Australian Open Quarterfinals; Kang and Williams Advance to AO Junior Round of 16; Hamilton Ousts Top Seed at Costa Rica ITF J300; Leach, Wang Take J60 Titles; Five Americans Post Wins at Les Petits As

There is a lot going on this week in junior tennis, with the Australian Open Junior Championships, the ITF J300 in Costa Rica, usually a week or two earlier than it is this year, and Les Petits As all in progress at the same time in extremely diverse time zones.

There is also the success of young American men at the Australian Open, with three of them reaching the quarterfinals in Melbourne for the first time since 2000. On Monday, 20-year-old Ben Shelton defeated former Ohio State All-American JJ Wolf 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals, where Florida's 2022 NCAA champion will face Tommy Paul. The 25-year-old Paul defeated No. 24 seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 to set up an all-American quarterfinal Wednesday.

No. 29 seed Sebastian Korda, who is 22 years old, faces No. 18 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia Tuesday(tonight in the US).  No. 3 Jessica Pegula is the lone US women to reach the quarterfinals; she plays two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, the No. 24 seed, also Tuesday.

Two US boys advanced to Wednesday's round of 16 at the Australian Open Junior Championships with second round wins Monday.  No. 8 seed Cooper Williams defeated Hoyoung Roh of Korea 6-4, 6-3 and unseeded Kyle Kang beat No. 13 seed Danil Panarin of Russia 6-3, 6-3. Learner Tien plays his second round match Tuesday(tonight) against Traralgon champion Federico Cina of Italy.

Theadora Rabman lost to qualifier Rebecca Munk Mortensen of Denmark 6-3, 6-1; two other American girls will play their second round matches Tuesday(tonight), with Tatum Evans facing Rositsa Dencheva of Bulgaria and Anya Murthy playing No. 15 seed Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia.

All junior matches are available for streaming at ESPN+.

The Costa Rica tournament always draws dozens of Americans, and that didn't change this year, even with the calendar move. 

Ten US boys and 11 US girls made the 32-player draws.  The boys: Nikita Filin, Cyrus Mahjoob, Darwin Blanch, Cooper Woestendick, Roy Horovitz[5], Tristan Stringer, Alexander Razeghi[4], Quang Duong[8], Stiles Brockett and qualifier Maxwell Exsted.

The girls: Alanis Hamilton, Katie Rolls, Valeria Ray[6], Iva Jovic[3], qualifiers Tyra Grant and Capucine Jauffret, wild card Tianmei Wang, Mia Slama[4], Sage Loudon, Piper Charney and Kaitlin Quevedo[2].

Many of the boys have lost in the first round today: Mahjoob, Blanch, Woestendick, Stringer and Duong have been eliminated. Horovitz and Brockett advanced to the second round, while Filin, Razeghi and Exsted have yet to play.

US girls who have won today include Jovic, Ray and Hamilton, with Hamilton defeating top seed Lucianna Perez of Peru 6-1, 7-6. Rolls, Loudon and Slama have lost their opening matches, with the rest still to play.

Wang received a wild card, I'm assuming, because she won the ITF J60 tournament last week in Costa Rica. The USTA Winter Nationals 18s champion was unseeded, but didn't drop a set until the final, where she beat No. 7 seed Brooklyn Olson 1-6, 6-2, 6-1. The 15-year-old from Southern California now has two ITF singles titles at the J60 (formerly Grade 4) level.

Wang also reached the girls doubles final, with Krisha Mahendran of India, but Sophia Webster and Emily Robertson won by retirement, with no score posted.

The third title for Americans last week on the ITF Junior Circuit, not including the doubles titles for Williams and Tien at Traralgon, was claimed by 15-year-old Jagger Leach, who won his second straight J60 tournament in New Zealand. As was the case the previous week, Leach, who now trains at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, didn't drop a set throughout the tournament. Seeded No. 3, he defeated No. 4 seed Rintaro Shukuda of Japan 7-5, 6-2 in the championship match.

The opening day of play at Les Petits As saw five of the eight Americans pick up first round victories. Zaire Clarke, who qualified for Les Petits As last November, but didn't play the warmup event in Bolton last week, defeated No. 16 seed Marilyn Van Brempt of Belgium 6-4, 6-1.  Bolton champion Annika Penickova, who is unseeded this week, defeated wild card Alix Rios of France 6-1, 6-3; Annika's twin sister Kristina, the No. 7 seed, beat Oliwia Sybicka of Poland 6-2, 6-3. No. 8 seed Julieta Pareja, the fourth US girl in the draw, plays her first round match Tuesday.

The two seeded American boys won their matches today. No. 7 seed Marcel Latak defeated Louis Sallard of France 6-0, 6-2 and No. 8 seed Jordan Lee beat Joachim Walker-Viry of France 3-6, 6-2, 6-0. Michael Antonius lost to No. 6 seed Daniel Jade of Lebanon 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-2 and Izyan Ahmad was beaten by Aleksandar Tolev of Bulgaria 6-3, 7-5. Latak is the only US boy born in 2009 among the Americans on this trip; the others are 2010 birth years. All four US girls were born in 2009.

Gauff and McNally Fall in Three Sets in Women's Doubles Final; Deming and An Claim Les Petits As Doubles Title

US Open women's doubles finalists Coco Gauff and Caty McNally
photo credit: Garrett Ellwood/USTA

With the junior singles finals finishing on Saturday (my coverage for the ITF is here) for the first time since I began reporting on the US Open in 2004, Sunday was a bonus day at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center for me. I was fortunate to be able to watch Sunday's two matches in Ashe for the first time in many years, and although I was excited to see Novak Djokovic compete for the men's singles grand slam, I was thrilled to see Caty McNally and Coco Gauff play in the women's doubles final in the early match.

Three years ago, I spoke to them after they won the US Open girls title, on a match played at the Chase Center indoor courts, in front of no fans, due to rain. 

Today they played on Arthur Ashe stadium, with a vocal crowd behind them, against Australia's Samantha Stosur and China's Shuai Zhang. Although they lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, McNally and Gauff proved they were ready for the sport's biggest stage and intend to make their appearance in slam finals a regular occurrence.

At their press conference in Interview Room 1, the only one I attended in person, rather than via Zoom, because the junior champions did not get that room this year, I asked them to reflect on their progression from girls US Open champions to women's US Open finalists.

"It's been a great journey so far," McNally said. "Winning the juniors, now we're playing on Arthur Ashe Stadium, it's pretty cool to see how far we've come. I think it just shows how much better we've gotten as a team. We want to do better. We can't wait to be back out on that court again. But I think from day one when we played, we just had a special relationship, a special partnership. I think we knew this was coming. I think we knew finals were coming down the road. I still think we'll be back out on that court again with a different result sooner than later."

"Yeah, I agree," Gauff said. "It's amazing how far we've come. I'm glad that Caty is able, we're able to do this journey together. There's no other person or player that I would rather do this with. I know that we'll be Grand Slam champions eventually."

A journalist via Zoom asked if they felt their success this year, and that of Raducanu, Fernandez and Alcaraz could be viewed as "jumping the line by going so deep into a Grand Slam."

McNally dismissed that interpretation.

"Yeah, I don't know if there's like a line. I just think we all believe in ourselves, believe in our games," McNally said. "We've all played at really high levels, especially in juniors. We've all played in Grand Slams, all of us. I think that's given us a lot of exposure to what we're getting ourselves into. I think we're just taking on these big moments head first. We're not really afraid to play our games and get the crowd involved, to win these big matches. I think it's just awesome and inspiring to me, I know to myself, I know to Coco, other young players, that anyone can do it."

"I mean, success has no timeline to it," said Gauff, who at 17 is the youngest of all the teenagers who excelled at this US Open. "It can happen early; it can happen later. There are a lot of players that it happened later in their career, and there's a lot of players it happened earlier in their career. There's players like Serena who have success throughout the whole career (smiling). Like Caty said, I don't think there's any line or anything. I think especially the young generation, the new generation coming up, just really believe in themselves, don't really care about how many more years of experience the opponent on the other side of the court has."

One of the biggest stages preparing junior players for the future is in Tarbes France at the 14U Les Petits As tournament. Usually held at the end of January and beginning of February, the tournament was moved to this week due to the pandemic. I usually follow the event closely, which I was unable to do this year because of the conflict with the US Open Junior Championships.

Five US girls and four US boys were in the draws, with Claire An and Max Exsted the top-seeded Americans, both at No. 8. Exsted lost in the quarterfinals, while unseeded Darwin Blanch and Matisse Farzam both advanced to the semifinals. Blanch lost to No. 3 seed Federico Cina of Italy, who had beaten Exsted, 6-3, 6-2 and Farzam was beaten by top seed Maxim Mrva of the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Mrva won the title today, beating Cina 6-3, 3-6 6-0. 

Cin and Andrea De Marchi, the No. 6 seeds, won the doubles title, beating No. 7 seed Felix Alopaeus and Oskari Paldanius of Finland 6-7(5), 6-3, 12-10 in the final. 

France ended a long drought in girls singles, with No. 7 seed Mathilde Ngijol Carre becoming the first girl from the host country to win the title since 1984. She defeated unseeded Mika Buchnik of Israel 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the championship match.  An, the only US girl to advance past the second round, lost in the semifinals to Buchnik, 7-6(5), 6-3.

An and Emily Deming were unseeded in the girls doubles competition, but they took home the title, defeating Flora Johnson and Hephzibah Oluwadare of Great Britain, who were also unseeded, 6-4, 6-1 in the final.

Riley Crowder and Deming met in the consolation final, with Crowder winning 4-1, 4-1.

Photos from the event can be found at the tournament website. The draws are best viewed at Tennis Europe's website.

Cressy Beats Querrey, Joins Brooksby in ATP Hall of Fame Quarterfinals; Rain Means No-ad at B18s and 16s Clays; Four Americans Advance to Third Round at Milan JA; Universal Tennis Launches Paid Hits

ATP tennis has moved back to the United States this week at the Hall of Fame Open 250 tournament in Newport Rhode Island and today both 20-year-old Jenson Brooksby and 24-year-old Maxime Cressy advanced to their first ATP quarterfinals with big wins.

Former UCLA Bruin Cressy, whose game is tailor-made for grass, defeated No. 2 seed Sam Querrey 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 this evening, while earlier in the day, Brooksby beat grass court specialist Denis Kudla 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. 

When I spoke to Cressy during Wimbledon qualifying, he told me he had put too much pressure on himself to play well on grass, given his serve and volley prowess, but he was determined to enjoy his time on the surface this summer. After losing from two sets up to Mackenzie McDonald in the last round of Wimbledon qualifying, this week's results must be gratifying. 

Brooksby, who did not play Wimbledon qualifying, had never played on grass, either in juniors or since turning pro, but the former Baylor Bear did not let that lack of experience hold him back. He picked up a 7-5, 6-3 win over 31-year-old Evgeny Donskoy of Russia in the first round and will play unseeded Peter Gojowczyk of Germany in the quarterfinals. Cressy faces No. 7 seed Jordan Thompson of Australia, who is one of just three seeds remaining in the quarterfinals. Jack Sock, a wild card, beat No. 3 seed Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan today, and Jason Jung(Michigan) of Taiwan defeated No. 5 seed Tennys Sandgren 6-2, 6-2. 

At the WTA 250 in Prague, Grace Min reached her first WTA quarterfinal since 2014, beating No. 7 seed Nina Stojanovic of Serbia 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. It's Min's first Top 100 win since 2016.

Rain has continued to be a problem at the Boys 16s and 18s USTA National Clay Courts in Delray Beach Florida, and as a result, even main draw matches are playing no-ad, and match tiebreakers for third sets, while consolation matches are to 4 with a tiebreaker at 4-all. The details on the format changes can be found on the USTA's Playtennis overview page for the tournament. The boys and girls 14s divisions, which are also in South Florida, are adjusting formats due to the weather too.

At the JA Trofeo Bonfiglio in Milan, four Americans have advancing to the round of 16: No. 11 seed Alexis Blokhina, Clervie Ngounoue, Benjamin Kittay and No. 2 seed Dali Blanch. Czech Linda Fruhvirtova, the No. 3 seed, lost to 14-year-old Mirra Andreeva of Russia, playing in her first Grade A, 6-2, 6-3. Fruhvirtova had lost to Mirra's older sister Erika in the second round of the French Open last month. 

Two US girls are into the doubles quarterfinals: Madison Sieg, playing with Alexandra Eala of the Philppines, are the top seeds, and Ngounoue, playing with Hanne Vandewinkel of Belgium, are the No. 8 seeds.

Tommaso Canepa, who has been a regular at the Trofeo Bonfiglio over the years, wrote this post about the players he's watched this week.

Universal Tennis is introducing a new program called Paid-Hits, which will provide a way for current college players to offer their services as a hitting partner for a fee that they set. Anyone with a UTR over 8 can offer their services, after a short application process and background check. Lisa Stone spoke with Universal Tennis's Stephen Amritraj today on Facebook Live, answering questions about the program, while also speaking later with Matt Andre about the College Prospect Camps scheduled for the remainder of the summer.

Division I NCAA Roundtable; Division III Draws Announced; Wake Forest Adds $15,000 Futures in June; Delray Beach ITF Grade 4 Underway

Along with many others, I took part in the Tennis Recruiting's annual Division I Tennis Roundtable, the first half of which appears today. The first two questions--the best stories to close out the season and what regional we would like to attend--make for some interesting reading with few overlapping answers.  The upset picks and championship predictions in Part 2 are scheduled for publication on Friday. Don't forget to enter the May Madness Bracket Challenge, with the deadline Friday morning.

Bobby Knight at College Tennis Today is providing detailed previews of the men's regionals with predictions and to date he has published those for the Oklahoma and UCLA regionals, Texas and Georgia regionals, North Carolina and Illinois regionals, TCU and Wake Forest regionals, Virginia and Ole Miss regionals, Ohio State and Texas A&M regionals and USC and Duke regionals.  I'm sure he'll have the Virginia Tech and Baylor regional previews up soon.  Knight also posted an analysis of the ITA rankings vs. the Universal Tennis Rating of the players selected for the men's individual tournament, and provides a list of players highly rated by UT who are not in the field.

A complete list of times and sites for all men's and women's regional matches is here.

The NCAA Division III selections and draws have been released. The men's tournament in Division III has 43 teams, the women's 49, not the 64 teams that both men and women have in Division I.  Claremont-Mudd-Scripps is the top seed in the men's bracket and Williams is the top seed in the women's bracket.

For in-depth analysis, see the Division 3 Tennis blog.

Wake Forest announced today that it would be holding a $15,000 Futures tournament the first week of June at their facility. I was surprised by this, because the tournament doesn't appear in the USTA Pro Circuit calendar, but I was told it is an ITF-sanctioned event, not a Pro Circuit event, and it is listed on the ITF website as USA Futures16A. The deadline for entry is next Thursday, May 14th.

The main draw of the Grade 4 ITF tournament Delray Beach is underway, with Sami Kirberg and Kariann Pierre-Louis the top seeds. The draws and order of play can be found at the tournament website.

Final ITA Rankings Kept Under Wraps; Bracket Challenge at Tennis Recruiting Network; Michibata, Bradley Resign at Princeton, Geiger-Walton Out at William & Mary

For the first time since I've been covering the NCAAs, the rankings from the season's last week are not being published prior to Tuesday's selection shows.  Last year at this time, we learned Florida had leapfrogged Stanford for the top spot, but when the NCAA seedings were revealed the next day, Stanford was No. 1 and Florida No. 2.  I'm not sure what problem this lack of transparency solves, but it would be appropriate for the ITA or the NCAA to explain the reason for the NCAA committee's decision.

Fortunately, we have the Texas College Tennis blog to provide us with information the NCAA won't, and he has run and re-run the rankings (these are the ITA rankings, not his alternative rankings, which he has also provided this year) to give us an idea of what to look for tomorrow at 5 p.m., when the live stream of the selection show begins at ncaa.com. (For those interested in Division II, the regionals are underway now. For more, see the NCAA women's tennis D-II page and the men's D-II page).

In TCT's men's rankings, a significant change has seen UCLA move from No. 5 to No. 2, behind USC. That puts Georgia at 3, Virginia at 4 and Ohio State at 5, after the Buckeyes had been no lower than 3 all season. Kentucky, Duke and Pepperdine round out the top 8. Granger also has projected the seeding groups and published a nifty map to place them geographically ((blue-1, red-2, green-3, yellow-4).

In TCT's women's rankings, UCLA retains its No. 1 ranking, with defending champion Florida at 2, followed by Duke, USC and Stanford at 5. Georgia, North Carolina and Cal are 6, 7, and 8. Granger's projected women's seedings can be found in this post.

Thanks to Granger for putting in all this time. Without his efforts I would be completely unprepared to follow the selection show on Tuesday. Again, if anyone can propose a logical reason for the decision to withhold these rankings, I am eager to hear it.

The Tennis Recruiting Network is sponsoring a bracket challenge for the NCAA Division I tournament this year, which means I will not be hosting the informal one I have done in the past. Complete details will be available after Tuesday's selection show, but for an overview, see this article.

This is the time of year not only for pre-NCAA excitement, but for job changes in the coaching ranks.  Princeton lost both of its head coaches this month, with men's head coach Glenn Michibata resigning last week, and Megan Bradley-Rose announcing her resignation today. Michibata was head coach at Princeton for 12 years; Bradley-Rose just completed her third season.

William and Mary will also be looking for a new head coach for their women's team, with Meredith Geiger-Walton resigning today after four years in Williamsburg, Va. St. John's, Houston, Bradley and Southeast Missouri State are other Division I schools with women's head coaching vacancies.

The University of Wyoming recently removed the interim tag from women's coach Dean Clower.

2011 NCAA Notes and Observations

Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim writes a regular feature after every Grand Slam, with notes and observations that don't fit into the standard article (or in his case, mailbag,) format. Before the memories start to fade, I'm going to do the same for the just-completed NCAAs. Some of these are important, some obviously aren't. I hope you can tell the difference.

Recognition is overdue for Brent who picked Florida over Stanford 4-3 for the women's title and SoCal Fan who predicted USC's win over Virginia 4-3 in the men's final. They've both won the TopSpin4 video game contest. Fortuntately, I have two copies of the game, one Playstation 3 and one Xbox 360, so I'll just flip a coin to see who gets first pick. Brent and SoCal Fan: Please post a comment to the contest post with your contact information (I won't post it of course), so I can get your prizes to you.
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The team event was more competitive than I can ever remember, with eight matches, 5 women's and 3 men's, coming down to the last match on with the teams tied at 3. Two of those, the Baylor win over UCLA in the men's round of 16, and the Florida win over Stanford in the women's championship, were settled in third-set tiebreakers.
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I used to think the 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. finishes for the day's last round of 16 were bad luck, with lighting failures(Texas A&M 2009) or rain (Georgia 2010) gumming up the works. But there were no such excuses available at Stanford, and if anything, the cold weather should have encouraged faster play. I have it on good authority that the average NCAA match takes 3:45. I'm not a math Ph.d., but even I can figure out that the last match, scheduled for 6pm, is going to start at 8pm or later. And the home team, who may want the night match for ticket sales, actually loses its home court advantage when the fans leave after the doubles point finishes. I love having the men and women together Grand Slam style, which is part of the issue, but I think an 8 am start must be considered.
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Great to see Bay area junior Mackenzie McDonald at the men's team event after a serious illness kept him from competing at Carson, the Easter Bowl or any other tournament since. He says he's feeling better now.
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Hobee's blueberry coffee cake is all that.
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The Stanford and USC pep bands added aural excitement each time they played, but they were restricted from playing except before the match, in the break after doubles and after the match.
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USTA Player Development was well represented at the NCAAs, with Senior manager of Junior and Collegiate Tennis Erica Perkins heading the list that included Tom Jacobs, Senior Manager of Business and Administration for Player Development, Perkins' recently hired assistant Elissa Kinard, women's coach Marc Lucero and men's national lead coach Mike Sell. Although I didn't get a chance to say hello, I understand USTA president Jon Vegosen and his wife Shari where also at the matches prior to a USTA board meeting.
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The USTA College Day was a great opportunity to learn about the recruiting process and also get some candid advice about what to expect from collegiate tennis. I could go to one every month and still learn something, so if your section sponsors one, don't pass it up.
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I witnessed two of the most bizarre endings to a tennis match I've ever seen during the individual tournament and both involved Michael Shabaz of Virginia. I still don't know what possessed Marcelo Arevalo of Tulsa to curse in Spanish so early and so often in his first round match with Shabaz that he was defaulted at 2-0 in the first set. Nor do I understand what was going on in Shabaz's mind when he violated a cardinal rule of tennis after a point penalty in the semifinals against Johnson. Tanking is a fact of life in tennis, and I've seen that behavior in all its facets on the junior and college beat. But I can think of only one other time that I saw a retirement based on anger, and it involved a 16-year-old at the Orange Bowl.
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The Stanford men drew a bigger crowd for their Saturday night quarterfinal match with Virginia than the women did for the final against Florida.
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Some of the best people in tennis don't carry US passports, and that's true in college tennis too. The international student-athletes are generally great representatives of their universities and add welcome diversity--in cultures and game styles--to the sport. But after all the 'what's wrong with American tennis' talk, it was heartening to see 7 of the 8 semifinalists coming from the US junior ranks. Juricova's win snapped a four-year streak of American women's champions. The men have a three-year streak going.
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Speaking of former singles champions, I saw several of them in Palo Alto. Mallory Cecil, the 2009 champion, is serving as a volunteer assistant at Duke and told me she hopes to complete her degree in 2013. Laura Granville, the 2000 & 2001 champion, is back at Stanford finishing her degree. Amber Liu, another back-to-back champion for Stanford in 2003 & 2004, visited for the women's team final, with husband Michael Chang and their baby daughter. Audra Cohen, the 2007 champion, was there in her capacity as USTA Collegiate team coach. The other collegiate team coaches, Jamea Jackson of Oklahoma State, Bo Hodge of Alabama and Ryan Sachire of Notre Dame, were also watching the early rounds of the individual tournament to identify likely future team members.
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As a coach, there's nobody I'd rather have in a last match on court than Duke's Reka Zsilinszka, unless it's Daniel Nguyen of USC or Lauren Embree of Florida.
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Now for the curious case of the unranked participant. The only way to get into the NCAA individual championships is to be ranked in the top 125. If you are, you will get in if you're the top player in your conference. If you aren't ranked, your conference will not get a representative. So when William and Mary's Jeltje Loomans appeared in the selection list, but not in the rankings, I had to find out why. Thanks to NCAA women's sub-committee head Jason Hayes, I got an answer. Loomans was in fact ranked 125 on the list the committee received. But Cal turned in their results from the Pac-10 championships after that list was distributed, and Anett Schutting moved into the rankings, at 104, bumping Loomans out. It wasn't Schutting that suffered, as she was ranked too low to be considered, but an alternate missed out. That rankings rerun may have kept Nadja Gilchrist of Georgia(59) or Janette Bejikova of South Florida(61) out of the women's draw.
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The online scoreboard was just short of a disaster. Many of you have voiced your frustrations regarding the frequent server crashes which I was told were due to too much traffic. Sometimes the livestream worked fine, but there was no way to know the score unless you opened each court feed, where it appeared on the bottom of the screen. On the onsite scoreboard, which was a different system, there was no point-by-point scoring on courts 1-3 while matches were being played on the south courts. And there was no way to know when at the south courts what was going on at the main stadium. Nor was the team score visible anywhere on the south court scoreboards. Problems develop in complicated systems like this, but a backup plan, perhaps based on the "live" scoring that many schools still use, should have been in place. Posting scores to twitter or facebook is hardly ideal, but it is better than nothing. I felt a responsibility to tweet more when I knew the scoreboard was down, and I heard many times over how much it was appreciated, but I am not a substitute for an effective and reliable system. Also frustrating was the lack of an automated system to transfer the scores of the completed matches to the website with a few minutes of their completion. Finding the results of NCAA tournament matches should not be a challenge for a college tennis fan.
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I loved the continuous loop of NCAA team championship moments that played in the cafe and outside the stadium. Any player lunching at Jimmy V's who hadn't recently seen last year's Burdette sisters tackle gasped and groaned when Lindsay took down Mallory on the replay. There's a great sense of history at Stanford; I sat in the John McEnroe corner in the media center.
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Tennis SIDs in attendance often juggle cameras, flipcams, blackberrys (for tweeting) and laptops (for live blogging) during just one match, while also doing press notes. Plus they're called upon to maintain a professional demeanor when the players they know well and care about are suffering an agonizing defeat. Tough, tough job. Thanks to all of you for doing it well.

NCAA Division I Fields Announced; Pick the Champions and Win a TopSpin 4 Video Game

The Division I NCAA team championship fields for the women and men were announced a couple of hours ago, and before I get to the selections, I want to compliment the NCAA on the show, which was streamed on their website. It was a big improvement over past years, when the announcement has been telecast on ESPNews in what can only be described as a haphazard fashion. Today's show was easy to follow, the graphics were clear and easy to understand, and although there wasn't a any informed commentary, the host didn't make any egregious errors (he did refer to Stanford as the "top-ranked" team in the country, rather than the top-seeded, but I don't consider that anything but a technicality). The pace allowed time to write and post the occasional tweet, and I hope this is an innovation that sticks.

As for the selections, well, let's start with Stanford being given the top seed in the tournament. If any more evidence was necessary to show that the current ranking system needs to be fixed, this is it. The NCAA committee could not rely on the ITA rankings to seed the college sport's most significant event. Congratulations to the committee for recognizing that Stanford as the No. 2 seed just wouldn't be right and making the change.

The Top 16 seeds for the women are as follows, with their ranking in parentheses:
1. Stanford (2)
2. Florida (1)
3. Duke (3)
4. North Carolina (4)
5. Baylor (7)
6. UCLA (6)
7. Miami (5)
8. Georgia (8)
9. California (9)
10. Michigan (10)
11. Virginia (11)
12. Florida State (12)
13. Tennessee (13)
14. Georgia Tech (16)
15. Clemson (15)
16. Northwestern(14)

Of the top 16 seeds, only Florida State and Clemson will not be hosting regionals May 13th through May 15th. I do not know if both submitted bids to host, so I don't know the details behind No. 21 Arkansas and No. 31 Texas A&M receiving approval to host.

Florida State, who came within a point of winning the ACC women's conference championship over North Carolina, will be traveling to College Station, while Clemson goes to Arkansas. As for the shuffling of the rankings vis-a-vis the seedings, I thought head-to-head was responsible for some of the changes in the past, but now I don't think so, as Baylor lost to UCLA this year and jumped over them to the No. 5 seeding. It may be related to the geographical restraints that seek to keep as many teams as possible in regions they can drive to, while still maintaining the integrity of the draw.

The first two rounds are usually pretty straightforward for the top 8 seeds, but there are opportunities for some of the 17-32 seeds to earn a trip to Palo Alto. Northwestern will have its hands full with 20th-ranked Notre Dame; the Fighting Irish took a 3-0 lead over the Wildcats in Evanston less than a month ago, before Northwestern stormed back, as they did at Michigan Sunday, to win 4-3. Vanderbilt, ranked 19th, could challenge Tennessee, Southern Cal(18) will have another crack at Cal, and Arizona State, ranked 17th, will challenge Georgia Tech in that regional.

The complete women's bracket is here.

The top 16 men's seeds, with ranking in parentheses.

1. Virginia (1)
2. Southern Cal (2)
3. Tennessee (3)
4. Ohio State (4)
5. Baylor (5)
6. Georgia (6)
7. Florida (8)
8. Stanford (7)
9. Texas A&M (9)
10. Kentucky (10)
11. Duke (12)
12. UCLA (11)
13. Texas (14)
14. California (15)
15. Georgia Tech (16)
16. North Carolina (18)

The two Top 16 seeds not hosting are Texas and North Carolina. Texas will go on the road to No. 20 Oklahoma, who for the second straight year has hosted a regional without being ranked in the Top 16. Last year it was 14th-ranked Texas Tech who had to travel to Norman (is there a pattern there?), and the Red Raiders lost to the Sooners after having beaten them three times during the season. North Carolina will go to Illinois, who at No. 17, is actually ranked one spot above them, but I have no clue to the thought process that went behind seeding North Carolina Top 16, but letting Illinois host. Nor do I know why Florida and Stanford switched places, although Florida does have a win over Stanford this year. Duke and UCLA's switch is not based on that, as they didn't play this year, so again, I don't know the reasoning.

Obviously the Illinois regional will one of the most competitive, with North Carolina and Illinois settling the question on the court. No. 29 Michigan has a split its two matches with Duke this year in Durham, losing 7-0 in January and winning 4-3 in late February. Minnesota(19) could challenge California in Berkeley, and Mississippi State(21) has a very good chance at Georgia Tech.

The complete men's bracket can be found here. The links to the lineups submitted can be found here.

The Tennis Recruiting Network is again hosting a roundtable, so I'll have more comments there next week, but I welcome your comments and predictions.

I'm excited to announce that this year I have received two copies, one XBox 360, the other Playstation3, of the TopSpin4 video game from 2K Sports, to use as a contest prize. The reader who picks the men's and women's champions and finalists this year will have his or her choice of the two formats, with the second place finisher receiving the other copy. The tiebreaker will be the score of the championship match. You may enter here in the comments, or via twitter. You need to use the name option when posting a comment here; for a twitter entry, use an @zootennis reply and the hashtag #topspin4. The contest will end at midnight EDT May 18th, 2011. I ask that you please refrain from entering more than once.

Those of you who do longer, more detailed predictions, which I love to read, will also be entered, but to be considered for the prize, make sure you give at least the men's and women's finalists and scores. For example:

Jupiter State over Mars U 4-2 and University of Saturn over Venus College 4-1.

It's the best time of year in college tennis, so bookmark this entry, check back to see what others think and join the fun.

Kalamazoo Draws are Posted; Who Do You Think Will Win?

With the draws now up at ustaboys.com, it's time for all of you to weigh in on who you think will win, who has a tough draw, who should cruise to the final, who will suffer an unexpected early loss. A Kalamazoo souvenir and recognition on ZooTennis is the prize when any such astute prediction become reality.

I've got a few matches circled for Friday's viewing (seeds don't begin play until Saturday):

Pasha v. Lippert, with Bangoura (22) waiting in the next round
Bernstein v. Zhu, with Seal (12) awaiting the winner
Holiner v. Noble, winner gets McCall
Collins v. Carleton, with winner playing Leslie (20)

Remember, all comments need to be accompanied by a name. This will be filed under the Contest category for easier access through Friday, when I'll close the comments.

Tags: junior tennis, Colette Lewis

Take A Guess: The Annual Pick-The-NCAA-Div-1-Champion Post

This is the space for you to select your winners of the upcoming NCAA Division I championships in College Station, Texas. As always, please provide a name with your post, and any reasons you have for your picks. My choices for the team finalists will be revealed Friday in the second installment of the Tennis Recruiting Network roundtable; I'm still trying to home in on my picks for the individual champions. This post, which will be accessible via the CONTEST category to the left, will stay open through Wednesday, May 13th.

I'll start it off by re-posting Brent's round-by-round predictions for the men's championship in the comment section.

Tags: college tennis, NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Tennis Championships, Colette Lewis

Winter Nationals Underway; Last Chance to Vote for ZooTennis as Tennis Blog of the Year

The USTA Winter Nationals are one major junior tournament I have never attended due to the location and timing. Coming off a month covering three tournaments in Florida, I need the holiday break to reacquaint myself with my home and work on assignments from the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowls. Even if I had heard glowing reviews of the weather in Arizona this time of year, which I haven't, I still would be unlikely to make the trip.

But for many juniors, it is one of the major tournaments that can be played without missing school, and the field is often full of the best California players in particular. The 16s and 18s divisions are held in Scottsdale, and in the boys 16s, Jack Sock, the No. 1 seed, and Shane Vinsant, the No. 2 seed, have both advanced to the fourth round of the 128-draw. In the girls 16s, National hard court champion Lauren Davis is the No. 1 seed and Nicole Melichar the No. 2 seed.

In the boys 18s, top seed Walker Kehrer was upset by fellow Californian Daniel Kosakowski in the third round, and there have been many upsets, with only No. 2 seed JT Sundling and No. 7 seed Connor Smith representing the top eight seeds in the round of 16.

In the girls 18s, No. 1 seed Hanna Mar and No. 2 seed Lilly Kimbell have advanced to the round of 16, but No. 3 seed Catherine Isip was upset in the first round.

For the 16s and 18s draws and results, see the TennisLink site.

The 12s and 14s are held in Tucson, and from their TennisLink site, it sounds as if the weather has been very wintry. In the boys 12s, top seeds Toshiki Matsuya and Christian Garay, both of whom played the Junior Orange Bowl, are through to the third round. No. 1 Terrell Celestine and No. 2 Jonathan Huang have made the third round in the boys 14s.

In the girls 12s, the top seeda are Katrine Steffensen and Christina Makarova; in the girls 14s, the top seeds are Jacqueline Crawford, and Brooke Austin.

A final reminder: Voting ends on Monday, December 29th in the On The Baseline Annual Awards. If you haven't already done so, please take a moment to vote for ZooTennis for Tennis Blog of the Year by clicking on the graphic in the upper left corner, or go to On The Baseline and select the VOTE TODAY icon. Thank you!

Tags: junior tennis, USTA Winter Nationals, Daniel Kosakowski, Colette Lewis

Eddie Herr Wrap; Australian Wild Card Playoff; Vote for ZooTennis as Tennis Blog of the Year

My weekly post for The Tennis Recruiting Network is a roundup of last week's Eddie Herr. I hope it provides an overall review of the highlights of that always exciting and chaotic week; for my more in-depth daily coverage, go to "older posts" or the category entitled International Tournaments. I hope to get a slide show up when I get a few hours off, but an Eddie Herr photo gallery is also up for viewing today on The Tennis Recruiting Network.

I spoke with Jay Berger, the USTA's new head of Men's Tennis for Elite Player Development early this week, and he told me the Australian Open main draw wild card playoff is scheduled for next weekend in Boca Raton, with John Isner, Wayne Odesnik, Donald Young and Jesse Levine vying for the wild card that the USTA exchanges with Tennis Australia every year. I don't yet have the information on the women's wild card, but will try to get it later in the week.

And a reminder that if you would like to vote for ZooTennis for Tennis Blog of the Year, please click on graphic in the upper left-hand corner for the On The Baseline WTA site's ballot.

Tags: junior tennis, The Tennis Recruiting Network, Colette Lewis

ZooTennis Nominated For Best Tennis Blog

I'm pleased to announce that ZooTennis has received a nomination for "Best Tennis Blog" in the annual On The Baseline awards. I'm up against some pretty stiff competition, so your vote would be much appreciated. Go to onthebaseline for all the nominees. To find ZooTennis and the competition, click on the Media Nominees, then go to the Vote Now button to vote for ZooTennis. Thank you for your support!

Tags: Colette Lewis

Still Time to Pick Your US Open Junior Winners; Day One of Junior Qualifying Complete; Stephens & Kendrick Take Down No. 1 Mixed Doubles Team

Saturday's post will be from the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and if the travel gods are kind, I may be able to catch some of the final qualifying matches that take place on the practice courts outside the East gates of the US Open. (If you are in the area, come out--it's free).

There are five of the eight U.S. boys and five of the 14 U.S. girls are still in the running for a spot in the main draw. Bo Seal, Devin Britton and wild cards Nathan Pasha and Matt Kandath advanced in straight sets, while Harry Fowler came from a set down to defeat Matthew Short of Great Britain.

I was surprised to see that Lauren Embree had lost, but it did take No. 9 seed Karina Pimkina of Russia two tiebreakers to overcome the 18s Clay Court champion. Brooke Bolender, Lauren McHale, Alexa Guarachi and wild cards Allie Will and Beatrice Capra were the U.S. winners, all in straight sets . Will and McHale face each other Saturday afternoon and that will be high on my list must-see matches.

For complete draws and Saturday's order of play, click here. For on site coverage of junior qualifying, see collegeandjuniortennis.com.

In Canada's Grade 1, unseeded Nicole Gibbs of the U.S. has reached the final, and will play No. 3 seed Kurumi Nara of Japan. Marcus Willis of Great Britain and Mirza Basic of Bosnia will decide the boys' championship.

A huge surprise in mixed doubles competition today in New York, as 15-year-old Sloane Stephens and her partner Robert Kendrick upset the top-seeded team of Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei and Daniel Nestor of Canada 6-1, 6-4 in first round action.

And don't forget to pick who you think will win the US Open Junior Championships by adding your comment to this post. Entries close at 9 a.m. Sunday morning, so make your guess now!

Tags: junior tennis, US Open Tennis Championships, Colette Lewis

Pick The US Open Junior Winners in Post #1500

The day before the U.S. Open starts is one of the quietest days in professional tennis, so it seems the perfect time to start another Pick The Winner competition, this one for the U.S. Open Junior Championships. The August 21st acceptance lists are here, but there are often a great many changes during the final three days leading up to Sunday's start. With five U.S. girls in both the main and junior draws, (Kristie Ahn, Gail Brodsky, Asia Muhammad, Melanie Oudin and Coco Vandeweghe) there is a chance that success in singles or doubles in the first week could cause some withdrawals. Ahn has drawn No. 6 seed Dinara Safina (see this Star-Ledger story for how she feels about that draw), Brodsky plays No. 13 Agnes Szavay and Vandeweghe No. 2 seed Jelena Jankovic. Muhammad plays unseeded Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai, ranked 74, who was upsetby Vandeweghe in the first round of March's Las Vegas challenger, the tournament where Muhammad reached the finals. Oudin drew another wild card, 18-year-old Australian Jessica Moore, who is also entered in the junior draw, and due to her 178 WTA ranking will likely be seeded in the 5-8 group. Unfortunately, the draw doesn't come out until the day before the tournament starts, so unlike Kalamazoo, there is no opportunity to take that into account when making a pick.

The men's doubles draw is out at usopen.org, and there are ten U.S. teams as well as three U.S. men--Travis Parrott, Jamie Cerratani and Eric Butorac--partnering non-U.S. players. Chase Buchanan and Ryan Harrison have drawn the unseeded team of Spain's Tommy Robredo and Argentina's Sergio Roitman. It's good to see NCAA doubles champion Kaes Van't Hof receiving a wild card. He will play with fellow Southern Californian Michael McClune.

So, leave a comment (remember, no anonymous comments will be published) on this, post number 1500 on zootennis.com, with who you think will win the boys and girls championships. Feel free to add a dark horse, and if you don't pick U.S. players to win, which U.S. player will be in it the longest.

Tags: junior tennis, US Open Junior Championships, Colette Lewis

Pick This Year's Winners at The Zoo; Applications for US Open Junior Entries Close Friday

The draws are up at ustaboys.com, so it's time to start the contest, which invites you to pick the singles winners and identify a dark horse (someone outside the top 8 seeds) who has a chance to make the finals. Again, no anonymous comments please. Last year we had great participation, but only one person correctly picked the two number one seeds, Michael McClune and Tennys Sandgren, to capture the championships. Feel free to add comments on who has the toughest draw, a good first round 18s match to watch Friday (I'll go first--Kandath vs. Stevens) and a second round encounter you're anticipating.

The deadline for applying for the U.S. Open Junior Championships is Friday, August 1, and that includes wild card applications. As encouragement for those who may be on the fence, Dennis Nevolo was initially 31 spots out of qualifying last year when the first acceptances were released, and he got into qualifying. He got out of it too, making it to the round of 16 of the main draw.

The application form is available here.

For information on who gets what wild card from the National Hardcourts, please refer to the chart below, taken from the usta website.



*must be ITF age eligible

Tags: junior tennis, Kalamazoo, US Open Junior Championships, Colette Lewis

Wimbledon Juniors Day One; Contest for All-Access Passes Ends at 9 pm EDT Saturday

The first day of Wimbledon junior competition is over, and seven seeds made their exits. Ty Trombetta of the U.S. topped No. 5 seed Yuki Bhambri of India 7-6(2), 6-4, while No. 8 Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and No. 12 seed Peerakit Siributwong were also defeated. Bhambri, a semifinalist in this year's Australia Juniors, has had a woeful spring in Europe, going 0-2 on the clay and 0-2 on the grass, with this loss.

Ryan Harrison, the No. 7 seed, saved two match points in the second set tiebreaker and managed to get past Vasek Pospisil of Canada 6-7(5), 7-6(8), 6-4, and No. 16 seed Bradley Klahn was taken to three sets, but won the final one 6-0 in his win over Di Wu of China. Chase Buchanan, the No. 14 seed, made it through in straight sets, but his doubles partner, Jarmere Jenkins, was eliminated by No. 6 seed Henrique Cunha of Brazil.

The girls draw lost both of the Romanian Bogdans (not related), No. 4 seed Elena, the French Open finalist who beat Oudin at Roland Garros, and No. 7 Ana. Kurumi Nara of Japan, the No. 8 seed, and No. 11 Ksenia Lykina of Russia also lost in Saturday's opening round. Mallory Burdette of the U.S. was defeated by Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, the 2007 Eddie Herr 16s champion. Top seed Melanie Oudin and wild card Coco Vandeweghe, the other two U.S. girls in the draw, will play their first round matches on Monday.

It's refreshing to have an official website pay attention to the juniors, and today Wimbledon.org has no less than three news stories devoted to them. This one is on how the seeds fared, this one on the British juniors and this one on top seed Bernard Tomic of Australia, who demolished Spain's Carlos Boluda in the opening round. For complete draws, including doubles, which were released today, visit wimbledon.org.

The drawing for the four All-Access passes will take place tonight at 9 p.m. and I will email the winners shortly thereafter. I will close the comments on Friday's post below, after I make my picks in the last comment.

I am also pleased to announce that Guy McCrea of Radio Wimbledon will be contributing reports on the junior action next week direct from the All-England Club. He is covering the juniors for Radio Wimbledon, so he will have plenty of valuable observations on this year's junior event for zootennis readers.

Tags: junior tennis, Wimbledon Junior Championships, Ty Trombetta, Colette Lewis

Free Wimbledon Live All-Access Passes for Several Lucky ZooTennis Readers

The draws for the Wimbledon junior championships are out (more about that later), but there's other exciting news first. MediaZone has just contacted me with an offer of several free All-Access passes ($24.99 value) for the online streaming product at Wimbledon.org, which I think will be of real value for those who are interested in watching some of the U.S. college players still in doubles, and, of course, the juniors. At this late date, there's no time for a real contest, so tomorrow (Saturday) I'll just randomly select from anyone who has left a comment in June, if they also leave one on this post predicting the winners of the girls and boys Wimbledon Championships.

One caution: Wimbledon LIVE is available only for the Windows operating system. And I will need you to provide me with your email when you comment (which I will delete before posting the comment to the site), so I can send you the gift certificate code if you are selected.

Now to the junior draws. The U.S. had great success in the juniors last year, with Donald Young winning the boys title and Madison Brengle reaching the girls final. There are six U.S. boys in the main draw this year, three of them seeded: Ryan Harrison (7), Chase Buchanan (14) and Bradley Klahn (16). Jarmere Jenkins, Ty Trombetta and qualifier Devin Britton are also in. There are only three U.S. girls, as none of the four in qualifying advanced to the main draw: Melanie Oudin, the top seed, who won Roehampton today, Coco Vandeweghe and Mallory Burdette. Oudin beat 14-year-old Laura Robson of Great Britain in three sets in the Roehampton final, and they will meet, if both advance, in the second round at Wimbledon.

For those interested in the qualifying results, click here. For the Roehampton results, including a short story on the British finalists, click here.

So, who do think will win the Wimbledon junior titles? Make a comment and get in the running for the All-Access Passes for Wimbledon LIVE.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Wimbledon LIVE, Wimbledon Junior Championships, Colette Lewis

Picking the Winners in NCAA Division I, Care to Try?

Today on the Tennis Recruiting Network, Harry Cicma, Marc Lucero and I weigh in on the upcoming NCAA Division I tournament. As most of you know, I'm not one for predictions, but I did pick the team finalists, and in a zootennis post last week, picked Barte and Devvarman to take the individual titles.

Last year for the Kalamazoo tournament, I asked readers to select their winners, and I'd like to try that again for the NCAAs. Leave a comment with the names of your men's and women's team winners and men's and women's individual champions, and the school you think the women's doubles champion will come from (as a tiebreaker). That's it. When making your comment (to this post) use a name that has some relation to you, although it does not have to be your real name, post it, and if you are right, you'll be recognized in the Honor Roll and receive the designation of "college tennis expert" just like Harry, Marc and me!

Seriously, I ran across this blog today on D-III men's college tennis, and I'm jealous of all the comments and knowledge bandied about there. (The defending national champions, UC-Santa Cruz, lost in the round of 16, so they've already had a lot to discuss). Although we have some serious college tennis fans here at zootennis, we need more. Take a guess (deadline is next Wednesday, the 14th), there's no cost to this lottery! (I'll add a category called "contest" to this post, so it will still be easy to find a week from now.)

To follow up on the results from yesterday, the U.S girls' victory over Canada in the Junior Fed Cup qualifying is detailed here, and the unbelievable eight-hour length of the tie makes it all the more unfortunate that Canada has been deprived of a spot in the final 16 in September.

TCPalm.com had this story on Chase Buchanan's win in Vero Beach, with an interesting set of statistics of the sort you get from Grand Slam matches at the bottom. The Daily Progress talks with Alexis Gordon about her first pro win in Charlottesville and her future goals.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, NCAA Division I tennis championships, Colette Lewis