Fifteen of 18 Americans Begin Play Sunday at Roland Garros Junior Championships; Svajda, Tiafoe and Keys Reach RG Round of 16; Brantmeier Advances to Wichita W35 Final; SoCal Pro Series Week One Concludes Sunday

The Roland Garros Junior Championships begin Sunday, with both Australian Open champions in the draw, four seeded US boys and one seeded US girl. In total ten US boys and eight US girls will be playing main draw matches this year and 15 of those 18 will play tomorrow. In total 24 of the 32 matches in each draw are scheduled for Sunday, with the only Americans not in action are qualifier Carrie-Anne Hoo, No. 15 seed Janae Preston and No. 4 seed Jack Kennedy.

Roland Garros Junior Championship seeds:

Girls:
1.Ksenia Efremova(FRA)

2. Xinran Sun(CHN)

3. Victoria Barros(BRA)
4. Jana Kovackova(CZE)
5. Nauhany Leme Da Silva(BRA)
6. Anastasija Cvetkovic(SRB)
7. Sol Ailin Larraya Guidi(ARG)
8. Mariia Makarova(RUS)
9. Charo Esquiva Banulds(ESP)
10. Ida Wobker(GER)
11. Paola Pinera Celorio(ESP)
12. Alisa Oktiabreva(RUS)
13. Mariella Thamm(GER)
14. Felitsata Dorofeeva-Rybas(RUS)
15. Janae Preston(USA)
16. Anna Pushkareva(RUS)

Boys:

1. Luis Guto Miguel(BRA)

2. Yannick Alexandrescou(FRA)

3. Jamie Mackenzie(GER)

4. Jack Kennedy(USA)

5. Ziga Sesko(SLO)

6. Keaton Hance(USA)

7. Thilo Behrmann(AUT)

8. Zangar Nurlanuly(KAZ)

9. Dimitar Kisimov(BUL)

10. Ryo Tabata(JPN)

11. Andrew Johnson(USA)

12. Yannick Alvarez(PUR)

13. Michael Antonius(USA)

14. Dante Pagani(ARG)

15. Kuan-Shou Chen(TPE)

16. Nicolas Baena(PER)

Jack Kennedy is currently 11 in the ITF junior rankings, but his ATP ranking of 426 moves him to the No. 4 spot thanks to the ITF's formula to compare ATP rankings with ITF junior rankings. (That chart can be found here). Girls No. 12 seed Alisa Oktiabreva is seeded due to her WTA ranking of 309.

A couple of junior slam finalists are in the draw but unseeded, with 2025 US Open runner-up Lea Nilsson of Sweden returning to junior competition for the first time since then, having reached the semifinals of two W35s this month. This year's Australian Open finalist Ekaterina Tupitsyna of Russia has won two W15s this month on hard courts, but went 2-2 in April's ITF Cairo events on clay.

The ITF's media preview is here(Pareja withdrew a week ago, not sure why she's mentioned). The ITF Junior Circuit's website preview is here.

Sunday's first round RG Junior matches featuring Americans:

Jack Secord v Flynn Thomas(SUI)

Michael Antonius[13] v Kirill Filaretov(RUS)

Safir Azam[Q] v Jamie Mackenzie[3](GER)

Agassi Rusher[Q] v Motoharu Abe[JGSE](JPN)

Keaton Hance[6] v Marat Salbiev[Q](RUS)

Gavin Goode v Connor Doig(RSA)

Ryan Cozad v Savva Rybkin(RUS)

Andy Johnson[11] v Raffaele Ciurnelli(ITA)

Tanishk Konduri v Oliver Majdandzic([Q]GER)

Melije Clarke v. Alisa Oktiabreva[12](RUS)

Lani Chang v Felitsata Dorofeeva-Rybas[14](RUS)

Sarah Ye[Q] v Giulia Popa(ROU)

Welles Newman v Paola Pinera Celorio[11](ESP)

Jordyn Hazelitt[Q] v Mariia Markarova[8](RUS)

Thea Frodin v Maia Burcescu(ROU)

After a day off Friday, the singles finals of the ITF J300 Astrid Bowl in Belgium were played today, with both unseeded Americans falling. No. 6 seed Dan Brand of Israel defeated Jordan Lee 6-3, 6-2 and Mariella Thamm of Germany beat Anita Tu 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. Brand and Thamm are in the main draw at Roland Garros, Lee and Tu are not.

Just three Americans have advanced to the second week of Roland Garros: Zachary Svajda, Frances Tiafoe and Madison Keys.  Svajda is the big surprise, as he had never been past the second round of a major, but he defeated No. 25 seed Francisco Cerundolo(South Carolina) in five sets today. As if that wasn't emotional enough, this career-best win came on the birthday of his late father Tom, a fixture of the tennis coaching scene in San Diego, who died of cancer last fall.

Saturday's third round Roland Garros results of Americans:

Zachary Svajda d. Francisco Cerundolo[25](ARG) 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3

Flavio Cobolli[10](ITA) d. Learner Tien[18] 6-2, 6-2, 6-3

Frances Tiafoe[19] d. Jaime Faria[Q](POR) 4-6, 6-7(2), 7-6(4), 6-1, 6-2

Felix Auger-Aliassime[4](CAN) d. Brandon Nakashima[31] 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(4), 7-6(1)

Naomi Osaka[16](JPN) d. Iva Jovic[18] 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 6-4

Madison Keys[19] d. Victoria Mboko[9](CAN) 6-3, 5-7, 7-5

Anastasia Potapova[28](AUT) d. Coco Gauff[4] 4-6, 7-6(1), 6-4

Diane Parry(FRA) d. Amanda Anisimova[6] 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(3)

No Americans are on the singles schedule for Sunday in Paris.

Rain has continued to be a problem at the W35 in Wichita Kansas but Sunday's finalists have been determined after a long day of tennis and rain delays. No. 4 seed Sahaja Yamalapalli(Sam Houston) won two matches today, the second a nearly three-hour 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Yekaterina Dmitrichenko(Texas Tech).  Yamalapalli will face wild card Reese Brantmeier(North Carolina), who trailed No. 2 seed Clervie Ngounoue in their quarterfinal match when Ngounoue retired, but went on to defeat unseeded Dana Guzman(Oklahoma) of Peru 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals.

The ATP Challenger 75 in Little Rock Arkansas has also had rain delays, with three Americans in tonight's semifinals. No. 3 seed Colton Smith(Arizona) is facing Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) and No. 5 seed Michael Mmoh is playing Canadian qualfier Justin Boulais(Ohio State) for the other spot in Sunday's final.

The finals are set at the SoCal Pro Series tournaments in Lakewood.

Qualifier Tatum Evans(North Carolina) defeated top seed Mayu Crossley(UCLA) of Japan 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the W15 semifinals and will play another UCLA Bruin for the title: Anne Christine Lutkemeyer. Lutkemeyer, the No. 5 seed, ended the run of 15-year-old qualifier Allison Wang 6-4, 7-5.

Unseeded Washington State teammates Eva Alvarez Sande of Spain and Maxine Murphy won the doubles title, beating top seed Jaedan Brown(Michigan) and Kailey Evans(Texas Tech, San Diego) 6-2, 3-6, 10-6 in today's final.

Top seed Kaylan Bigun(UCLA) defeated qualifier Lucas Marionneau  (Texas) of France 6-3, 6-4 to reach his first Pro Circuit final at the M15 in Lakewood. The 2024 Roland Garros boys champion will face No. 4 seed Amit Vales of Israel, who defeated Spencer Johnson(UCLA) 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-2 in the other semifinal.

The men's doubles title was won by Texas teammates Marionneau and Sebastian Gorzny, who were partners during the season, playing No. 2 doubles for the Longhorns. The unseeded pair defeated No. 3 seeds Reece Falck(UNC Wilmington) and Matthew Shearer(Nebraska) of New Zealand 7-6(5), 7-6(4). It's the second Pro Circuit doubles title for Gorzny and the first for Marionneau.

Paul Closes with a Flourish to Win First ATP Title; Korda Loses in ATP Next Gen Finals; Eubanks Advances to Knoxville Challenger Final; UCLA/Texas Combo Claims Pro Circuit Title

It wasn't looking good for Tommy Paul in the final of the ATP 250 in Stockholm Sweden, the first ATP final of his career. At 4-all in the third set against defending champion Denis Shapovalov of Canada, Paul was serving, down 15-40. Not only did he win the next four points to hold serve, the 24-year-old American broke Shapovalov at love, then held at love--12 consecutive points won to earn his first ATP title. 

Paul will move to a career-high 43 in the rankings with the title, becoming the sixth American in the Top 50. Of those six, only John Isner is over the age of 24.

The ATP article, along with video highlights of the final, can be found here. The ATP also conducted a "first-time winner" interview with Paul. In addition recognizing the contribution of his coach Brad Stine, Paul mentions others who will be familiar to those who followed Paul's years on the junior circuit. 

With Alison Riske's title at the WTA 250 in Austria yesterday, the US can boast of two champions on tour this weekend, but not a third. Sebastian Korda, who reached the final of the ATP's Next Gen Finals this week in Milan, lost to 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz of Spain 4-3(5), 4-2, 4-2. As with Jannik Sinner, who won the Next Gen title as an 18-year-old in 2019, Alcaraz is not expected to compete in future competitions, as he continues his ascent to the ATP Top 10 in 2022.

For more on the final, see this article.

Two more Americans can earn Challenger titles Sunday, with Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech) advancing to the final in Knoxville, and Maxime Cressy(UCLA) reaching the final in Italy. Eubanks, who is unseeded, defeated No. 8 seed Bjorn Fratangelo today 7-5, 7-5 to advance to his fourth Challenger final and his second this year. Eubanks will face No. 2 seed Daniel Altmaier of Germany, who beat Michael Mmoh 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Almaier, a 23-year-old who had an unremarkable junior career, should move into the ATP Top 100 for the first time Monday, regardless of the outcome of Sunday's final. 

Eubanks is playing the abbreviated World Team Tennis season the next two weeks in Indian Wells, but with his success this week in Knoxville, he won't be there for the New York Empire for their opening match tonight.  Tommy Paul is also scheduled to play for the Chicago Smash, beginning next Saturday.

No. 2 seed Cressy, who has gone semifinal, final, final the last three weeks in European Challengers, will face No. 1 seed Oscar Otte of Germany in the final of the ATP Challenger 80 in Ortisei. Otte defeated Cressy in the semifinals in Germany two weeks ago en route to the title.

The doubles title was decided today in Knoxville, with the unseeded team of Blaz Rola(Ohio State) of Slovenia and Malek Jaziri of Tunisia beating top seeds Hans Hach Verdugo(Abilene Christian) and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela(Texas) of Mexico 3-6, 6-3, 10-5.

At the $25,000 women's Pro Circuit tournament in Daytona Beach, top seed Alycia Parks advanced to the final, where she will take on No. 2 seed Irina Fetecau of Romania. Parks defeated qualifier Maria Jose Portillo Ramirez of Mexico 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, while Fetecau beat No. 6 seed Sujeong Jang of Korea 6-4, 7-5.

In the doubles final, two current collegians captured the title. Elysia Bolton, a senior at UCLA (although not currently listed on the 2021-22 roster) and Kylie Collins, a sophomore at Texas, won the battle of unseeded finalists today. Bolton and Collins defeated Parks and Alexandra Osborne of Australia 6-4, 6-7(4), 10-5 in exactly two hours. Bolton won a $25K title last month with Maegan Manasse(Cal), while Collins won a $25K title this summer with Robin Montgomery. 

Another current collegian, Baylor junior Adrian Boitan, has advanced to the final of the $25,000 men's Pro Circuit tournament in Harlingen. The unseeded 22-year-old from Romania defeated No. 3 seed Matias Descotte of Argentina 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 in a nearly three-hour semifinal. He will take on top seed Paul Jubb of Great Britain, the 2019 NCAA singles champion while at South Carolina. Jubb defeated No. 4 seed Christian Langmo(Miami) 7-5, 6-1.

Boitan and former Baylor teammate Constantin Frantzen of Germany reached the doubles final unseeded, but lost in today's final to No. 3 seeds Mark Whitehouse of Great Britain and Francis Alcantara(Pepperdine) of the Philippines 7-6(3), 5-7, 10-7.

New York Empire Saves Championship Point to Take World Team Tennis Title; Proposed Carson California Athletic Center Receives $50 Million for Construction

Coco Vandeweghe
 photo credit: World Team Tennis

Less than a week ago, two members of World Team Tennis champions the New York Empire were playing for another team. But heading into the third week of the season, the San Diego Aviators traded Nicole Melichar and Coco Vandeweghe to the Empire for Kveta Peschke, Sabine Lisicki and "financial considerations," and the pair ended up delivering the title Sunday afternoon in women's doubles, winning the ultimate deciding point against the Chicago Smash in a Super Tiebreaker.

The Empire led 10-6 after Jack Sock and Neal Skupski(LSU) defeated Rajeev Ram(Illinois) and Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) 5-2 in men's doubles, then Sock and Vandeweghe beat Ram and Bethanie Mattek-Sands 5-4 in mixed doubles.

With men's singles next up, after Smash coach Kamau Murray elected to have the match finish with women's doubles, Nakashima gave Chicago an 11-10 lead by crushing Sock 5-0. Sloane Stephens beat Vandeweghe 5-3 in women's singles to extend that lead to 16-13, so Vandeweghe and Melichar had to win the women's doubles over Mattek-Sands and Eugenie Bouchard to force extended play.

If the trailing team wins that fifth set, the match continues, if the leading team wins it, the match ends with a victory for them. At 3-all, Mattek-Sands dropped serve, giving Melichar an opportunity to serve for the set, but she was broken. In the tiebreaker, which the Empire had to win, they went up 4-1, only to see the Smash come back to 4-all. There is no "win by two" in the World Team Tennis tiebreakers, so the next point would decide if the match would continue. Melichar, who had had some shaky serves came up with a great first serve on the T to take the point and the game and the set, forcing extended play. The Smash still led 20-18 in total games, so they had to win the next two games to force a Super Tiebreaker.

Vandeweghe held serve easily, making it 20-19, but Mattek-Sands had the opportunity to serve out the championship. She was unable to, with some great returning by Vandeweghe and Melichar leading to the Super Tiebreaker. Unlike the nine-point tiebreaker, first to 5 normally played, this one is 13 points, first to 7, with a winner-take-all point should it get to 6-6.

At the stage, Murray substituted Stephens for Bouchard, and she helped the Smash to a 5-3 lead, but Melichar and Vandeweghe got the mini-break back, and by winning three points in a row, had a championship point of their own with Stephens serving at 5-6. Stephens hit an ace, meaning that one point would decide the championship. Stephens had one more serve, but the returns had been dominant most of the match, and so it proved in this case, with Vandeweghe ripping a forehand return on the back of the baseline to give the Empire its first WTT title.

All lines throughout the three weeks were called electronically and were not subject to review or challenge, but as you can see in the tweet below, the margin between a title and finishing second was about as close as it could be.

#WTT2020: 0.591 inches. That's what it all came down to! #NYvsCHI

🎾Get complete coverage of the #WTTChampionship and the entire historic 45th season of World TeamTennis at https://t.co/c7ZUINGw6O! pic.twitter.com/1pdCNOXq2o

— World TeamTennis (@WorldTeamTennis) August 2, 2020

New York was the No. 4 seed in the playoffs, but took out No. 1 seed Philadelphia 22-18, with Sock beating Taylor Fritz in the fifth set to send the Empire to the final. Chicago, the No. 3 seed, defeated No. 2 seed Orlando Storm 24-13.

Sock was named the men's MVP, despite his loss in men's singles today, and Vandeweghe, who also lost in singles today, was named the women's MVP, emphasizing the importance of doubles in the format.

The Empire shares $500,000 in prize money, in addition to their salaries and other bonuses they may have earned; the Smash shares $250,000.

Overall the World Team Tennis season has to provide optimism for tennis, with no positive Covid-19 tests reported throughout the three-week season, given that the bubble at The Greenbrier is much less strict than what has been put in place in New York for the Western & Southern Open and US Open. And the extensive presence on television throughout, including the finals airing on network TV today, gave tennis some exposure as other pro sports are just ramping up.

Earlier last year, the development of the Carol Kimmelman Athletic and Academic Campus in Carson California was announced, with support from the Tiger Woods' TGR Foundation and the USTA Foundation as well as the Kimmelman family. I had heard that county politics and environmental considerations had led to delays in groundbreaking, but the project is back in the news this week, with the announcement of $50 million dollars in funding for construction costs. This Los Angeles Times article projects a late 2021 or early 2022 opening at the site of a former golf course, which is just up the street from the Dignity Health Sports Park, site of the ITF Grade 1 International Spring Championships and the USTA Player Development West training center.

Philadelphia, Chicago Clinch World Team Tennis Playoff Spots; Miyazaki, Broom Take British Tour Titles; Alcaraz Wins Spanish Exhibition; ITA Summer Circuit Update

Unlike most of the pro sports leagues gearing up right now, World Team Tennis is playing its regular schedule this year, at its regular time of year, with the only difference from the past four-plus decades coming in the location, with all matches held at The Greenbrier resort, rather than in the nine cities that are fielding teams this year. The season, always confined to three weeks with a final weekend playoff, is drawing to a close this week, with the semifinals and finals set for August 1st and 2nd.

Two teams clinched their places in the playoffs today, with the Philadelphia Freedoms and the expansion franchise Chicago Smash assured of a place in the semifinals. Philadelphia, which is playing tonight, is currently a half game behind Chicago, which stands at 9-2 and has won four matches in a row. Eighteen-year-old Brandon Nakashima of Chicago is currently No. 2 in the WTT men's singles rankings, trailing only Taylor Fritz of the Freedoms.

For complete standings and the schedule for the coming week, along with the broadcast details, see the World Team Tennis website.

While World Team Tennis has been the primary focus of the sport in the United States this month, Great Britain's LTA has continued to hold competitions for players from those in the Top 100 to those much farther removed from the ATP or WTA. The Week 4 events were captured by former Oklahoma star Lily Miyazaki and recent Darthmouth graduate Charlie Broom.  The 24-year-old Miyazaki, seeded No. 1, defeated Grace Piper 6-0, 6-2 in the women's final. Broom, a 22-year-old who will take a fifth year at Baylor in 2020-21, beat Henry Patten 7-6(3), 6-1 in the men's final. For more on this week's British Tour events, see this article.

Carlos Alcaraz, one of the most promising teenagers in the junior ranks, won an exhibition event in his home country of Spain this week. The 17-year-old, who is currently 318 in the ATP rankings, defeated ATP 220 Bernabe Zapata Miralles 7-6(1), 6-4 in today's final. Alcaraz won five matches in this week's tournament; he did not play in the two prior weeks.

Because there are nine ITA Summer Circuit events to report on this week, I'm going to review them over the next two or three days, starting with the two that concluded today.

At the tournament at Wichita State, top seed Bradley Frye took the men's top flight, with the USC rising junior defeating No. 2 seed Marius Frosa 6-4, 6-4 in the final. Frosa is returning for a fifth year for the Wichita State Shockers.

Unseeded Abidullina Adel-Byanu, a rising junior at Division II Central Oklahoma, won the women's top flight, beating rising UC-Santa Barbara freshman Camille Kiss 3-6, 6-4, 10-7 in the final. Adel-Byanu had taken out top seed Sofia Smagina, a University of Kansas rising junior 6-3, 3-6, 11-9 in the semifinals.

Both Frye and Adel-Byanu took home $375 in prize money, while Forsa and Kiss collected $275.

In contrast to the collegians that came through in Kansas, teenagers were the winners at the Weil Tennis Academy in Ojai California. Division III Middlebury rising freshman Noah Laber, the No. 1 seed, took the men's title, beating Trinity(CT) rising freshman Henry Bilicic 6-2, 6-2 in the final.  Blue chip rising sophomore Mika Ikemori, the No. 5 seed, won the women's title, beating No. 8 seed Velizara Fileva, a rising senior, 1-6, 7-5, 10-7 in the final.

Gauff Enters WTA Event in Lexington; WTA Fall China Swing Off; Feature on Top African Junior Boys; Covid-19 Brings Tennis Issues to Forefront; Collins Explains WTT Bubble Breach

The WTA International event that will kick off the return of professional tour tennis in the United States keeps adding big names to its field. The Top Seed Open in Nicholasville Kentucky initially announced that Serena Williams and Sloane Stephens would be a part of its field. Since then, Venus Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Amanda Anisimova and Coco Gauff have also committed to play in the event, which begins August 10th. According to this Lexington Herald-Leader article, the draw size is 32 for singles and 16 for doubles. I assume there will be wild cards available, but have not heard anything about those yet.

News broke today that the WTA tournaments in China are being canceled, which leaves a huge hole in the fall calendar for women. Chris Clarey of The New York Times provides details on what this means for women's professional tennis, as well as other pro sports scheduled for that part of the world.

It's rare for an African junior to break into the ITF Junior Top 100, and the top girl from Africa, Sada Nahimana of Brundi, is continuing her quest to play professional tennis with a commitment to play at North Carolina State. Tumani Carayol of The Guardian has an update on two African boys who are currently in the Top 25 in the ITF Junior World Rankings: Khololwam Montsi of South Africa and Eliakim Coulibaly of Cote D'Ivoire.  There isn't any mention of college in the article, but Montsi older brother Siphosothando, who is referenced briefly, is currently a rising junior at the University of Illinois.

Peter Bodo of ESPN has published a thorough review of what he thinks tennis has learned about itself in this months-long interruption. All of it is interesting, but I thought the call for a match tiebreaker in lieu of a third set was the "hot take" of the article. Is it time for that, if not in slams, then in ATP and WTA events? I'm not convinced, but I do find it preferable to the many other shortening options tried recently.

Danielle Collins has spoken about her dismissal from World Team Tennis, saying she was not aware that she was prohibited from leaving the site, although WTT CEO Carlos Silva said it was mentioned to players on two different occasions. For more from Collins and Silva, see this article from The New York Times.

Recap of ITA Summer Circuit Week 5; Collins Dismissed From World Team Tennis for Leaving Bubble; ATP Citi Open in Washington Canceled

I attended the ITA Summer Circuit finals in Grand Rapids yesterday, and wrote in detail about the titles for Ellie Coleman and Ekansh Kumar in last night's post. I will also have more on the tournament in an article for the Tennis Recruiting Network Friday.

Three other tournaments on the circuit also concluded, and as with the Grand Rapids event, the competition in Lake Nona Florida also produced to winners from the junior ranks.

Blue chip Sonya Macavei, a rising high school junior, defeated five-star rising senior Kate Sharabura 6-2, 6-2 to win the women's title at the USTA National Campus. The draws from the event didn't show seeds, but Macavei had the fifth best Universal Tennis Rating in the field, while Sharabura's UTR was the sixth best. Macavei defeated Rachel Gailis, who had the top UTR in the women's draw, 6-3, 7-5 in the quarterfinals.

Five-star Jelani Sarr, a rising sophomore, won the men's event, beating rising senior Jake Fellows, who had the men's top UTR, 6-1, 6-2 in the final. Sarr, with the fourth best UTR in the men's field, had reached the final of the ITA Summer Circuit event in Lake Nona the previous week, but gave a walkover to Ozan Colak. According to Sarr's UTR record, they played a match a few days later, with Colak winning that match 6-2, 6-7(3), 10-4.

The tournament in Houston, which paid prize money, had more mature champions.  Baylor graduate Rhiann Newborn, now 26, defeated 25-year-old Ayaka Okuno, who played briefly at Georgia, 7-5, 7-6(1) in the women's final. Newborn had the best UTR and Okuno the second best UTR in the women's field.

Texas A&M rising junior Austin Abbrat, who had the second best UTR, defeated Tyler Junior College rising sophomore Jaycer Lyeons 6-3, 7-5 for the men's title. Lyeons had the fourth best UTR in the men's field.

The champions collected $375, while the finalists received $275.

Unlike most of the ITA events this summer, the event in Lubbock Texas did not attract many entries. Lubbock resident Harrison Bennett, a four-star rising sophomore, won the men's event, beating two-star Andrew Azatian, also from Lubbock 6-3, 6-1 in the final.

Maria Kononova, who played at the University of North Texas, didn't have much competition in the thin women's draw. Kononova, with a 10.09 UTR, lost only two games total in her two matches. She defeated Rachel Homan, whose UTR is 6.42, 6-0, 6-0 in the final.

World Team Tennis has entered its second week of competition without any reports of positive Covid-19 tests, but Danielle Collins was dismissed from her team, the Orlando Storm, for violating the safety protocols. Collins left the premises of The Greenbrier during the team's day off Sunday.  Jessica Pegula is the other singles player on the Storm, and she played in their match this morning, losing in singles, but winning both her doubles matches to lead the Storm to a 23-17 win over the Washington Kastles.

The brief statement provided by the league said only that the 2014 and 2016 NCAA singles champion had left the site and the state; given Collins' connection with the University of Virginia a couple of hours away, speculation was that she had traveled there. That was confirmed later by teammate Tennys Sandgren and coach Jay Gooding in this article about Collins' dismissal at tennis.com.

The USTA, ATP and WTA have not yet provided any information on how they might handle a similar breach at the upcoming Western & Southern Open and US Open, but the WTT has set a standard that they would be wise to adopt.

The return of ATP tennis will now be delayed yet again, when it was announced today that the Citi Open in Washington DC would be canceled. Scheduled to start on August 13, the tournament was not a part of any bubble environment, and with so much uncertainty Chairman Mark Ein made the decision to pull the plug, stating, "With only 23 days left until the start of the tournament, there are too many unresolved external issues, including various international travel restrictions as well as troubling health and safety trends, that have forced us to make this decision now in fairness to our players, suppliers and partners, so that they can have certainty around their planning.”

The USTA immediately sent out a statement that this decision has no implications for the Western & Southern Open and the US Open:

"This decision in no way impacts the US Open or the Western & Southern Open. The USTA will create a safe and controlled environment for players and everyone else involved in both tournaments that mitigates health risks that was approved by the State of New York and also conforms to the standards put forth by New York City and the federal government. We constantly base our decisions regarding hosting these tournaments on our three guiding principles that include safety and health of all involved, whether hosting these events are in the best interest in the sport of tennis and whether this decision is financially viable. We are confident we remain in-line with all three guiding principles."

Nakashima Continues to Shine in World Team Tennis; Other Notes From Around Tennis

Brandon Nakashima, who turns 19 next month, has had no difficulty staying with the veterans in men's singles during the first week of World Team Tennis play.  The former University of Virginia standout is 3-1 playing men's singles for the Chicago Smash, with victories over Sam Querrey, Steve Johnson and Jack Sock. His win over Sock, who plays for the New York Empire, saw him capture a tiebreaker to force extended play, then take another game to force a Super tiebreaker, then win the last three points of that tiebreaker to give his team the 22-21 win. Nakashima's only loss was to Tennys Sandgren, who also dealt Nakashima his only loss at the Altec Styslinger Exhibition last month in Miami. For more on his win over Sock, see this WTT article. The Smash is now 3-1 on the season, in second place 1/2 game behind the Philadelphia Freedoms, who are 4-1.

Kim Clijsters' comeback has been impressive, with the New York Empires team member going 4-0 in women's singles. Clijsters has beaten Bernarda Pera, Danielle Collins, Sofia Kenin and Sloane Stephens so far this week. See this tennis.com article for more on Clijsters return.

The NCAA has announced return-to-sport guidelines, which are more pertinent right now for fall sports than for tennis, which is spring sport. The NCAA also adopted legislation for sports, including tennis, "that would exempt from counting against team limits need-based financial aid given by the school that meets other specific criteria and other school-given, merit-based awards with no relationship to athletics ability."  The NCAA also approved the move of St. Thomas(Minn) from Division III to Division I.  St. Thomas has both men's and women's tennis teams, so while there will be no net gain overall, there are now two more Division I teams, which is a welcome change. St. Thomas will compete in the Summit League in most sports, but will not be eligible for postseason play until 2025-26.

CNBC published this article about college football financials and what the consequences might be if, as is looking increasingly likely, football is not played this fall. I was not sure how much football contributed to overall athletic department revenue at most Division I schools; I'm not surprised by the percentage given here, but it does show just how precarious everyone's finances will be if it can't be played.

Jeff Wilson was announced as the new men's head coach at the University of Pacific at the end of last month, but after two weeks left the new job for personal reasons. According to Parsa Nemati, Wilson will return to the assistant's job at Dartmouth. On Friday, Pacific announced Robin Goodman as the new men's head coach. Goodman spent the past four seasons as assistant men's coach at New Mexico.

Once the USTA National Hard Court Championships were canceled, I was hoping to cover the new WTA event announced for Lexington Kentucky that same week. Unfortunately, I was told that the WTA will not be credentialing media for that tournament, so I will not be able to attend after all. With that tournament the first women's WTA event in United States since the shutdown, it was expected to have a strong field, and a few days ago the WTA announced that Serena Williams and Sloane Stephens have committed to playing it. The tournament begins August 10th. Stephens is playing World Team Tennis for the Chicago Smash, but she would have more than a week off prior to the Lexington tournament.

Several weeks ago I ran across this investigation of junior boys slam champions, which not only looks at their highest ATP ranking, but whether their age when they won their titles gives any indication of future success.

2022 Youth Olympic Games Postponed Until 2026; USTA Southern Cancels Sectional; Krajicek and Dabrowski Join World Team Tennis's Orange County Breakers

The Youth Olympic Games are a strange animal, with very little history, having begun in 2010. When there are four years between competitions, a great many juniors (in tennis and all other Olympic sports) are precluded from competing in them based on their birth dates alone; if, in 2019, you were 16 when you got high enough in the ITF junior rankings to think about qualifying, you would be too old to compete in the next scheduled competition in 2022.

That bad luck got even worse for the current crop of promising ITF Juniors, with the International Olympic Committee's announcement today that the 2022 Youth Olympic Games in Senegal would be postponed until 2026. Now a player would have to be born in 2008 or later to be eligible for the next Youth Olympic Games, meaning that those players are currently 11 or 12 years old. For example, Les Petits As champion Brenda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic, who turned 13 this year, will be too old to play when the next Youth Olympic Games are held. I've never been a fan of tennis in the Olympics, even when pros can play in several of them due to the length of their careers, the Olympics seem more of an afterthought in a sport like tennis. For juniors, their introduction 10 years ago seemed particularly misguided given the age penalty so many young athletes would pay through no fault of their own. I don't know the motivation behind the decision to establish the Youth Olympic Games in the first place, but today's announcement just emphasizes how fundamentally unfair the system is.

After Friday's announcement that the USTA Southern California Sectional was being postponed and Monday's announcement that the USTA 16s and 18s National Hard Court Championships were not going to be played this year, it is no surprise that the USTA's Southern section announced yesterday that its Sectional Closed events, scheduled for July 30-August 5 at various venues, are off.  The letter explaining the cancellation of these events is here. As the letter says, travel is what makes these events dangerous and confusing, not the tennis itself, and local play can continue. I hope other sections are also encouraging this model.

The safety of the actual tennis being played was not a concern of the USTA Medical Advisory Group, therefore USTA Southern will continue to encourage State Level Tournaments 3-6 to continue, since these are local tournaments where traveling is not encouraged, and draws are smaller in size.

The World Team Tennis Stadium Court at The Greenbrier

World Team Tennis is halfway through its first week of competition at The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. The Orange County Breakers, who were to have Milos Raonic on their roster before he withdrew, were down to four players, and after they lost their first two matches, they have added doubles specialists Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and 2011 NCAA doubles champion Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M). Correction: Both played today in the Breakers third loss, with Dabrowski playing both mixed, with Krajicek, and women's doubles with Jennifer Brady. 

For an interesting look at how the testing is going in the Greenbrier bubble, and who is still waiting for clearance to come out of quarantine, see this tennis.com article. 

And for those interested in the current status of 2017 US Open boys champion Yibing Wu of China, Jon Wertheim's weekly mailbag at SI.com has an update.

Former Collegians Norrie, Borges and Perez Win National Competitions; Sandgren and Nakashima Lead Storm and Smash to Victories on World Team Tennis's Opening Day; Fish Claims Celebrity Golf Title

Former Georgia star Ellen Perez won her second consecutive UTR Pro Series title in Sydney Australia and former Mississippi State star Nuno Borges won his second title in Portugal in the the past three weeks, with national competitions becoming one of the most reliable ways for players to get matches while the ATP/WTA and ITF tournaments are shuttered.  Cameron Norrie, the former TCU star, also took a title, this one at the second British Tour, with the top seed defeated No. 2 seed and 2019 NCAA champion Paul Jubb (South Carolina) 6-1, 6-3. 

Norrie, along with partner Alastair Gray, a rising senior at TCU, also won the doubles title, beating top seeds Dom Inglot(Virginia) and Joe Salisbury(Memphis) 4-1, 4-3(4) in the final. For more on the today's competition, see this article from the LTA website.

Perez, who had also won the singles title the first time it was in Sydney, again defeated Alexandra Bozovic in the final, but this time had to save two match points in a 1-6, 7-6(7), 10-7 decision. The 24-year-old Perez has now won six matches in a row in the Australian UTR Pro Series, which is being contested in major cities across the country. Max Purcell won the men's title, also repeating as the Sydney champion. For more on the champions, see this Tennis Australia article.

Borges, who lost to Jubb in the NCAA singles final last year, saw his winning streak in Portugal snapped in week 2, but he recovered in week 3 to win his second title. Borges, 23, defeated University of Florida rising senior Duarte Vale 6-1, 6-1 in the final. For more results from the Portugal exhibition, click here.

Former college stars also took center stage today on World Team Tennis's Opening Day at The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia.  Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee), who is playing for the Orlando Storm, played singles, doubles and mixed doubles today, winning two of those three matches and then clinching the match in extended play, as his team defeated defending champions Springfield Lasers 21-18.  Sandgren opened with a 5-3 win over Mitchell Krueger in men's singles, then partnered with James Ward to defeat Jean-Julien Rojer(UCLA) and Robert Lindstedt(Pepperdine) 5-3.

Although Sandgren and Jessica Pegula lost to Caty McNally and Lindstedt 5-2 to give the Lasers a chance to catch the Storm in extended play, Pegula held serve in the first game of extended play to clinch the match.

Former Virginia star Nakashima took the court against Sam Querrey in a men's singles match featuring the two best UTR rankings in World Team Tennis. The 18-year-old Nakashima, playing for the Chicago Smash, had no luck against Querrey, playing for the Las Vegas Rollers, with Querrey losing only one point on serve in his first three service games. Nakashima, who won a deciding point to hold his first service game, earned two break point opportunities in the seventh game and converted the second on a deuce point to take a 4-3 lead. He held at love to earn the win, and while he didn't play mixed doubles, Nakashima and partner Rajeev Ram(Illinois) held their own against the Bryan brothers in men's doubles, and went on to clinch the Smash's 24-18 win by taking the first game in extended play.

The third match of the night will feature the Orange County Breakers against the San Diego Aviators, with Steve Johnson(USC) and Jennifer Brady(UCLA) on the Breakers team.  That match is scheduled for 8 p.m. on ESPN 2; the full TV and streaming schedule for the next three weeks is here.

US Davis Cup captain Mardy Fish was expected to play World Team Tennis for the New York Empire, but he pulled out at the last minute with an injury. Fortunately for Fish, the injury wasn't one that kept him from golfing, and today he won the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe, becoming the first tennis player to win the event in its 31-year history. For more on Fish's win over former Buffalo Bills lineman Kyle Williams, former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz and current Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry, see this article from the Reno Gazette Journal.

ITF Junior Fed Cup, Junior Davis Cup and 14U World Tennis Competition Canceled; WTA Adds August Event in Kentucky; Paul Takes Tiafoe's Spot in World Team Tennis; Looking Back at 2019 Wimbledon Juniors

The official announcement has yet to be made, but I've learned that the ITF 14U World Junior Tennis competition and the 16U Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup have been canceled for 2020.

This comes as no surprise, with the spring and summer regional qualifying events unable to take place due to the pandemic, and the USTA bowed out of hosting September's Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup way back in April. (It will return to the National Campus, pandemic permitting, in September of 2021). There was some thought that perhaps those two events could be held in Europe, after the French Open this fall, but again, without conducting the qualifying, selection of participants would be impossible. The World Junior Tennis competition, which is held in the Czech Republic every August, was unlikely to be held once the ITF junior hiatus extended past April.

I have not heard if the French Open will hold its junior event this year; it is currently not showing on the ITF Junior Circuit calendar for October.

The WTA will not be joining the ATP at Washington DC Citi Open, but a new 125 event has been added for women at the Top Seed Tennis Club in Nicholasville Kentucky. Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets, who did commentary at last weekend's women's pro exhibition at Top Seed, tweeted that the draw will be "32 main draw singles, 24 qualifying, 16 doubles. Player hotel will be completely rented out to tournament personnel. All on site players/staff will be tested." Although there were spectators at the exhibition last weekend, there will be none at this official WTA tournament. Gruskin's interview with Top Seed's Jon Sanders covering this upcoming event, can be found here. The "provisional" WTA calendar for the rest of 2020 can be found here.

The WTA also announced its ranking system adjustments, which are similar to those announced recently by the ATP.

Because Frances Tiafoe has tested positive for Covid-19, he is ineligible to participate in the upcoming World Team Tennis season, which begins Sunday at The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. Tiafoe, who was playing for the Washington Kastles, will be replaced by Tommy Paul.

For the team rosters, several of which have changed from the initial announcement, click here.

The ITF has not been posting much in the way of news on the junior website, but today an article on last year's Wimbledon Junior Championships appeared, with thoughts on their titles from Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan and Daria Snigur of Ukraine. Snigur, who is currently 215 in the WTA rankings, has found immediate success on the ITF World Tennis Tour, while Mochizuki, who has another year left of junior tennis in 2021, has found the going tougher; his ATP ranking is 732. It's interesting that Snigur said she hates slice, given her two finals wins on grass over Alexa Noel at Roehampton and Wimbledon. She also says Noel gave her trouble because Noel is left-hander, which is not true.

Last year's French Open boys champion Holger Rune of Denmark has been blogging for the ITF website, and in Tuesday's post he talks about his return to competition this month at invitational events in his home country and in Sweden. He says he won three of the four tournaments and is understandably excited about competition returning next month.

Stanford Drops 11 Sports But Not Tennis; World Team Tennis Announces Covid Safety Protocols; UTR National Championships Series Underway; What and How Should Tennis Change?

Stanford is the Division I gold standard in college athletics, winning the Directors Cup, a competition to determine the school with the top overall athletic performance, for 25 years in a row. So the collegiate sports landscape experienced an earthquake today, when the Cardinal announced it was cutting 11 sports after the 2020-2021 season.

Women's head coach Lele Forood has claimed
10 NCAA titles in her 20 seasons at Stanford

While tennis has been a likely candidate for such cuts at other Division I schools, that was never likely for Stanford, for two reasons: 1) no power 5 schools have dropped tennis, with the cuts coming from mid majors and 2) Stanford's tennis programs are arguably the most successful in Division I history.

The announcement goes into great detail about why these 11 (men’s and women’s fencing, field hockey, lightweight rowing, men’s rowing, co-ed and women’s sailing, squash, synchronized swimming, men’s volleyball and wrestling) sports were dropped, with lack of NCAA backing, the strain on the budget for the remaining teams, and geographical barriers among the reasons they were dropped. This leaves Stanford with 25 teams, still a large number by any accounting, but this action could serve as an icebreaker, with a deluge to follow in Power 5 programs. In the conference I'm most familiar with, the Big Ten, Ohio State currently has 30 teams and Michigan has 29. With the fallout of Covid-19, it doesn't take a pessimist to see that those numbers could be reduced in the next few months, especially if football is not back this fall.

It won't be back in the Ivy League, with the conference announcing all fall sports, including football, have been canceled for 2020.

World Team Tennis begins on Sunday, and at a press conference today, CEO Carlos Silva spoke about the steps they are taking to ensure the safety of fans and players:

Silva: We’re going to require all players to wear masks on the bench. The only players that won’t have a mask on will be on the court. There will obviously be no ball kids on the court. If your teammates would like to be ball kids, they can and they’ll be wearing masks. It’s kind of interesting and could be fun in a time when things aren’t always that fun this year. It could be great having the Bryan Brothers being ball kids for Sam Querrey when he’s playing. We’re going to tell the players when you come to the net you can tap racquets and do the same thing when playing doubles. The only one that might be tough would be the Bryan Brothers, who celebrate a lot and do chest bumps. We’re going to ask them not to do that. I can’t guarantee they won’t do it out of habit doing it for 25 years, but we are telling everyone not to do that. We’re trying to be smart, practical in a simple way, and we’ll be going through this with all of the players when they arrive as well.

We’ll be allowed to have 500 fans in the stands, although the stadium holds 2,500 people. Every other row will be blocked, and everyone will be socially distanced by the ushers. You will be able to sit by your family, but you will not be able to sit next to other families that you don’t know. Originally, because it is outdoors, we did not require fans to wear masks. We’ve since changed that requirement, well before everyone else did, about 10 days ago. We made a decision that we would make all fans also have to wear masks. That is a requirement to enter the stadium. Someone might have a drink, someone might eat a hotdog, again you have to do that without a mask, but then when you are done with that you would put your mask back on. If someone doesn’t want to wear a mask, that’s ok, they don’t have to come into the stadium. If they want a refund on their ticket, we would be happy to give them a refund.

With all sports dealing with the problem of athletes in a bubble, the WTT is hardly alone in this, but their commitment to fans does add a complication that other sports have not been willing to take on. The PGA's Memorial golf tournament next week in Ohio had been set to allow fans for the first time since the tour resumed last month, but that was recently vetoed and there will be no fans.

Here is a link to the World Team Tennis safety protocols.

Lisa Stone at Parenting Aces spoke with Matt Andre at UTR about the National Championship Series that began today at six locations across the county, and their conversation can be viewed on YouTube. The events kicking off the series are part of the College National Championships, which are for ages 17 and up, with the Junior National Championships for ages 14-16 scheduled to begin next week. The High School National Championships begin July 29.  Registration is open for the next three weeks of the College National Championships, and for all of the junior and high school events. For registration and more information, see the UTR website.

Patrick Mouratoglou has had a lot to say about keeping tennis relevant in this time of short attention spans, and he set about offering an alternative to current tennis formats with the Ultimate Tennis Showdown, going on now at his academy in Nice. Mouratoglou isn't alone; Fast 4 and third set tiebreakers have been a staple of the exhibitions that have been played during the pandemic. Is this format experimentation an answer to increasing the popularity of the sport?

This article from Matthew Willis at Racquet Magazine explores that question and ultimately decides that the more pressing problem tennis has is in drawing fans into the sport; the width of tennis fandom pales in comparison to other sports, with no video game culture and no easily accessible broadcast options to ignite interest in younger sports fans.

It's a long article, but it is worth your time if you care about the questions the sport needs to ask and answer to thrive in the future.

USTA Cancels All ITF World Tour August Events in US; Striplin Lynch Named Head Coach at Clemson, Vanderbilt's Announcement on Tsoubanos, Atawo Hired at Auburn, More College News; Tiafoe Out of World Team Tennis

Late this afternoon, the USTA sent out a brief statement canceling all five ITF World Tennis Tour events scheduled for August in the US.

July 6, 2020 ITF World Tennis Tour Cancellations Due to the ongoing situation surrounding COVID-19, the USTA has cancelled all five ITF World Tennis Tour events taking place in the U.S. in August. This decision was made to ensure the health and safety of all those involved with these events. The events include: Week of August 3 Lexington, Ky. – Women’s Event Week of August 10 Landisville, Pa. – Women’s Event Week of August 17 Concord, Mass. – Women’s Event Decatur, Ill. – Men’s Event Memphis, Tenn. – Men’s Event

This is crushing news for US players who hoped to start earning points and money next month, and with health and safety given as the reason, it obviously doesn't bode well for the USTA 18s and 16s Nationals scheduled for August 8-16, nor for the ITF Grade 1 in College Park Maryland at the end of the month, although I have seen nothing official on those tournaments.

Clemson announced today that Christy Striplin Lynch has been named head coach of the women's program. Striplin Lynch, who played at Georgia Tech and was assistant/associate head coach there the past six years, replaces Nancy Harris, who retired after 26 years leading the Tigers.

More than a week ago, word leaked of Aleke Tsoubanos, the longtime women's associate head coach at Vanderbilt, taking over for Geoff Macdonald and that was confirmed today, with the school announcing that Tsoubanos would move up to head coach. Macdonald, who is in his early 60s and was head coach at Vanderbilt for 26 years, is staying on the assistant coach. I'm sure someone with more years following college tennis remembers a comparable switch, but I certainly don't recall one in the past 15 years. But from the quotes in the article, everyone seems happy with this transition, which could become an option for others going forward.

Raquel Atawo, who competed at Cal and on the WTA tour as Raquel Kops-Jones, has been named to the position of women's assistant coach at Auburn. Atawo, who won the NCAA doubles title in 2003 and was the ITA Player of the Year in 2004, holds 18 doubles titles on the WTA Tour and reached a high of No. 10 in the WTA doubles rankings in 2015. She served as women's volunteer assistant at Cal last year.

In other Division I men's coaching news, Jeff Wilson has been named men's head coach at University of the Pacific in Stockton California. Wilson was the assistant men's coach at Dartmouth last season, and had previously coached in the women's programs at Duke and Georgia Tech.

The University of South Florida has announced the transfer of twins Harry and Grey Cacciatore, who just completed their sophomore year at the University of Florida.

Georgia Tech has announced the signing of ITF Top 100 junior Chen Dong of Australia.

Oren Vassar, who spent two seasons at William and Mary, has transferred to Miami.

The Minnesota women have signed Zeyneb Sarioglan of Turkey.

Today's World Team Tennis announcement stated "Washington Kastles player Frances Tiafoe, having tested positive for COVID-19 within the advance travel testing window, is ineligible to compete in the 2020 World Team Tennis season.” The WTT season begins on Sunday, July 12th.

New York Provides US Open Approval; World Team Tennis Rosters Announced, Includes Teens Nakashima and McNally

New York governor Andrew Cuomo gave the state's approval for this year's US Open, which prompted this statement from USTA CEO and Executive Director Michael Dowse:

June 16, 2020 Statement from Mike Dowse, USTA Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director We are incredibly excited that Governor Cuomo and New York State have today approved our plan to host the 2020 US Open and 2020 Western & Southern Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. We recognize the tremendous responsibility of hosting one of the first global sporting events in these challenging times, and we will do so in the safest manner possible, mitigating all potential risks. We now can give fans around the world the chance to watch tennis' top athletes compete for a US Open title, and we can showcase tennis as the ideal social distancing sport. Being able to hold these events in 2020 is a boost for the City of New York and the entire tennis landscape. We will have more details and an official announcement tomorrow.   ###

I have been invited to a USTA conference call tomorrow morning that will feature Dowse, Katrina Adams, Stacey Allaster and Dr. Brian Hainline, so I'm sure many of the details Dowse refers to above will be addressed then. We should find out if the Junior Championships have been canceled, which I expect, and if any media will be allowed on site.

Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim tweeted a two-page notice from the US Open, which appears to have been provided to players, that gives more details on tournament from their perspective. Those tweets are below:

Page 1/2 pic.twitter.com/j0BeJmrSEk

— Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim) June 16, 2020

P 2/2 pic.twitter.com/rbi9Ouqpn5

— Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim) June 16, 2020

World Team Tennis is set for its three-week season at The Greenbrier beginning on July 12th, and the rosters for the nine teams were finalized today. Eighteen-year-old Brandon Nakashima will be playing on the Chicago Smash, a team added this year, with Sloane Stephens the marquee star of that team. Jack Sock, Frances Tiafoe, Monica Puig, Kim Clijsters and Milos Raonic were added to rosters today. Comments from Tiafoe and Stephens can be found in this release.

Chicago Smash:

Brandon Nakashima, Sloane Stephens, Evan King, Genie Bouchard, Rajeev Ram

Coach: Kamau Murray

New York Empire:

Mardy Fish, Jack Sock, Sabine Lisicki, Neal Skupski, Kveta Peschke, Kim Clijsters

Coach: Luke Jensen

Orange County Breakers:

Steve Johnson, Luke Bambridge, Andreja Klepac, Milos Raonic

Coach: Rick Leach

Orlando Storm:

James Ward, Danielle Collins, Ken Skupski, Darija Jurak, Tennys Sandgren

Coach: Jay Gooding

Philadelphia Freedoms:

Donald Young, Taylor Townsend, Fabrice Martin, Caroline Dolehide, Sofia Kenin

Coach: Craig Kardon

San Diego Aviators:

Ryan Harrison, Christina McHale, Jonny O’Mara, Nicole Melichar, Coco Vandeweghe

Coach: John Lloyd

Springfield Lasers:

Mitchell Krueger, Olga Govortsova, Robert Lindstedt, Hayley Carter, Jean-Julien Rojer, Caty McNally

Coach: John-Laffnie de Jager

Vegas Rollers:

Sam Querrey, Kristie Ahn, Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan, Asia Muhammad, Monica Puig

Coach: Tim Blenkiron

Washington Kastles:

Marcelo Arevalo, Bernarda Pera, Nick Monroe, Arina Rodionova, Frances Tiafoe

Coach: Robby Ginepri

The WTT also announced its protocol if a player or coach arrives at The Greenbrier and tests positive or tests positive during the season. Because fans are being allowed at matches, they are subject to two temperature checks each day. There will be electronic line calling and no ballrunners or high-fives/handshakes, according to this Associated Press article.

USTA Announces Major Restructuring, with Significant Cuts to Player Development; Registration Open for UTR National Clay Court Tournaments at Greenbrier Resort

The USTA has announced a major restructuring of the organization, and these changes will result in a much smaller footprint for Player Development. In January, Michael Dowse took over the position of  CEO and Executive Director from Gordon Smith, so some of this is the result of new leadership, while the pandemic has forced the USTA to reassess its own expenses in order to help the industry recover from the shutdown. From this afternoon's release:

The plan includes the following reduction in expenses and key changes: 110 National positions will be eliminated via a reduction in force and or taking advantage of the recently announced voluntary departure program.  The announced phased closing of the White Plains office with remaining  staff relocating to a yet to be determined new location in New York.       Significant cuts in business units and other investments that are not aligned with the USTA’s strategic priorities.  This includes merging player development, facilities, and USTA-U into Community Tennis along with other downsizing initiatives.   Significant reductions in meeting and travel expenses including for the years 2021-2023 whereby the USTA will only host one live attended meeting per calendar year for its volunteers and staff across the country to meet and discuss key business initiatives. Exploration of a shared services platform to minimize and eliminate redundancy of backroom expenses of Sections and Districts thus allowing the strength of our Sectional and District volunteers and local staffs to service and support local facilities, providers, and players to grow the game.

This obviously impacts every facet of the USTA, but Player Development moving under the Community Tennis umbrella will have a big impact on junior tennis, as will the new Tennis Service Platform, which will replace TennisLink in 2021.

Although the release makes no mention of individuals, and I have no official confirmation, I have heard that Player Development had numerous national coaching positions eliminated, although in my understanding GM Martin Blackman, head of men's tennis Kent Kinnear and head of women's tennis Kathy Rinaldi are not affected. Peter Bodo at ESPN has a bit more information not included in the release, including the detail that those who have been with the USTA more than 15 years and are aged 50 and up were offered buyouts. I hear there are several Player Development employees who accepted this offer, so coaches and parents who are in regular contact with junior competition or national coaches should be aware that they may no longer be available for consultation. Stephanie Myles has provided several names of national coaches let go today at her OpenCourt website.

As I am not expecting any further details from the USTA, I would welcome any departures you have personally confirmed in the comments.

With the USTA Clay Courts being canceled, a UTR tournament has been organized to step into the void. The American Clay Court Nationals will take place the last two weeks of June at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs West Virginia. This is the site recently selected for the World Team Tennis season, beginning on July 12, so this is something of a warmup for that event.

The 18s are scheduled for June 21-25, and the 16s for June 28-July 2. Entries are by UTR ranking, with the Top 48 receiving entry. The format is a round robin, after a qualifying round to start, with round robin winners advancing to the quarterfinals. The entry fee is steep, $170, but there is prize money, and a guarantee of three matches.

I hope to get more details from the tournament organizer for an upcoming Tennis Recruiting Network article, but here is the release I received today:

West Virginia’s Greenbrier Resort Offers A National Junior Clay Court Championship

The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia will host a new premier junior tennis event, the American Clay Court Nationals, for boys and girls in the 18 and 16-and-under category. The boys and girls 18s event will be played June 21 – 25 while the boys and girls 16s event will be played June 28 – July 2.  The event was created to help create competitive opportunities for junior tennis players in the absence of the cancellation of the USTA National Junior Clay Court Championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event, which will be run on the MyUTR tournament platform, will feature fields of 48 players for singles with $5,000 in the college scholarship prize money being offered. Payouts begin in the quarterfinals with $1,250 being paid out to tournament winners. More entry information can be found here: for boys and girls 18s  https://app.myutr.com/events/23216?_ref=tennison710 and for boys and girls 16s here: https://app.myutr.com/events/23263?_ref=tennison710

The first 40 entries will be invited to a special two-and-a-half-hour “boot camp” training session with former U.S. Open singles finalist and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Kei Nishikori of Japan at The Greenbrier on June 21.

The event will serve as warm-up act to the 2020 World TeamTennis season, which will hold its entire season at The Greenbrier July 12-August 2, featuring many of the world’s top players.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has been tragic and a major distribution of normal life as we know it and with this event, we are trying to bring back a bit of normal to competitive junior tennis players across the country who want to come to the Greenbrier to compete,” said Mark Sarver, the event organizer and the founder of TennisOnMain.com, a tennis teaching and services company based in Bland, Virginia. “The Greenbrier Resort is turning into the epicenter of tennis in the United States this summer and we are excited to host some of the next generation of tennis standouts on our clay courts for this special tournament. It is our hope that we can bring more and more competitive tennis events to the Greenbrier in the months and years to come.”

West Virginia has been one of the least affected states during the COVID-19 pandemic. Greenbrier County, site of the resort, only had nine total COVID-19 cases during the duration of the crisis to date.

The Greenbrier is a luxury mountain resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. With a history dating back to 1778, the 710 perfectly-appointed Signature Resort Rooms, Classic and Historic Suites, Legacy Cottages and Estate Homes are situated on The Greenbrier’s breathtaking 11,000-acre playground. Play championship golf courses or experience more than 55 activities. America’s only private casino features table games, slot machines and FanDuel Sportsbook. The Greenbrier’s full-service mineral spa is widely recognized as one of the most luxurious in the world, and the Retail Collection is comprised of 36 boutiques, shops and hand-crafted works of art. The Greenbrier Restaurant Collection includes 20 restaurants, cafés and lounges. The Greenbrier Clinic has been practicing diagnostic medicine since 1948, and The Greenbrier Sporting Club is the pinnacle of luxury real estate. Follow The Greenbrier on Facebook at The Greenbrier, on Twitter at @the_greenbrier or on Instagram at the_greenbrier.