The Koz Reviews Eddie Herr; New Florida Jr. Podcast; Winter Nationals 16s & 18s Review; Hewitt and Tomic Battles Rages On

We're going multi-media with today's links. Dave "The Koz" Kozlowski was at the Eddie Herr last month and has released his look at the tournament at indietennis.com. Kozlowski talks with tournament director Rick Workman, Jelena Jankovic, Caitlyn Williams, Mariya Shishkina, Jack Carpenter, Brian Gottfried, Stefan Kozlov and me. Which one claims she is going to be better than Maria Sharapova? Watch the program to find out.

Andy Gladstone's second junior tennis podcast was posted late last month. Gladstone's guests are 12-year-old Reilly Opelka, Junior Team Tennis leader Michelle Willis and USTA National coach Tom Gullikson, who talks about his responsibilities at the Carson Training Center, and what he looks for in assessing talent. To download directly, see the USTA Florida website. To listen in iTunes, click here.

The Tennis Recruiting Network completed its coverage of the Winter Nationals yesterday with Greg Jones's detailed account of the 16s and 18s finals.

There are currently five professional tournaments going on, (the Hopman Cup, which is actually an exhibition, has gotten plenty of coverage with the Laura Robson - Andy Murray pairing), but the feud between Lleyton Hewitt and Bernard Tomic is still getting plenty of play in the Australian media. Tomic's father John has stoked the flames with a few digs at Hewitt and according to this story from Linda Pearce in The Age, continued his agitation with a "strongly worded email" to the newspaper. It's difficult to imagine say, Pat and Ryan Harrison bickering with Andy Roddick over a practice session or the merits of the younger player's Davis Cup selection, but then, they aren't the Tomics and Hewitt, and the United States isn't Australia.

For an interesting look at the candidates for Australia's Davis Cup and a concise breakdown of the nations with the most men in the Top 100, see this post at Grog's Gamut.

Tags: junior tennis, Dave Kozlowski, Eddie Herr International, Andy Gladstone, Tom Gullikson, USTA Winter Nationals, Tennis Recruiting Network, Laura Robson, Bernard Tomic, Lleyton Hewitt, Colette Lewis

Sophomores Johnson and Falconi Top Campbell ITA Individual Rankings; NCAA Champs Southern Cal and Duke Enter Season at No. 1

The first team rankings of the season were released today by the ITA, and the voters selected NCAA champions Southern California and Duke for the top spots. The USC men received 46 of the 53 first place votes cast, while Virginia, in second place, received five. The Duke women were much less fancied by the voters; they received 21 first place votes, with Florida receiving the second-highest number of first place votes, 12, but the Gators find themselves lodged at No. 8. Northwestern is second behind Duke; they received nine first place votes.

That these rankings will change dramatically after the Team Indoor Championships next month is a given, and when the first computer-generated rankings come out in March, there will also be some shuffling. A look at the new individual rankings, which were voted on in the preseason, but are now computer-generated after the fall season's results, bears this out.

Steve Johnson of Southern Cal won the ITA Indoor and was a semifinalist at the All-American the past fall; those results have moved him from 18th in the preseason to the top spot, while Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State, the preseason No. 1, has fallen to No. 15. Irina Falconi of Georgia Tech won the Riviera All-American and was a finalist at the Indoor, so she has moved from eighth to the top spot, while preseason No. 1 Maria Mosolova of Northwestern has dropped to No. 12.

Indoor champions Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher of Stanford are the top-ranked doubles team, while All-American champions Natalie Pluskota and Caitlin Whoriskey of Tennessee are No. 1 in the women's rankings.

As far as assessing who will be strongest at the top of the lineup, Virginia has three men--Michael Shabaz (3), Sanam Singh (12) and Jarmere Jenkins (16)--in the top 20; USC, Texas and Wisconsin have two. On the women's side, no school has three, with Cal, Washington, Florida and Southern Cal featuring two players in the top 20.

Freshmen zooming into the top 30 include Allie Will and Lauren Embree of Florida, Mallory Burdette of Stanford, Danielle Lao of USC and Aeriel Ellis of Texas. On the men's side, Virginia's Jenkins, Rhyne Williams of Tennessee and Ryan Lipman at Vanderbilt are all ranked in the top 30.

If I gaze into my always unreliable crystal ball, I would say that the Tennessee men and Florida women are most likely to move up in the team rankings, with Sanam Singh and Lauren Embree also headed higher in the individual rankings.

For the complete team and individual rankings, see the ITA website.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Irina Falconi, Steve Johnson, Georgia Tech, Univ. of Southern California, Duke, ITA, Colette Lewis

Kudla Wins Casablanca Cup; First Youth Olympic Games in Aug.; Winter Nationals Review on TRN; Gilbert Sees Top 100 for Harrison

Denis Kudla won his first Grade A tournament at the Casablanca Cup, a result that has vaulted him to No. 3 in the ITF junior rankings. Kudla, the No. 2 seed, defeated unseeded Juan Sebastian Gomez of Colombia 7-6(6), 6-2, taking the title without losing a set. The girls winner was No. 3 seed Sachie Ishizu of Japan, who downed Monica Puig 6-2, 6-0. For more on the finals, see the ITF junior website.

This week's major junior tournament is the Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica, a Grade 1 event. They have an outstanding website with up-to-date results. Qualifier Tristan Dewar of the U.S. has already provided the day's big upset, defeating No. 2 seed Polina Leykina of Russia 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

I was reading through the revisions for 2010 in the ITF junior regulations over the weekend (more about that later), and ran across repeated references to the Youth Olympic Games. I hadn't heard the term before and once I googled it, I found out that this year is its first. According to the FAQs on the site, it is organized by the IOC, and is based on the adult Olympic concept. This year it will be staged in Singapore August 14-26. The tennis competition looks to be a 32 draw for 17 and 18 year olds, based on ITF rankings, and it has the same points/bonus status as a junior slam. Whether any U.S. players will compete is an open question, as Singapore is basically as distant as Australia, and the dates conflict with the end of the USTA National Championships.

The Tennis Recruiting Network has posted the first of its two-part review of the Winter Nationals, with the 12s and 14s finals covered by Ali Jones.

And in a blog post today, Brad Gilbert, never one to shy away from a bold prediction, says that he expects Ryan Harrison to "easily" be in the Top 100 by the end of this year.

Tags: junior tennis, Denis Kudla, Casablanca Cup, Coffee Bowl, Youth Olympic Games, Tennis Recruiting Network, Brad Gilbert, Ryan Harrison, Colette Lewis

A Look Back at 2009: Memorable Moments in College and Junior Tennis

I’ve never been one for year-in-review posts. That’s partly because, unlike tennis journalists who cover professionals, December is one of my busiest times for tournament coverage, leaving me little time for reflection. I’m also looking ahead to my annual Intriguing Questions article for The Tennis Recruiting Network; this year’s edition will be out later this month.

In an attempt to keep this a manageable and readable length, my highlights from 2009 will be confined to those I actually witnessed, with links provided to my stories on zootennis.com for those who would like to read more. So, in chronological order, here are my two dozen highlights of the year.

~Virginia defeats Georgia to win ITA Men’s Team Indoor. Georgia coach Manny Diaz is not convinced a rivalry has been established.

~My first conversation with coaching legend Robert Lansdorp was fascinating and educational, and I rarely watch a tennis match now without recalling one of his nuggets of wisdom.

~Beatrice Capra competes in her first tournament on her own—no coach, no parent—and wins the USTA 18s Spring Nationals in Mobile. Eleventh seed Fred Saba surprises Jack Sock in boys final.

~Sloane Stephens finds her top form to win ITF International Spring Championships, while Mitchell Frank’s victory starts him on the path to the ITF Junior Top Ten.

~Christina McHale triumphs over a stellar field to win the 18s Easter Bowl; Evan King caps two outstanding weeks in California with boys title, his second at the Easter Bowl.

~A cramping Justin Kronauge of Ohio State puts his team in its first NCAA final with a win at No. 3 singles in the deciding match against UCLA.

~The University of Southern California men, with three freshmen in the lineup, win another NCAA title in College Station, defeating Ohio State 4-1.

~Duke captures its first NCAA women’s title, with tournament MVP Reka Zsilinszka leading the Blue Devils to a 4-0 victory over California, runner-up for the second straight year.

~Devin Britton of Ole Miss and Mallory Cecil of Duke, both of whom started college in January, win NCAA titles.

~Unseeded qualifier Lauren Davis wins ITF Grass Court title; Raymond Sarmiento takes singles and doubles championships.

~Unseeded 14-year-old Krista Hardebeck wins USTA 18s Clay Courts, with final moved indoors due to rain.

~Chase Buchanan dominates field to win USTA National 18s title at Kalamazoo. Gonzales Austin upsets top seed Jack Sock in 16s final.

~Devin Britton, given a wild card by the USTA, draws Roger Federer in first round of US Open, which leads to my first published story in the print edition of the New York Times.

~Standing outside Arthur Ashe Stadium with thousands of other fans watching the big screen as Melanie Oudin defeats Maria Sharapova in the third round of the US Open.

~Rain once again sends US Open juniors on bus odyssey to Port Chester, but Buchanan topples No. 1 seed Yuki Bhambri and No. 8 seed Gianni Mina to reach finals.

~Great Britain’s Heather Watson emerges from shadow of Laura Robson with her surprise victory in New York, while Bernard Tomic of Australia ends his junior career with routine win over Buchanan for boys title.

~Tennessee’s JP Smith claims singles and doubles titles at ITA D’Novo All-American Championships in a remarkably cold and damp Tulsa.

~Sekou Bangoura keeps his cool under challenging conditions in semifinal, wins first ITF Grade 1 title at Pan-American Closed in Tulsa. Eugenie Bouchard of Canada takes epic final match against Ester Goldfeld to win her first ITF major.

~Pac-10 sweeps all four titles at ITA Indoor, held at Yale University.

~Duck Hee Lee of Korea is deaf, but that challenge didn’t prevent the 11-year-old from reaching the semifinals at the Eddie Herr.

~U.S. players take six of eight singles titles at Eddie Herr, including both 12s titles.

~Unseeded Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada, playing in her third straight tournament, coping with a sore knee and a taped thigh, upsets world junior champion Kristina Mladenovic to win Dunlop Orange Bowl. France’s Gianni Mina wins boys title, while Alexios Halebian and Breaunna Addison of the U.S. take 16s championships.

~Unseeded Yuki Chiang upsets top seed Brooke Austin in Junior Orange Bowl 14s final. Abanda, Nguyen and Hong are seeded champions.


And since no look back would be complete without lowlights, here are a few from 2009:

~SEC Champion Ole Miss men and Big 12 Champion Baylor men sent on the road for the regionals by the NCAA Tennis Committee.

~Murphy's Law prevents U.S. girls from defending Junior Fed Cup championship, as they lose by forfeit in qualifying.

~Power outage at the NCAAs in College Station leaves half the stadium dark and the media center without power. Twitter is the sole means of conveying scores in the women’s match between Baylor vs. Stanford.

~UCLA men forfeit 2008 Pac-10 title.

~Gabriela Dabrowski wins two matches in consecutive weeks when opponent is given penalty for racquet abuse on final point at Eddie Herr and at Orange Bowl.

~Post-doubles match brawl results in three suspensions at the Orange Bowl.

Here's hoping there's an even higher ratio of good memories to bad in 2010!

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, 2009 year in review, Colette Lewis

Kudla, Puig Make Casablanca Cup Finals; Domijan Still Undecided About College; Australian Junior Acceptances

Denis Kudla has advanced to the final of the Grade A Casablanca Cup in Mexico City with a 7-5, 6-0 victory over friend and fellow Junior Tennis Champions Center student Junior Ore, the No. 4 seed. Kudla, the No. 2 seed, has yet to lose a set this week, but he certainly won't be taking for granted his opponent in the final, the unseeded Juan Sebastian Gomez of Colombia. Gomez has beaten top seed Mitchell Frank (in the quarterfinals) and No. 3 seed Filip Horansky of the Slovak Republic (in today's semifinals)--both wins coming in straight sets.

Orange Bowl champion Gabriela Dabrowski, the No. 1 girls seed, was also beaten in the quarterfinals, losing to unseeded Doroteja Eric of Serbia. Eric was in turn defeated by Japan's Sachie Ishizu, the No. 3 seed in today's semifinals. Ishizu will face No. 7 seed Monica Puig, a Floridian who plays for Puerto Rico, in the final. Puig beat No. 6 seed Katarena Paliivets of Canada in today's semifinal 4-6, 6-0, 6-0.

Dabrowski and partner Marianne Jodoin, also of Canada, won the girls doubles title over the unseeded team of Eric and Anita Husaric of Bosnia 3-6, 6-1, 12-10.

The boys doubles title went to seventh seeds Xin Bao and Bowen Ouyang of China in a walkover. They were to play No. 5 seeds Diego Acosta and Roberto Quiroz of Ecuador.

For complete draws, see the tournament website.

Alex Domijan hasn't played a junior match since losing in the US Open junior championship's second round to eventual winner Bernard Tomic, so I wasn't sure what his plans were regarding professional vs. college tennis. In this story from the St. Petersburg Times, Domijan is quoted as saying: "I don't know if I want to go to college or go pro, I still have to decide. We'll see how the next six months go."

Domijan, along with Jack Sock and Jordan, is currently listed in the 128-player qualifying draw of the first Pro Circuit tournament of the year, in Plantation, Fla. For the complete entry list for the men click here; for the women, click here. Many of the 64 players in the 64-spot women's qualifying draw are juniors and current and former college players.

I am not accustomed to finding the acceptances for Junior Slams on the ITF website, but that may be the result of some of the recent changes implemented by the ITF for 2010. The Australian Open acceptances have been up for some time, and it does seem that the lists are being updated regularly.

On the boys side, I'm surprised not to see the name of Orange Bowl champion Gianni Mina of France, who said in Key Biscayne that he was going to play in Melbourne. As usual, there are few Americans making the trip, with Mitchell Frank and Nick Chappell the only two boys from the U.S. currently in the main draw. Madison Keys, Christina McHale and Ester Goldfeld are the three U.S. girls in the main draw as of January 2nd.

For the complete lists, see the ITF junior website.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Casablanca Cup, Alex Domijan, Pro Circuit, Australian Open, Colette Lewis

First Champions of 2010: A Slideshow

The USTA Winter National Championships concluded today in Arizona, and it was a good day for No. 1 seeds. All four of the 12s and 14s winners handled the pressure of the target created by being the top seed, as did Ellen Tsay, the girls 18s winner. I've created a slideshow of the champions. However, because I'm not in Arizona, I've gone through my library for some of the photos and have also obtained those I was missing from Doug and Julie Wrege of the Tennis Recruiting Network, who are in Arizona.

Boys 18s final: Daniel Kosakowski(2) def. Billy Pecor(23) 6-2, 7-6(4)
Girls 18s final: Ellen Tsay(1) def. Anna Mamalat(12) 7-5, 7-5
Boys 16s final: Mackenzie McDonald(19) def. Ace Matias(6) 7-6(6), 6-2
Girls 16s final: Kourtney Keegan def. Rachael Reed 6-4, 6-3

Boys 14s final: Gage Brymer(1) def. Daniel Kerznerman(12) 7-5, 6-1
Girls 14s final: Gabrielle Andrews(1) def. Christina Makarova(2) 6-2, 6-4
Boys 12s final: Spencer Furman(1) def. Daniel Gealer(8) 6-0, 6-0
Girls 12s final: Alexandra Letzt(1) def. McKenna Root(9) 6-2, 6-2

Congratulations to the first tennis champions of 2010!

Create a Free Slideshow

Tags: junior tennis, USTA Winter Nationals, Slideroll, Tennis Recruiting Network, Colette Lewis