Men's Qualifying Underway at Australian Open; Tomljanovic, Solovieva and Capra Qualify at Plantation Pro Circuit; Copper Bowl 16s & 18s Review

The U.S. has an even dozen men battling for spots in the main draw of the Australian Open, with the qualifying tournament underway this evening. Alex Kuznetsov, Lester Cook, Kevin Kim, Todd Widom, Michael Yani, Jesse Witten, Donald Young, Brendan Evans, Alex Bogomolov, Ryler DeHeart, Ryan Sweeting and Robert Kendrick are all playing their first round qualifying matches tonight (it's Wednesday in Melbourne now).

A few other notes about some of those in qualifying;

Two-time NCAA champion Somdev Devvarman did not receive the Asian main draw wild card. Although I have not seen an official announcement, it appears to have gone to Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan.



There are 14 Australians in the qualifying, eight of them wild cards, and one of the qualifying wild cards has gone to Sean Berman. Berman, who is still listed as playing for the USA on the ITF sites, won the Australian Under 16 title last month, defeating Luke Saville, who also received a qualifying wild card. There are two other Australian juniors in the qualifying draw--James Duckworth and Ben Mitchell.

India's Yuki Bhambri, who may have requested a qualifying wild card as the 2009 Australian Open boys champion, ended up not needing one. He got in on his own ranking, which is 330.

For the complete men's qualifying draw, see the Australian Open website. The women's qualifying draw should be out by Wednesday morning.

The qualifying is complete at the Plantation Pro Circuit events, and three junior girls made the main draw of the $25,000 tournament. Alja Tomljanovic, seeded No. 2, beat Kaitlyn Christian 7-6(3), 6-1, Beatrice Capra defeated Allie Will 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 (both were unseeded) and unseeded Valeria Solovieva beat No. 8 seed Lena Litvak 6-1, 6-2. In a main draw first round match between wild cards, Ahsha Rolle defeated Ester Goldfeld 7-6(1), 1-6, 6-4.

In the men's $10,000 Futures, Alex Domijan and Alexander Ward were the only two teenagers to advance out of the qualifying. In a main draw first round match, Arkansas's Blake Strode defeated No. 7 seed Matej Bocko of Slovakia 6-4, 6-4.

On Wednesday we are flying to Florida for the USTA Tennis Plaza Cup, which begins Saturday, and are hoping to check in on the Plantation events Thursday.

For complete results, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

If you are interested in the 16s and 18s finals at the Copper Bowl, Gregg Jones has all the particulars at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Tags: junior tennis, Australian Open, Sean Berman, Pro Circuit, Copper Bowl, Colette Lewis

Fed Cup Nominations Feature Top Junior Players; Draws Released in Plantation Pro Circuit Events; Copper Bowl Recap

On Friday, the player nominations for the Fed Cup Zonals were announced and there are quite a few juniors competing for their countries early next month.

In the 16-team Europe/Africa Group 1, there are 16 teams competing in four round robin groups. Croatia has named 16-year-olds Ajla Tomljanovic and Silvia Njiric to their young team, which is headed by soon-to-be 19-year-old Petra Martic. Hungary has named Timea Babos, 16, and Zsofia Susanyi, 17, to their team and the host country will be relying on Michelle Larcher de Brito, who turns 17 later this month.


In the Americas Group 1, there are eight teams competing on the clay in Paraguay, with the host team tapping Veronica Cepede Royg, who will be 18 later this month. I believe that Chile's Camila Silva Espinoza is 17-year-old Camila Silva, who is the eighth-ranked ITF junior. And Monica Puig, despite being only 16, is representing Puerto Rico for the third time. With her recent runner-up finishes in the Casablanca Cup and the Coffee Bowl, Puig is now ranked 11th in the ITF Juniors.

For complete nominations, see the Fed Cup website.

At the Plantation Futures, four men's main draw and six women's main draw matches are scheduled for tomorrow. The men's wild cards went to Jack Sock, Devin Mullins, Haydn Lewis and Evan King, with Sock drawing top seed Scoville Jenkins and King drawing No. 2 seed Eric Prodon of France. Their luck didn't get any better in the doubles, where as a wild card team Sock and King drew No. 2 seeds Todd Paul and Phillip Simmonds. The women's wild cards are Lauren Embree, Ahsha Rolle, Ester Goldfeld and Kyle McPhillips. Rolle and Goldfeld play each other on Tuesday.

Beatrice Capra and Embree's Florida teammate Allie Will meet in the final round of qualifying after both posted wins today. Capra beat Wimbledon girls champion and 2008 ITF World Junior Champion Noppawan Lertcheewakarn 6-4, 6-1, while Will defeated Aurelie Vedy of France 7-6(4), 6-3. Kaitlyn Christian will take on Tomljanovic in another interesting final round qualifying match. Sloane Stephens lost to qualifying top seed and WTA No. 233 Maria Irigoyen of Argentina, a wild card, in three sets.

In the men's qualifying, Alex Domijan needs one more win to make the main draw, as does Ciprian Porumb of Romania.

For complete draws, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

I mentioned the Copper Bowl winners in yesterday's post, but Ali Jones has a complete rundown of the 12s and 14s finals at the Tennis Recruiting Network. There is also a photo gallery of all age groups on the site.

Tags: junior tennis, Fed Cup, Monica Puig, Pro Circuit, Copper Bowl, Tennis Recruiting Network, Colette Lewis

First Pro Circuit Tournaments of 2010 Underway in Plantation; New Pac-10 Tennis Website; More Robson; Mestach, Olivo Win Coffee Bowl Titles

Qualifying for first Pro Circuit event of the year in Plantation, Fla. began Friday with a 128 draw for the men's $10,000 tournament. Yesterday's dismal weather in South Florida delayed the men's second round of qualifying and the women's first round until today. The women's event is a $25,000 total purse, with a 64 draw. Sloane Stephens, who was injured most of the fall and didn't play after the U.S. Open juniors, is back competing and she didn't lose a game in her first round qualifying match. Because she finished the year in the ITF junior Top 10, Stephens receives ITF wild cards into three main draws of $25,000 events this year, but she undoubtedly decided that she needed the matches in this tournament. It's also great to see Spencer Newman back playing tournaments for the first time since his knee injury at the Easter Bowl back in April. He's also had a good start, winning his first two matches in qualifying.

Results were not so good for two players who graduated out of the junior rankings this month. Chase Buchanan lost his second round match to 16-year-old Ciprian Porumb of Romania, who is ranked outside the ITF Top 200 junior rankings, and Devin Britton lost his first round match to Eric Hechtman, a former University of Miami player, who today beat 16s Orange Bowl champion Alexios Halebian. Shane Vinsant posted a good win over Dennis Novikov to reach the third round of qualifying. Notable results in the women's first round include USC recruit Kaitlyn Christian's win over former Trojan Amanda Fink and Allie Will of Florida defeating No. 4 seed and WTA No. 318 Julia Glushko of Israel.

For complete results, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

The daily dose of Laura Robson news is served up by Neil Harman at the Times, who spoke with Robson's mother Kathy and coach Martijn Bok. Kathy is quoted as projecting that her daughter will add another half inch to her 5-foot-10-and-a-half-inch frame. I share her hope that everybody gives Laura "space to get better and be kind to her."

There's a new website devoted to Pac-10 men's tennis that will update the activity of the seven teams in the conference during the dual season, all on one page. It has links to team pages and a forum, so check it often during what should be another very competitive race for the conference title.

The Grade 1 Coffee Bowl was completed last night, with No. 2 seed Renzo Olivo of Argentina and An-Sophie Mestach of Belgium winning the titles. This week's Grade 1 is in Venezuela, the Copa Gatorade, and only a few U.S. players are competing there. Lauren Davis, Jessica Wacnik, Nikita Meka, Leyla Erkan, Tristen Dewar and Julia Elbaba are listed as main draw entrants. There are no U.S. boys in the main draw. See the ITF junior site for entry lists.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Pro Circuit, Laura Robson, Pac-10, Coffee Bowl, Copa Gatorade, Colette Lewis

Robson Receives Australian Qualifying Wild Card; More Tomic; Jerricka Boone Q & A; Copper Bowl Winners

Great Britain's Laura Robson received notice that she had been awarded a wild card into next week's qualifying at the Australian Open and celebrated that good news with her first win over a Top 30 player, defeating No. 26 Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 6-1, 7-6(6) in the finals of the Hopman Cup, a mixed event that is technically an exhibition.

Playing with Andy Murray in the best-of-three-match competition (women's singles, men's singles and mixed doubles), Robson had been competitive all week, but had gone 0-3 against Sabine Lisicki, Elena Dementieva and Yaroslava Shvedova. Murray had won all of his matches, however, and they had won all three of the doubles matches they needed to advance to the final against Spain. Ironically, despite Robson's first singles win, they lost to Spain 2-1 in the final, as Murray lost to Tommy Robredo and he and Robson dropped the deciding mixed doubles match.

Robson talks about her form and the likelihood of her qualifying (she fell just short at the US Open last September, where she was also the recipient of a qualifying wild card, losing a third set tiebreaker to Eva Hrdinova of the Czech Republic) in this article from the Telegraph. She also reaffirms her intention to compete in the junior draw; she reached the girls final in Melbourne last year, losing to Ksenia Pervak of Russia. For more on Laura Robson's prospects for 2010, see Nick McCarvel's piece for the "Players to Watch" series at onthebaseline.com.

Robson and Bernard Tomic are running neck-and-neck in the media's favorite teen sweepstakes, although it must be said that there has been nothing but glowing press for Robson, while Tomic's trials and tribulations are attracting more critical assessments. Linda Pearce, a veteran of the Tomic media skirmishes, wrote this must-read article in which she talks with Tomic about his goals and with Tomic's new trainer, Yutaka Nakamura, about what physical challenges the still-growing 17-year-old faces in the next few years.


A considerably less publicized teenager, Jerricka Boone of Chicago, was the subject of a recent question and answer session with the Sun-Times' Taylor Bell. Boone, who won the Illinois state high school title as a freshman last fall, defeating blue chip upperclassmen Hanna Mar and Melissa Kopinski prior to the final, says she wants to turn pro before age 18, and wasn't influenced by the Williams sisters, because she prefers playing tennis to watching it.

The Copper Bowl wrapped up this week, with the winners as follows:
Boys 18s: Eric Johnson(2)
Girls 18s: Sarah Lee(1)
Boys 16s: Nicholas Montoya(10)
Girls 16s: Maya Jansen(3)
Boys 14s: Augustus Ge(3)
Girls 14s: Dasha Ivanova(1)
Boys 12s: Liam Caruana(5)
Girls 12s: Parris Todd(2)

For complete draws, see the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, Laura Robson, Bernard Tomic, Jerricka Boone, Copper Bowl, Colette Lewis

Explanation on Berta and Mina's AO Wild Cards; Sandgren Joins Tennessee; Bernstein Reaches Coffee Bowl Semis

I received an email overnight from Prue Ryan, media and public relations coordinator of Tennis Australia, regarding the Australian Open junior wild cards granted to ITF world No. 1 Daniel Berta of Sweden and No. 2 Gianni Mina of France. Her response, in its entirety, follows:

Just a quick explanation on the wildcards for Berta and Mina:

The World No.1 (Daniel Berta - SWE) and World No.2 (Gianni Mina - FRA) did not enter the Loy Yang Traralgon International or Australian Open Junior Championships prior to the entry deadline of December 15.

The main reason behind this was that starting in 2010, the ITF Junior Department require individual players to enter themselves directly into tournaments via their IPIN accounts, exactly how players enter on the Futures and Satellite circuit. In previous years, the relevant National Association were able to complete an entry form on behalf of the player and enter them into ITF Junior tournaments. Because of a communication breakdown between the Swedish Tennis Federation and French Tennis Federation, this information was not passed on to Daniel and Gianni.

After the original acceptance list was published by the ITF on December 16, both the Swedish Tennis Federation and French Tennis Federation (as well as Octagon Europe, that represent both players) contacted me informing me of the mistake that had been made in regards to Daniel and Gianni and immediately requested for main draw wildcards into the Australian Open Junior Championships. Gianni also asked for a main draw wildcard into the Loy Yang Traralgon International. Daniel Berta is only planning to play the AOJC.

Our national selectors, as well as Craig Tiley and Brent Larkham agreed to grant wildcards as follows:

French Tennis Federation, wildcards for Gianni Mina 1. Qualifying boys singles wildcard into the Loy Yang Traralgon International 2. Main Draw boys singles wildcard into the Australian Open Junior Championships

Swedish Tennis Federation, wildcard for Daniel Berta 1. Qualifying boys singles wildcard into the Australian Open Junior Championships.

Hope this clarifies the situation for you. Please let me know if you have any further questions.


It is actually generous of Tennis Australia to offer these wild cards, given that there will be two fewer Australian players getting an opportunity, but it does strengthen the boys field considerably. I wonder, and this is just idle speculation on my part, if an Australian might request a wild card to the French Junior championships this spring. Although Australia, France and the U.S. have reciprocal agreements for wild cards in the men's and women's events, there is no such arrangement in the juniors.

I also hope that the player who loses to Berta in the final round of qualifying somehow manages to get in as a lucky loser.

Thanks to reader Markus for pointing out that although Christina McHale appeared on the Tennis Australia main draw list dated January 5, she is showing as withdrawn on that day on the ITF list. McHale is entered in both the $25,000 Pro Circuit events in Florida the next two weeks.

In college tennis news, Tennessee posted a release today confirming that Tennys Sandgren is joining the Volunteers for the spring season. Sandgren joins his brother Davey, a senior, who had often said he hoped he would have a chance to play on the same team as his younger brother. Tennessee, already improved with the addition of freshman Rhyne Williams in the fall, is certainly one of the favorites now for the NCAA title, once Tennys has an opportunity to find his spot in the lineup. For the complete release, see utsports.com.

In the Grade 1 Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica, Michigan recruit Shaun Bernstein joins two other unseeded players in the boys semifinals, with No. 13 Juan Sebastian Gomez of Colombia, last week's Casablanca Cup finalist the only seed remaining. Bernstein plays unseeded (corrected: Olivo is No. 2 seed) Renzo Olivo of Argentina later tonight; Gomez plays Ricardo Rodriguez of Venezuela, also tonight.

Meanwhile, Puerto Rico's Monica Puig has continued her excellent play in the new year, reaching the final at the Coffee Bowl, as she did the Casablanca Cup. Puig, the fifth seed, defeated top seed and Orange Bowl champion Gabriela Dabrowski 6-4 ,6-1 in the quarterfinals last night, and today downed No. 3 seed Tamara Curovic of Serbia 6-4, 6-7, 7-5. Puig's opponent in the final is An-Sophie Mestach of Belgium, the No. 6 seed. For complete results, see the tournament website.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Gianni Mina, Daniel Berta, Australian Open, Tennys Sandgren, Shaun Bernstein, Monica Puig, Coffee Bowl, Colette Lewis

December Aces; Mina and Berta Need Wild Cards for Australian Jrs.?; Les Petits As Acceptances

There's surprising news on the Australian junior championships front. Several of the wild cards were announced Tuesday and they include the top two boys in the ITF world junior rankings: Daniel Berta of Sweden and Gianni Mina of France. You might recall that I was surprised not to see Mina's name in the initial acceptances because he had said at the Orange Bowl that he was planning on playing it. Berta withdrew from the Orange Bowl with an injury, so I thought perhaps that was the reason he wasn't on the initial acceptance list. Berta's wild card is for qualifying(!), while Mina's is for the main draw. There's obviously a story here, and I'll let you know if I hear back from the ITF or TennisAustralia about just what it was that led to these wild cards.

Monika Wejnert, an Australian 17-year-old who hasn't played a junior event since last year's Australian Open, also received a wild card, although her WTA ranking of 324 would have automatically gotten her in the junior draw had she entered.* Other girls with impressive WTA rankings in the field are Isabella Holland of Australia (328), Christina McHale of the U.S. (232) and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic (222). There are no boys entered who have a ranking inside 800 on the ATP tour.

*WTA ranking of 350 and above or ATP ranking of 550 and above earns direct entry into ITF junior main draws.

For the complete list, see the ITF junior website, which has a link to download the Tennis Australia document.

My monthly aces column is up at the Tennis Recruiting Network. If you want a five-minute tour of the major Florida junior tournaments last month, it's your best bet.


The acceptances for Les Petits As, which begins on January 25th, are up, and the U.S. girls traveling to Tarbes for the tournament include Brooke Austin, Taylor Townsend, Gabrielle Andrews and Alexandra Stiteler. Interesting that all the girls are 1996 birth years, while of the boys: Tommy Paul, Stefan Kozlov, Spencer Furman and Noah Rubin, only Rubin is a 1996; the other three are younger. There are a couple of errors in the acceptance list for the boys, with Furman's first name given as Myles (or maybe that is right?) and Kozlov's first and last name reversed. I think this link will take you to the boys list; the girls can be found by changing the dropdown in the upper left hand corner.

Tags: junior tennis, Australian Open, Gianni Mina, Daniel Berta, Tennis Recruiting Network, Les Petits As, Alexandria Stiteler, Colette Lewis