All-American Finals Set in Charlotte $10K, Charlottesville $15K; Plambeck Wins Second Straight ITF Grade 4; Glenn Leaves Georgia

Qualifier Lauren Herring and wild card Caroline Price will meet for the singles title Sunday at the $10,000 women's USTA Pro Circuit event in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Herring, a North Carolina native who just graduated from the University of Georgia, and Price, a Georgia native who just graduated from the University of North Carolina, have had impressive runs in their first tournament since the NCAAs last month.

Herring lost her first set in seven matches today in a 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 win over lucky loser Kourtney Keegan, a rising junior at Florida.  Price had beaten the No. 3 and No. 5 seeds earlier this week and today eliminated No. 2 seed Alexandra Mueller 7-6(5), 6-0 to reach her first final in a professional tournament.

Herring and teammate Ellen Perez reached the doubles final, but came up short against top seeds Maria-Fernanda Alves of Brazil and Renata Zarazua of Mexico 6-4, 6-7(6), 10-8.

At the ITF men's $15,000 Futures in Charlottesville, Tennys Sandgren is into his third Futures final in his last three played. The third-seeded Sandgren beat Virginia's Collin Altamirano 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals, and will play 18-year-old Ernesto Escobedo, the No. 8 seed, in the finals.  Escobedo defeated qualifier Ryan Haviland (Stanford) 6-0, 7-5.

The doubles title went to No. 3 seeds Hunter Nicholas (San Diego State) and New Zealand's Finn Tearney (Pepperdine) who beat unseeded Gonzales Austin(Vanderbilt) and Max Schnur(Columbia) 6-2, 6-2 in the final.

At the ITF Grade 4 in El Salvadore, Melissa Plambeck won her second straight title, having claimed the singles championship last week in the Costa Rica Grade 4.  The unseeded 15-year-old defeated the No. 6, No. 4 and No. 1 seeds to reach the final, where she downed No. 2 seed Saya Usui of Japan 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Brian Shi reached the final of the boys 64-draw, with the No. 9 seed falling to No. 3 seed Jose Fernando Carvajal Torres of Colombia 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.   Chase Burton and Sebastian Mermersky won the doubles title, with the No. 7 seeds beating the unseeded Argentine team of Franco Ribero and Francisco Vittar 6-3, 7-5.

In Wednesday's post, I mentioned some of the Division I college coaching changes, and more have since surfaced.

Yesterday, Will Glenn, the men's associate head coach at Georgia, announced his resignation.  Glenn, who played at Georgia and was an assistant coach under Manny Diaz for ten years, is planning to join the family business. Glenn was truly one of the nice guys in college coaching and will be greatly missed by not just Georgia, but throughout the college tennis community.

Scott Brown, who has been the men's volunteer assistant at Virginia for five years, is leaving for a position at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland.

Shelley Godwin, the women's head coach at Middle Tennessee State, has left to become an assistant to Jenny Mainz at Alabama.

Although there has been no release from Yale regarding Taka Bertrand's departure as women's head coach after just one season, the athletic department has announced that assistant coach Matej Zlatkovic has been named interim head coach for the upcoming season.

NCAA Individual Tournament Slideshow, Videos

Wrapping up the NCAA Division I championships with a slideshow featuring all the singles quarterfinalists and doubles semifinalists and two videos from the singles final.  There are just two videos, due to the simultaneous finals and the move indoors, which made appropriate vantage points difficult.




Access to the album from mobile devices is available here.

Pro Circuit Update; Odds and Ends from Everywhere

The two Pro Circuit events this week have reached the quarterfinal stage, with the women at a USTA $10,000 event in Charlotte, North Carolina and the men at an ITF $15,000 event in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In North Carolina, two wild cards, a qualifier and a lucky loser have made it to the last eight.  Fifteen-year-old Kayla Day, who had beaten the top seed on Tuesday, again came from a set down to advance, this time over qualifier Caroline Lampl, a Stanford recruit, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Day will play lucky loser Kourtney Keegan, a rising junior at Florida, who defeated Georgia's Ellen Perez, a qualifier, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.

The only seed in the top half, No. 4 Carla Lucero of Argentina, will play qualifier Lauren Herring, the recent Georgia graduate. Herring has now won five matches in this tournament, all in straight sets.

Wild card Caroline Price, the recent UNC graduate, will play No. 5 seed Renata Zarazua of Mexico and Virginia recruit Sophie Chang will face No. 2 seed Alexandra Mueller.

In Virginia, Collin Altamirano will play No. 6 seed Sekou Bangoura and No. 3 seed Tennys Sandgren and No. 5 seed Rhyne Williams, former Tennessee teammates who met in the 2011 NCAA singles semifinals face off for the second week in row.

In the bottom half of the draw, No. 8 seed Ernesto Escobedo will play No. 4 seed Sanam Singh of India, and qualifier Ryan Haviland will face Hans Hach of Mexico.

At the ITF Grade 1 in Germany, all US juniors have been eliminated in singles, with Megan Kelley reaching the third round but losing today. Olivia Hauger has reached the doubles semifinals, with Jade Lewis of New Zealand.

Hauger trains at Tucker Tennis Academy in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which received the USTA's Team USA award for Best Development Program for 2014.  For more on the TTA, one of five USTA Regional Training Centers, check out its new website.

Speaking of development, last week I ran across this AP article on athletic development programs in the United States, which features comments from new USTA General Manager of Player Development Martin Blackman.

The USTA has introduced Wild Card tournaments for the boys and girls 18s Nationals, which are scheduled for July 20-23 in Arlington, Texas. Lisa Stone at Parenting Aces has details on the tournaments.

For an article about the Longines 12-and-under event, this year for boys, in Paris during the French Open, I stumbled across this one about the British runner-up.

Here's an update on Reilly Opelka, post-French Open Juniors.

I was reminded today by Dave 'The Koz' Kozlowski of the NCAA's Elite 89 award, which is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average participating at the finals site for each of the 89 NCAA sports.

At this year's Division I NCAAs in Waco, the awards went to Drake's Alen Salibasic and Kentucky's Aldila Sutjiadi.  The Koz spoke with Salibasic about this award, his second, and his career at Drake in this interview. The list of all Elite 89 winners is here.

My Interview with Brooke Austin; NCAA Team Tournament Slideshow; Division I Coaching Changes

While I was in Waco for the NCAAs last month, I had an opportunity to talk with University of Florida freshman Brooke Austin, who, a few days earlier, had been named ITA Rookie of the Year. Austin's first year brought success both on the court and in the classroom, and she details the reasons she feels Florida was a perfect choice for her in this article at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

The slideshow below is from the NCAA Team Championships. I will have another on the Individual Championships and a few videos up sooner rather than later.



The link to view album via mobile device is here.

Announcements of coaching changes begin popping up as soon as the season ends, and this year is no exception.

The University of Wisconsin men's tennis coach Greg Van Emburgh has resigned after ten years.

Danielle Lund McNamara has resigned as women's head coach at the University of Texas, after being named to the position last September.

Cristina Moros has been named head women's coach at the University of South Florida, succeeding Agustin Moreno, who was dismissed in February.

University of Houston's women's coach Patrick Sullivan has resigned after three seasons.

Damon Coupe has resigned as the women's coach at Cal Poly after four seasons.

Jamie Sanchez is moving from the women's head coaching position at Loyola Marymount into athletic administration. Sanchez, who coached the women's team at Loyola Marymount for 40 years, is the only coach the program has ever had.

The University of North Carolina-Wilmington is also looking for a new women's head coach.

Daavettila's Golden Season; US Open National Playoff Update; Day Defeats Top Seed in Charlotte $10K

When I interviewed Sara Daavettila back in February for this article on her commitment to North Carolina, she told me she wanted to play another year of high school tennis, although she had already won a singles title as a sophomore at Williamston High School.
Daavettila's decision to play again led to an unimaginable accomplishment.  She went through the entire high school season without losing a game.

A golden set, extremely rare in tennis at any level, is one player winning every point, 24 in a row. When the player wins 15 or 16 points to start, I'm sure the pressure mounts, but that suspense is over in a matter of minutes.  Daavettila dealt with it for weeks and weeks, and then came into the state high school championships, not only to defend her title, but to try to achieve a form of tennis perfection.

Although this Mlive.com article about Daavettila and the Division III tournament displays a maddening lack of tennis knowledge, I think any credibility it may lack is counterbalanced by Daavettila's high school coach, who is obviously in a position to know.

"I've never been nervous in a 6-0, 5-0 match before, but I was nervous," coach Nate Schwarzbek is quoted as saying in the article. "But other than that, she plays well -- her opponents play her well too, but she just wins the crucial points."
Daavettila is in action this weekend in Midland, where the Midwest section's US Open National Playoffs are being held.  She is the No. 1 seed.

Four of the USTA sections have completed their USO National Playoff tournaments.  This year there is a main draw wild card in both men's and women's doubles up for grabs for the first time.  The singles wild cards are for qualifying, the mixed doubles wild card is for the main draw.

Southwest:
Women’s Singles: Jacqueline Cako
Men’s Singles: Joel Kielbowicz
Mixed Doubles: Cako and Kielbowicz
Women’s Doubles: Savannah Slaysman and Allie Sanford
Men’s Doubles: Ben Newell and Zachary Newell

Intermountain:
Women’s Singles: Gail Brodsky
Men’s Singles: Chris Wettengel
Mixed Doubles: Brodsky and Brian Wilson
Women’s Doubles: Jacqueline Cako and Keri Wong
Men’s Doubles: Jordan Kerr and Travis Parrott

Missouri Valley:
Women’s Singles: Sophie Chang
Men’s Singles: Dusty Boyer
Mixed Doubles: Boyer and Julia Schiller
Women’s Doubles: Katherine Cao and Jaci Cochrane
Men’s Doubles: Julio Peralta and Matt Seeberger

Mid-Atlantic:
Women’s Singles: Nika Kukharchuk
Men’s Singles: Mikelis Libietis
Mixed Doubles: Sydney Rider and Matt Stillwagon
Women’s Doubles: Lizzie Baker and Mackenzie Clark
Men’s Doubles: Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese

Articles on each section's tournament can be found at the US Open website.

Qualifying was completed today and first round action began at the $10,000 Charlotte, North Carolina women's Pro Circuit event.  Four seeds were in main draw action today and three of them lost.  Fifteen-year-old wild card Kayla Day defeated top seed Ana Neffa de los Rios of Paraguay, who is only 18 herself, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.  Day has played only four Pro Circuit tournaments over the past two years prior to this week, advancing out of qualifying once and winning a round, but she doesn't yet have a WTA ranking.  Caroline Price, a recent UNC graduate, defeated No. 3 seed Rianna Valdes, the USC incoming freshman 6-0, 6-4.  Andie Daniell, the incoming Alabama freshman, defeated No. 6 seed Maria-Fernanda Alves of Brazil 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Larry Ellison, Mark Hurd and Oracle's Role in Saving US Tennis, with College Tennis a Prime Beneficiary

During the NCAAs last month, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced a partnership with Oracle Corporation, a Fortune 500 computer technology company. Along with the ITA's rankings and the annual awards luncheon at the US Open now being sponsored by the company, there's a new fall tournament, starting this year at the Malibu Racquet Club.

The small private club, purchased in 2007 by Oracle's chairman Larry Ellison, an enthusiastic player who owns the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, will host the tournament September 18-20. The men's and women's draws, with 16 players in singles and eight teams in doubles, will be filled based on preseason rankings, with spots for returning Indoor champions if still eligible, although they would probably be highly ranked anyway.  The tentative selection process and schedule for the tournament:

Singles:

1 defending NCAA Champion

1 USTA/ITA NIIC Champion

12 highest ranked singles player from year end rankings

1 Oracle WC

1 ITA WC

Doubles:

defending NCAA Champion

defending NIIC champion

top 4 ranked teams

1 ITA WC

1 Oracle WC

Schedule:

1 round Friday

2 singles rounds on Saturday

Finals on Sunday

The complete ITA release on this new partnership and tournament is available here.

Ellison is well known for his involvement with tennis at the highest level, but Oracle co-CEO Mark Hurd is also a staunch supporter of the collegiate version of the sport, with the Baylor University Tennis Center named after him. Hurd, who attended Baylor on a tennis scholarship, graduating in 1979, was instrumental in the Collegiate Challenge men's team event that has been held the past two years in Indian Wells.

Both Ellison and Hurd have been the subject of recent articles on Bloomburg.com.  The article on Hurd is titled "Oracle's Mark Hurd Wants to Revitalize American Tennis by Starting With Schools," and focuses on his belief that US college tennis can serve as the sport's minor league farm system.  The final paragraph implies that the Malibu tournament is just one of two tournaments Oracle will be sponsoring in the future, although the second is most likely the Collegiate Challenge.

Next year, Oracle will back a pair of college tournaments and plans to create a series of pro American tournaments with spots reserved for promising college players. Hurd and Ellison have formed deep ties with the game’s elite, including Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, in the quest to inject fresh life into the American game and produce some superstars. “We are looking at all sorts of things,” says Hurd. “We are doing everything we can to help the sport.”

In the article on Ellison, titled "Larry Ellison is Spending a Fortune to Save American Tennis," there's more on the possible new US circuit.

A new American circuit might start with a midlevel pro tournament in Los Angeles that would take place a couple of weeks before Indian Wells. Then, leading up to both events, there would be a series of 8 to 12 minor-league tennis tournaments played throughout the U.S. College players would be allotted a set number of slots in these tournaments to provide a tryout of sorts. "Either Oracle is going to sponsor it, or I am going to do it,” Ellison promises. He and Haas may also go in together on a junior tennis academy in California.

It's rare enough for one mainstream news article to mention college tennis, let alone two, so that in itself is a positive in raising the profile of the sport.  The ITA has always operated on a shoestring budget, relying heavily on member dues and the USTA for funding, so a deep-pocketed corporate sponsor with a genuine attachment to the game is a welcome development.  If Ellison and Hurd can do for college tennis what they've done for Indian Wells, now that would be something to see.