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Saturday, May 30, 2009

French Junior Draws Out: UCLA Forfeits 2008 Pac-10 Title

The French Open Junior Championship draws are out, and when play starts on Sunday, there will be eight U.S. boys and five U.S. girls vying for the championship. The seeded U.S. boys are Denis Kudla (7) and Tennys Sandgren (13). The other six boys are NCAA men's singles champion Devin Britton, Alex Domijan, Evan King, Mitchell Frank, Harry Fowler and qualifier Jordan Cox.

In the girls's draw, three of five U.S. girls in the main are seeded: No. 7 Lauren Embree, No. 14 Christina McHale and No. 15 Sloane Stephens, who had to qualify. (The acceptance cutoff and the seeding cutoff are different, and only the latter included her Italian Open results.) Beatrice Capra and qualifier Mallory Burdette are the other two U.S. girls in the field.

Set your alarms if you want to follow via the live scoring Sunday morning with Britton, Cox, Embree and Stephens all first matches on at 5 a.m. Eastern. The rest, except for Kudla and Fowler, who are not scheduled to play Sunday, are up later in the day.

As I reported earlier this morning on Twitter, the 2008 Pac-10 men's tennis title won by UCLA has been forfeited due to the use of an ineligible player. With two conference wins being reversed, the title has now been award to USC. The Pac-10 website's explanation is here.

I'm working on the NCAA slideshows; one of them should be up later this evening.

22 comments:

ncaafan said...

Wow this news bothers me about UCLA . What a disappointment.

eric said...

What a joke UCLA . Will do whatever it takes to win Pac 10 . I hope the conference will look into this closely . This is not fair to the other programs, especially the student-athletes who work hard for that title .

Shelley Hubbard said...

To Colette who writes this site. I know you talk to the top junior coaches like Harold Solomon, etc and Id be really interested to know what their opinion is on the Michelle Larcher de Brito situation. I mean, is it a coincidence that de Brito, Sharapova, Seles and the Williams sisters all came out of the same academy and are all obscenely loud when they play?

Colette Lewis said...

I'll submit that question to Harold Solomon or Andy Brandi for next month's Coaches Q & A

Austin said...

Who was the UCLA player? I notice it wasnt mentioned in the release.

tennisforlife said...

Maybe this sort of thing happens a lot but I don't see why UCLA would keep the coach. What an embarrassment for a great program. Students are thrown out for cheating..why not the staff!

iluvtennis said...

Im taking the winner of the Domijan/Tomic second round match to win the French (tough draw by the way)....my dark horses for an American are Evan King, and for non-American Kuznetsov and Georgoudas....I really think Domijan can win it if he gets by Tomic!

scott said...

I'm confused by this UCLA ruling. In looking at the matches in question, their roster they had these lineups.

Doubles
1. Meister/Srugo
2. Dehaine/Seguso
3. Drean/Look

Singles
1. Srugo
2. Seguso
3. Dehaine
4. Look
5. Dreane(played 6 against USC)
6. Meister(played 5 against USC)

This is the same roster they used in the NCAA tournament. So what does that mean for NCAA sanctions? Pretty shameful they only reversed the results of their 4-3 match wins, they should have to forfeit all wins in which the player participated, whether he won or lost. You can't assume the other results stay the same if a player is #3 and 4-6 have to move up a slot, or something similar.

Jason M said...

I know someone very close to the UCLA program and the violation was VERY MINOR to say the least. I don't want to say what it was, but let's just say that there was no intent to cheat on anyone's part at UCLA. Even the Pac-10 statement says "self reported." That means UCLA turned itself in. Let's give one of the great NCAA tennis programs a break for once.

carlos said...

UCLA program should be investigated period. Such a great program with such legacy to be tarnished this way. Such a shame !!!!

abc said...

Sorry, but did Venus and Serena come out of Bollettieri's? I just thought they trained with their dad.

bullfrog said...

Screeching a la De Brito will ruin women's tennis. I don't care what purpose it may serve. After a few minutes of that, I simply turn the channel.

John said...

Bullfrog - couldn't agree more from a spectator's perspective. From an opponent's perspective, at that level/decibel of screeching, it DOES disrupt the oppponent at times.

Reading that, a player like Michelle or a coach like Bolleteri will say, "see, that strategy works"......at all costs........just hate it.

Austin said...

Yeah it doesnt make any sense because UCLA's lineup was the same not only against USC but in the NCAA Tournament and other matches as well. Im guessing it was Dehaine or Drean, possibly Srugo since he had just transfered? Regardless it makes no sense what they did.

Larcher de Brito, I watched 2min of her and just prayed she would lose so i didnt have to listen to her, it was answered as she promptly lost.

McLovin said...

Screeching serves to intimate and disrupt your opponent. It should not be allowed. You receive a technical for taunting in the NBA.

tennisforlife said...

Here is some more background on the UCLA story. Note the the story refers to matches in the 07/08 season.

Here is a statement from UCLA about the Pac-10 removing the Bruins' 2008 conference title in men's tennis because of an ineligible player:

The men's tennis student-athlete involved was earning money working at a job. The employer paid his student fees, thinking it was okay because the student-athlete would be earning the money to cover the fees.
When the UCLA compliance office found out that the employer had paid the student fees in advance, it reported the situation to the NCAA and the Pac-10 Conference. The NCAA reinstated the student-athlete's eligibility, deciding the employment and the rate of pay appropriate, and required him to pay a portion of the fee value to a charity. The student-athlete was eligible to compete in the 2008-09 season and did so.
The Pac-10 Compliance and Enforcement Committee requested the student-athlete forfeit his singles and doubles matches in Pac-10 competition in 2007-08. That action was approved by the Pac-10 Council. The changes in scores ultimately changed the final results of UCLA's matches versus USC and Arizona State from wins to losses.

collegefan said...

The problem with UCLA is that, regardless of what happened, their storied tennis program will always be reflected on that VERY MINOR violation, because - it did sent the wrong message, in my opinion.

justthefacts said...

to iluvtennis...

wishful thinking. none of the american juniors have the game to win on red clay, but that is noty thier fault, the never train on the stuff...

tennis2 said...

to iluv tennis,
everybody on your list lost. Unless by saying tomic in your post you are claiming him, but maybe consider not posting until you know what your talking about.

Although I do think Evan King could have taken the title at his best. Sandgren is carrying america on his shoulders.. heavy stuff. Good luck TENNYS!

iluvtennis said...

wow, that's harsh, didn't realize i asn't allowed to make a prediction unless i was absolutely 100% right, my fault i guess. Here's a tought, how about you just laugh at me when i make a bad prediction....but on the other hand make sure you remember the good ones i make as well. Certainly I was a bit off with these, however, it's not like I was taking Nadal to win the French (which wouldn't have worked either). Let's see how Tomic does, I think he will win it (but I'm not positive).

tennis2 said...

Tomic did well today. Next time you think about making prediction.. do the opposite of what your instincts tell you.

tennis3 said...

who were you taking to win the frenchy iluvtennis?? because if anybody told me they didnt pick nadal to win, they would be lying