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Thursday, June 18, 2009

Grass Court Wrap; Oudin and Four U.S. Men Quailfy for Wimbledon; USTA Names Pro Transition Camp Participants; Texas Grand Slam

My weekly article for the Tennis Recruiting Network is a review of last week's ITF International Grass Court Championships. Even with less-than-ideal weather, it was an enjoyable week featuring all the tradition and grace of Wimbledon without all the crowds.

Speaking of Wimbledon, qualifying was completed today at Roehampton, and five Americans--four men and one woman--earned a spot in the main singles draw. Seventeen-year-old Melanie Oudin, who crashed out (got to get used to the British way of saying things now) of the qualifying at Roland Garros in the first round, defeated 2007 U.S. Open girls champion Kristina Kucova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-0 to capture a place in the draw, the only U.S. woman to do so. Madison Brengle, Lindsay Lee-Waters, Shenay Perry and Abigail Spears lost, one win short of reaching the AELTC grounds.

The U.S. men had much better luck, with Jesse Levine, Michael Yani, Taylor Dent and Rajeev Ram all advancing. The staff at wimbledon.org has given most of them excellent coverage, talking with Yani and Dent for this story, and featuring an additional interview with Levine in their "as it happened" report. For complete draws, see wimbledon.org.

The USTA has announced the players who will be attending a Pro Tour Transition Camp beginning this weekend. USTA Coach Hugo Armando and USTA Clay Court Specialist Leo Azevedo will be conducting the training camp for top junior and collegiate players. Daily fitness training will be provided by Strength and Conditioning Coach, Satoshi Ochi. The players are:

Matt Allare
Jean-Yves Aubone
Chase Buchanan
Reid Carleton
Steve Johnson
Roy Kalmanovich
Bradley Klahn
Bryan Koniecko
Austin Krajicek
Justin Kronauge
Dennis Nevolo
Cory Parr
Nathan Pasha
Conor Pollock
Jordan Rux
Blake Strode

And the Texas College Tennis blog is reporting on the Texas Summer Grand Slam, their big junior sectional event in College Station and also talking about some of the rumored candidates for the vacant University of Oklahoma men's head coaching job.

4 comments:

Austin said...

Ugh, Nadal knew he was probably going to pull out, but he waited til after he saw the draw. Looked at it, saw Hewitt 2nd round and hightailed it to Mallorca. Whatever...

justthefacts said...

curious that nathan pasha is included with his lacking single results

10is said...

i wonder why pasha is on this list as the only player not in college and because its a college training camp.

Unknown said...

Austin - as McEnroe would say, "you can't be serious"......if you think that Nadal pulled out after seeing the draw then your credibility here (which I place VERY high) takes a big hit.

Earlier in the day he played and lost an exhibition match and based his decision on his body......if you think the prospect of playing Hewitt talked him out of Wimbledon then you don't know the man OR his character.