Khachanov Upsets Tipsarevic in Moscow; Juniors Selected for USTA Clay Court Invitational At ESPN Disney

With the well-documented aging of the tour, any time a teenager picks up a victory in an ATP tournament, attention will be paid.  Seventeen-year-old Russian Karen Khachanov, the 2013 European 18-and-under champion, has had a few of those wins late, beating ATP No. 63 Victor Hanescu of Romania in St. Petersburg last month, and defeating
No. 72 Albert Ramos of Spain in the first round of the Moscow ATP 250 this week.  Today, the ATP No. 808, who lost to Kalamazoo 18s champion Collin Altamirano 6-4, 6-4 in the second round of the US Open Junior Championships last month, broke into the mainstream tennis consciousness with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over No. 3 seed and ATP No. 27 Janko Tipsarevic to reach the quarterfinals. According to ATP stats guru Greg Sharko, Khachanov is the first 17-year-old to reach an ATP quarterfinal since Kei Nishikori of Japan did it in Indianapolis in 2007.

For more on Khachanov's win, see this article from Eurosport.

Last year, the inaugural Clay Court Invitational, hosted by the USTA and Florida State, brought together junior boys and college players to compete against each other at the ESPN Disney clay court facility in Orlando, Florida.

This year, the event has gone co-ed, with both men's and women's teams and junior boys and girls participating in the October 24-27 competition.

The women's college teams sending players are: Florida, Texas A&M, Duke, Texas Tech, Vanderbilt, Florida State, Auburn, Oklahoma State, Tulsa, South Carolina, Central Florida and New Mexico.  

The men's college teams sending players are: Southern California, Tennessee, Pepperdine, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois, Tulsa, Notre Dame, Florida State, University of North Florida, Georgia Tech, Central Florida and South Alabama.

Although there may be some last-minute changes due to injuries, etc., the USTA juniors competing are listed below.

Girls:
Jessie Aney
Terri Fleming
Mia Horvit
Sofia Kenin
Raveena Kingsley
Alexis Nelson
Erica Oosterhout
Peggy Porter

Coaches: Joey Rive and Celeste Frey

Boys:
Deiton Baughman
Kalman Boyd
Tom Fawcett
Sameer Kumar
Catalin Mateas
Martin Redlicki
Kyle Seelig
Mitch Stewart

Coaches: Jon Glover and Bryan Smith

According to this release from the Florida State Sports Information Department, my source for the college participants, ESPN3 will provide television coverage of the event on the weekend.