Gauff Beats Top Seed to Reach Second Round at Wimbledon Qualifying; USTA US Open Wild Card Challenge Begins July 8; Noah Rubin's Behind the Racquet Initiative Takes Off
First round Wimbledon women's qualifying results for Americans:
Coco Gauff[WC] d. Aliona Bolsova(ESP)[1] 6-3, 6-4
Caroline Dolehide d. Alexandra Cadantu(ROU) 6-1, 3-6, 6-3
Lauren Davis[3] d. Bibiane Schoofs(NED) 1-6, 7-6(3), 6-4
Francesca Di Lorenzo d. Maryna Zanevska(BEL) 7-6(4), 7-6(3)
Kristie Ahn d. Naomi Broady[WC](GBR) 7-6(3), 7-6(4)
Tamara Korpatsch(GER)[32] d. Robin Anderson 6-3, 6-7(0), 6-4
Arina Rodionova(AUS) d. Asia Muhammad 7-6(6), 6-7(2), 8-6
Danielle Lao d. Naiktha Bains(GBR) 6-4, 6-2
Danka Kovinic(MNE) d. Sachia Vickery[25] 6-4, 6-4
Tereza Mrdeza(CRO) d. Claire Liu 7-5 6-1
Christina McHale[6] d. Ayano Shimizu(JPN) 6-4, 6-4
Jana Cepelova(SVK) d. Ann Li 7-5, 6-2
Caty McNally d. Kurumi Nara(JPN) 7-6(4), 7-6(2)
Cristina Bucsa(ESP) d. Whitney Osuigwe[9] 4-6, 7-5, 6-3
Irina Bara(ROU) d. Allie Kiick[18] 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-4
Ysaline Bonaventure(BEL)[12] d. Jamie Loeb 4-6, 6-1, 6-2
Varvara Lepchenko[15] d. Sofya Zhuk(RUS) 7-6(2), 2-6, 6-0
The seven US men who won first round matches Monday--Tim Smyczek, Bjorn Fratangelo[27], Christopher Eubanks, Tommy Paul[30], Marcos Giron, Noah Rubin and Donald Young--play their second round matches on Wednesday, as do the nine US women who won today. Although none of the US women played first round matches against each other today, Davis and Di Lorenzo meet tomorrow, for the third time this year. Di Lorenzo won their first round match at the $100K in Midland in January, with Davis winning in the semifinals of the $100K in Bonita Springs in May.
Looking ahead to the next, and last, major of the year, the USTA has announced the tournaments for its annual US Open Wild Card Challenge for men and women. The three best results from tournaments held during the five weeks beginning July 8 will count toward the race. Although the bulk of the tournaments are ATP Challengers and ITF WTT $60Ks, results from ATP and WTA events on hard courts during that stretch will also count toward the final tally. Below are the tournaments included in the Challenge.
2014 Wimbledon boys and Kalamazoo 18s champion Noah Rubin, who reached the NCAA final in 2015 as a freshman at Wake Forest, left college to pursue a professional tennis career. Despite several long layoffs due to injury, Rubin managed to get as high as 125 in the ATP rankings, but he has found himself looking harder and longer not at his own career but at the bigger picture of tennis. He and USTA Pro Circuit Challenger commentator Mike Cation have begun a weekly podcast to talk about the issues within the sport, particularly those confronting players who are in the 100-300 ranking range, which can be found here. Rubin has also developed an Instagram project "Behind the Racquet" to give professional players an opportunity to discuss personal challenges they've faced, on their own terms, outside the normal press conference setting. Ben Rothenberg spoke to Rubin about the unexpected direction his love for the sport has taken him in this article in today's New York Times.
6 comments:
I started listening to some of these podcasts with players at challenger level. Noah Ruben said something I never thought of, the expenses of traveling on tour whether you do well or not. Rubin feels being the top 300 in the world in profession should pay better than tennis, but it’s not like being a minor league baseball player pays well either. You see most of players who make and stay in top 30 move past the challenger level pretty quickly, but many players seem stuck between 125-300. It must be a very difficult spot because you don’t want to give up because you are so close to top 100, but players are stuck playing for little prize money and are not exactly in great locations.
With so many foreign players taking college scholarship and the expense of competing in junior tennis, tennis is a pretty bleak option compared to team sports with less travel required and less expensive coaching.
That was a great win by Coco Gauff today. I was very disappointed that Venus Williams showed poor sportsmanship and gave a very terse and bitter press conference. When asked about whether she thought Gauff played well she responded something like "she sure did, even all of her shanks went in." Then she offered that she herself played poorly today. When asked whether she thought Gauff would win grand slams some day, she tersely responded: "I have given zero thought to that."
Sadly, it's been her sister Serena who was always the bitter and ungracious one who when she was upset by Roberta Vinci at the U.S. Open a couple of years ago, and when she was upset by Angelique Kerber in the Wimbledon final last year said that both opponents who beat her played "out of their minds." The media will continue to try to bury these statements and Chris Evert will continue to talk about how much "class" both sisters have, but I think it's fair to tell the real story.
I think you misunderstood the question that was asked of Venus. She was asked whether it made the loss feel better because it was to a player who would on to have as storied a career as she has, and she responded that she had not thought of that. It was a fair response to a question that would not have been asked of anyone else. What does it matter who you lose to, no one wants to lose. Of course your second paragraph develops your point of view further so it is likely that you would only hear what you want to. I normally would not respond, but since this is a medium that children also read I though that I should present the opposing view.
@unbothered. That was a very narrow, selective and lame attempted defense of the Venus Williams press conference. You only defended ONE of her comments and you ignored the snide and unmistakable bitter comment where she claimed that Gauff had gotten lucky in their match because all of her shanked balls went in. You also must not have seen the actual video of the press conference because Venus Williams's cold, bitter, stern and terse voice and body language displayed in the video was unmistakable and impossible to ignore.
Also, your claim that you were just presenting the opposing view "since this is a medium that children also read" was about the most sanctimonious and insincere claim I've ever seen on the history of this blog. Speaking of bias, I have to wonder if you're a Williams family member, friend or agent.
And, by the way, Serena Williams AGAIN showed her bitterness on Saturday after her loss to Halep when she made the SAME claim that she made against Vinci and Kerber that Halep "played out of her mind" which every tennis player knows is an insult and indicates that Halep played well above her ability and got lucky. (At least she's consistent in her bitterness and lack of sportsmanship). Talk about timing!
I see that you are bothered. Take care of yourself. That is not a good state. Playing out o your head btw is a compliment. It means she played mind- blowing tennis. I understand that the Russian translation might be different.
I remain,
Sincerely,
unbothered.
"Played out of her mind" = "Treeing" ... which Does Not = a compliment in any language .
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