My College Park ITF Recap; Rain in New York Washes Out Majority of US Open Matches; Arseneault Beats Top Seed in Canada Grade 1; ITA Adopts Playsight's Playfair System

Latvia was the story of last week's ITF Grade 1 in College Park, with unseeded Karlis Ozolins winning the boys singles title and No. 2 seed Kamilla Bartone claiming the girls singles and doubles titles. My recap of the week is available today at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

With rain starting this morning in New York and continuing off and on during the day, the only matches completed Wednesday at the US Open were those played under the roofs of Ashe and Armstrong. That means a busy schedule for Thursday, with postponed matches added to those second round matches previously scheduled for Thursday, as well as the start of doubles. Both USTA National 18s doubles champions are scheduled to play on Thursday.

With not as much tennis to watch, I had more time to read articles, and I found this New York Times article on Kalamazoo champion Zachary Svajda. I heard today that Svajda has been offered a wild card into next week's Oracle Challenger in New Haven, so he may accept that rather than play in the US Open Junior Championships, which the article presumes.  And this article on Kristie Ahn from usopen.org contains some candid comments from the former Stanford star about the burden that early success can sometimes produce.

Wednesday's second round singles matches featuring Americans:

Serena Williams[8] d. Caty McNally[WC] 5-7, 6-3, 6-1
Eline Svitolina[5](UKR) d. Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4
Madison Keys[10] d. Lin Zhu(CHN) 6-4, 6-1
Ashleigh Barty[2](AUS) d. Lauren Davis 6-2, 7-6(2)
Sonya Kenin[20] v Laura Siegemund(GER)(postponed)

Kei Nishikori[7](JPN) d. Bradley Klahn 6-2 4-6 6-3 7-5
Denis Kudla v Dusan Lajovic[27](SRB)(postponed)
Dominik Koepfer[Q](GER) d. Reilly Opelka 6-4, 6-4, 7-6(2)
Jenson Brooksby[Q] v Nikoloz Basilashvili[17](GEO)(postponed)

Thursday's second round matches featuring Americans:

Taylor Townsend[Q] v Simona Halep[4](ROU)
Danielle Collins v Caroline Wozniacki[19](DEN)
Coco Gauff[WC] v Timea Babos[Q](HUN)
Alison Riske v Jelena Ostepenko(LAT)
Sonya Kenin[20] v Laura Siegemund(GER)
Francesca Di Lorenzo[WC] v Julia Goerges[26](GER)
Kristie Ahn[WC] v Anna Kalinskaya[Q](RUS)

Frances Tiafoe v Alexander Zverev[6](GER)
John Isner[14] v Jan-Lennard Struff(GER)
Jenson Brooksby[Q] v Nikoloz Basilashvili[17](GEO)
Tennys Sandgren v Vasek Pospisil(CAN)
Denis Kudla v Dusan Lajovic[27](SRB)

The top two seeds in both the boys and girls draws at the ITF Grade 1 in Repentigny Canada are now out, with unseeded Ariana Arseneault of Canada defeating top seed Natsumi Kawaguchi of Japan 6-4, 7-6(8) in today's third round. Alex Bernard, who beat top seed Harold Mayot of France in the second round, lost to No. 13 seed Leandro Riedi of Switzerland today 7-5, 6-3. That leaves Eliot Spizzirri as the only American in the singles quarterfinals. The No. 8 seed defeated No. 11 seed Alejo Lingua Lavallen of Argentina 6-2, 6-3 and will play Riedi in the quarterfinals.

Playsight announced earlier this week that PlayFair, its video challenge system, has been officially adopted by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, after a three-year trial. Of course this is only available to those schools who have Playsight on their courts, so, while it is a good step in providing tools to eliminate cheating, it is a long way from being universally adopted. The press release announcing the ITA's approval is here.

The Louisville Courier-Journal has obtained documents regarding the recent firing of men's head coach Rex Ecarma, and Sports Illustrated summarizes the reasons for his departure in this article.