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Saturday, April 4, 2020

ITF Names Top Ranking Climbers for 2020; New ITF Rules of Tennis App; Did USTA Do Enough to Stop Abusive Tennis Coach?


Last week the ITF posted articles on the men and women players who have made the biggest jumps in the Top 500 for men and the Top 300 for women so far this year. Because it's not clear when tennis will resume, the players listed below could hold those positions for many, many months. For the articles, which include the results that boosted each ranking, click on the headers below.

The men:
Harold Mayot(FRA), 18, +234 to 454
Raymond Sarmiento(USA, USC), 27, +178 to 381
Ulises Blanch(USA), 22, +177 to 242
Carlos Alcaraz(ESP), 16, +172 to 318
Arthur Rinderknech(FRA, Texas A&M), 24, +162 to 161
Jurij Rodionov(AUT), 21, +161 to 166
Brandon Nakashima(USA, Virginia), 18, +144 to 220
Kacper Zuk(POL), 21, +143 to 305
Thomas Laurent(FRA, Oregon), 22, +142 to 477
Benjamin Bonzi(FRA), 23, +138 to 218

The women:
Leylah Annie Fernandez(CAN), 17, +91 to 118
Nadia Podoroska(ARG), 23, +83 to 175
Gabriela Talaba(ROU, Texas Tech), 24, +78 to 232
Renata Zarazua(MEX), 22, +71 to 191
Fang Ying Xun(CHN), 25, +68 to 172
Destanee Aiava(AUS), 19, +67 to 198
Shelby Rogers(USA), 27, +61 to 113
Clara Tauson(DEN), 17, +59 to 211
Anastasia Zakharova(RUS), 18, +56 to 242
Olga Govortsova(BLR), 31, +55 to 135

The ITF also announced that their Rules of Tennis app is now available at Google Play and in Apple's App store. I haven't been able to get the search function to work on it, but it's worth downloading just for browsing through the ITF rules and having links to the rules for grand slams, Davis and Fed Cup and the ATP and WTA.

The New York Times today published a disturbing article about a Northern California junior coach who sexually abused the boys he was coaching over a period of years. The coach Normandie Burgos, who is now in jail, was fired from his teaching job in 2006, and was tried once in 2010 with a mistrial declared when a jury could not come to a decision. He continued to coach during that time, and it was not until 2017 that he was finally arrested, and he was convicted last August. The article centers on the role the USTA may have had in allowing him to continue to coach, and a lawsuit was filed earlier this year contending the USTA knew of Burgos' history.  This is obviously a matter for the courts to decide, and from the article, I am not clear on the timeline, but regardless of how the lawsuit turns out, it's an important reminder that young tennis players are just as vulnerable to abuse as gymnasts, wrestlers and all the other victims that have been in the news for the past several years.

1 comments:

Kim Blendaz said...

Katrina Adams, who was the head honcho during this time, should step up and take responsibility. Very little was done to institute safeguards even when the abuse in gymnastics and skating was in media focus. If she wanted to be front and center at the US Open and take credit for the positives, she needs to take responsibility for not doing enough on this subject during her tenure.