Brennan Takes Over Stanford Women's Head Coaching Position; USA Beats Chile in Davis Cup; Features on Former Illini Michael Kosta and Juniors Robertson, Stojsavljevic and Blanch

Stanford made an announcement today that many people thought would come immediately, when legendary women's head coach Lele Forood revealed on August 20 that she would be retiring. No one expected that anyone other than Forood's longtime assistant/associate head coach Frankie Brennan would succeed her, and today the school made that official, removing the interim tag they had placed on him last month.

Brennan's life has revolved around the program since his father Frank was head coach, prior to Forood's hiring, and he spent 29 years on the staff between the two of them.  I had an opportunity to chat with Forood briefly at the US Open, as she watched Stanford freshman's Valerie Glozman's third round match, and she assured me that she is not "retiring" in the usual connotations of the word. She intends to stay in the Bay Area and work on bringing more tournaments to Northern California; I sensed her dismay at the current state of college athletics, including the demise of the Pac-12, may have accelerated her retirement timeline.

Brennan no doubt understands the challenges of Stanford's upcoming move to the ACC, and of taking over the most successful program in NCAA women's sports from a renowned leader who won 10 NCAA championships as a head coach and five as an assistant coach in her career. But there is no one who knows the culture and the history of the program better, which should ease the transition considerably.

Davis Cup is back for the World Group after qualifying in February, and the United States is in China competing in their group against Germany, Slovakia and Chile. The top five US men are not playing, with ATP No. 40 Brandon Nakashima(UVA), in his Davis Cup debut, the highest ranked American competing this week, along with Reilly Opelka, Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA), Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) and Rajeev Ram(Illinois).

The US team defeated Chile 3-0, with all three matches coming down to third set tiebreakers:

Reilly Opelka (USA) d. Cristian Garin (CHI), 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(3)
Brandon Nakashima (USA) d. Alejandro Tabilo, 7-6(5), 2-6, 7-6(3)
Austin Krajicek/Rajeev Ram (USA) d. Tomas Barrios Vera/Matias Soto (CHI), 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(3)

In the wee hours of Friday morning, the US will face Slovakia, and then Germany. The top two finishers in each of the four groups competing this week will advance to the quarterfinals in Spain at the end of November.

Now that I'm home, I've had a little time to catch up on my tennis reading, and I've seen four stories that might be of interest to those who follow college and junior tennis.

Michael Kosta, the former University of Illinois player and University of Michigan assistant coach, changed careers in 2006, pursuing standup comedy as a profession. (I wrote about this unlikely transition for Tennis Recruiting Network, subscription required). Now a regular on the Daily Show, Kosta is the subject of this feature in GQ Magazine.

When British juniors excel, media attention follows, and here are two features on US Open girls champion Mika Stojsavljevic and US Open boys semifinalist Charlie Robertson. Although the Robertson article doesn't mention it, Robertson has been taking visits to the top Division I schools and drew a lot of attention from coaches at both College Park and New York.

And The Athletic's Matthew Futterman dives into what it means to be a much hyped tennis prodigy in this article, focusing on Darwin Blanch, who turns 17 later this month, but is no longer playing junior tennis (Kalamazoo being the lone exception in 2024).