Watson Turns Pro; Courier's "Unstrung" Available on DVD; Looking to Asia for New Tennis Stars

The Times published this story about Heather Watson today, which includes her decision to forego college for professional tennis. It isn't exactly a surprising decision, (anyone have any idea who the last junior girls champion attending college was?) and I had thought she had relinquished her amateur status when she agreed to a sponsorship agreement with Sportingbet.com, but I'm far from an expert on that topic.

Bollettieri's admission that he thought she needed to attend college prior to the US Open win, but has now changed his mind, is interesting. What changed, exactly, between the first round losses at the French and Wimbledon Juniors and her impressive play barely two months later? I'm sure Bollettieri has seen this kind of breakthrough happen many, many more times than I have, and it may just be an Outliers-type phenomena. She'll now get more attention, have more confidence and be surrounded by better players, which will provide great support during her transition to the pros.

This question comes up in an interview Jim Courier did with usopen.org prior to the Open, when he talks about the seven boys featured in his movie "Unstrung," which is now available on DVD. Here's Courier's answer when he was asked if he was surprised by the path taken by any of the players he filmed four years ago:

I looked at Donald Young Jr. and he is a player with great promise still but he has somehow been challenged to translate his experience and the confidence he should have taken from his junior success into pro success. I think he has the tools. I’m not sure what is holding him back. That is something I find interesting because in our film he looks like a can’t miss prospect. His success has been rather limited at the pro level. That is a story we have seen before – that juniors have trouble translating their game to the professional ranks but when they are as successful at such a young age as Donald was it is rare that they do not fulfill that promise, so that is a story I am continuing to follow closely.

Courier then goes on to say he is particularly intrigued by the future of Greg Hirschman, who is currently a junior at Stanford.

The education vs. tennis achievement debate gets more attention in this Wall Street Journal article about Yuki Bhambri (who won the dead rubber against Old Dominion graduate Izak Van Der Merwe of South Africa in India's Davis Cup win today) and the rise of tennis in Asia. Bhambri's parents are going against the grain in allowing their son to pursue tennis as a career path, with the emphasis on education so great in that country, according to the story.

Vijay Armritraj, the Indian champion from the 1970s, said the biggest obstacles for Indians and other Asians is their size. Since they tend to be smaller and slighter on average than people in other parts of the world, they will have trouble advancing in a game where strength and power have become integral to success, Mr. Armritraj said. His culture's emphasis on education over athletics also doesn't help.

"People always ask why there aren't more great atheltes(sic) coming out of India," Mr. Armritraj said. "My answer is, you don't see a lot of great software engineers coming out of Spain."

Somdev Devvarman, who is the country's Davis Cup hero after his come-from-behind victory to clinch the tie today, is trying to have it both ways, with a college degree and a successful professional career. Fellow Cavalier Sanam Singh, a semifinalist at the NCAAs last year, is also on that path, as is Karunuday Singh, who will be attending the University of Illinois in January, according to the article.

And speaking of freshmen, there were some notable results in the rain-plagued Southern Intercollegiate Championships. Vanderbilt freshman Ryan Lipman beat Duke's Reid Carleton in a match tiebreaker, and newcomer Henrique Cunha of Duke defeated top seed JP Smith of Tennessee, also in a match tiebreaker. Tennessee freshman Rhyne Williams won a close two-setter over John Peers of Middle Tennessee State. For match results, see georgiadogs.com.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Heather Watson, Yuki Bhambri, Jim Courier, Colette Lewis

Klahn Reaches Claremont Final; Surprise Winners in Kentucky ITF; Big Things Expected of Cunha at Duke

Stanford sophomore Bradley Klahn has reached the finals of the $10,000 Pro Circuit event in Claremont, California after defeating No. 4 seed Daniel Danilovic of Montenegro in today's semifinal 7-6(6), 6-3. The 19-year-old from the San Diego area defeated top seed Yong-Kyu Lim of Korea (who lost in the second round at the U.S. Open Junior championships last week) 6-3, 6-2 on Friday. Klahn, who is 15th in the ITA preason rankings, played three Futures this summer as a member of the USTA Summer Circuit team, going 4-3 in main draw matches, so this is easily his best showing. Two former college players--Ashwin Kumar of Harvard and Brett Joelson of Texas A & M--were awarded the doubles titles when one of their opponents was unable to return in time from a qualifying match in Costa Mesa, the site of the next Futures event.

For more on the Claremont Futures, see this release, courtesy of Steve Pratt.

In the Tulsa Challenger, Wayne Odesnik will face Taylor Dent in the final. Tulsa's team of Phillip Stevens and Ashley Watling reached the doubles final before falling to top seeds David Martin and Rajeev Ram.

For complete draws, see usta.com's Pro Circuit results page.

At the ITF Grade 1 in Lexington Kentucky, No. 4 seed Duilio Beretta of Peru defeated No. 6 seed Nikala Scholtz of South Africa 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to take the boys title, while the girls championship was won by No. 4 seed 14-year-old Irinia Khromacheva of Russia, who beat No. 7 seed Sai-Sai Zheng of China 6-3, 6-4. Interesting that all four finalists lost in the first round of the U.S. Open juniors: Beretta to Julien Obry of France; Scholtz to Arthur De Greef of Belgium; Khromacheva to Lauren Davis and Zheng to Julia Boserup of the U.S. Nick Chappell of the U.S., who won the Kalamazoo 16 doubles last month with Marcos Giron, reached the semifinals as a qualifier. Dennis Novikov and Shane Vinsant reached the quarterfinals. Americans Sachia Vickery and Monica Turewicz reached the girls singles quarterfinals, while Turewicz and Ellen Tsay reached the doubles semifinals. Brooke Bolender, playing with Croatian Ajla Tomljanovic, reached the doubles final. Shaun Bernstein and Campbell Johnson advanced to the boys doubles final. For complete results, see the ITF Junior website.

The Southern Intercollegiate Championships in Athens, Ga. are being delayed by rain, with all top flight singles postponed until Sunday according to georgiadogs.com. JP Smith and Nate Schnugg are the top seeds, with several high profile freshman also entered. Ryan Lipman of Vanderbilt and Rhyne Williams of Tennessee both won their opening matches. Henrique Cunha of Brazil, a former ITF Top 10 junior, has begun his career at Duke, and he plays Smith next, which will be a good gauge of his level. This story, from the Duke Chronicle, suggests he may supplant Reid Carleton at the top of the Blue Devils' lineup. It also explains the role assistant coach Josh Goffi and teammate Alain Michel played in recruiting Cunha.

Two more, unrelated items, an interesting story on the failure of the United Arab Emirates to provide infrastructure for its juniors, driving them to the U.S. and a great slide show from the U.S. Open (not juniors) from Rustam Tahir at Westminster Road.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Bradley Klahn, Henrique Cunha, Colette Lewis

US Open Junior Boys Slideshow

I'm completing the coverage of the 2009 US Open Junior championships with this boys slideshow. All the great photography work last week was done by my husband, Paul Ballard, who does a fantastic job. I truly miss his contribution when he's helping run a tournament site as he does at the Junior Orange Bowl, Easter Bowl, Mobile, Kalamazoo and Eddie Herr, but I know he's very valuable in that capacity too. Again, the slideshow format is all U.S. boys who competed in the main draw with the round they lost in noted, and the quarterfinalists, regardless of nationality.

Create a Free Slideshow

Twelve Observations from US Open; McHale, Dolehide, Kimbell Features; Hewitt vs. Tomic

Friday I'll wrap up the US Open Junior Championships with the boys slideshow; today my Tennis Recruiting Network entry is not my usual synopsis, but a collection of a dozen observations that didn't find their way into the daily zootennis coverage, or twitter.

With so much time writing, watching tennis and talking last week in Flushing Meadows, I missed a few articles that I would normally post.  Scott Price of Sports Illustrated filed this feature on Christina McHale and her experience of playing Maria Sharapova in a second round night match on Arthur Ashe Stadium.  McHale's thigh was inhibiting her movement, so on doctors' advice, she withdrew from the junior championship, but is expected to be back training soon.

Courtney Dolehide also got a taste of the US Open women's main draw, when she and Kristie Ahn were given a wild card into the doubles.  The Hinsdale, Ill. publication Suburban Life filed this lengthy feature on her experience there and in the juniors, where she qualified and reached the second round.  Dolehide made this comment on how high school tennis prepared her for playing at Flushing Meadows:

“It (the U.S. Open) was a different feeling,” she said. “At high school state, one similar aspect was having a huge crowd cheering. I am glad I played high school tennis for three years because it got me prepared for a big crowd. But what was very different was looking to the court next to you and seeing Maria Sharapova playing or looking around and seeing Arthur Ashe Stadium."

The Clark Co. Washington Columbian recently published this story on another dedicated high school tennis participant, three-time Texas state champion Lilly Kimbell, who unlike Dolehide, has not yet decided on the college she will attend.  Listed in the story as possibilities are Florida State, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Illinois.

There has been quite a raft of press about boys junior champion Bernard Tomic in Australia.  Darren Walton talks with Nick Bollettieri on why it didn't quite work out for Tomic in Bradenton and with Todd Woodbridge and Bollettieri on Tomic's professional and Grand Slam prospects.  Bollettieri also advocates more independent practice in this story.

Linda Pearce of The Age also discovered that there is a rift between Tomic and Lleyton Hewitt over the junior's lack of interest in serving as a hitting partner this year at Wimbledon.  In this followup story, swine flu is given as the reason, not the insufficient respect perceived by Hewitt and his manager.  I'm not sure why this would take over two months to surface, but Tennis Australia can not be happy about more drama from both the Tomic and Hewitt camps.

Tags: junior tennis, Colette Lewis

US Open Junior Girls Slideshow

I decided to divide the US Open Junior Championships into two slide shows. The first one below contains all of the U.S. girls who played in the main draw, with the round they lost noted in the caption. It also includes all eight singles quarterfinalists and the doubles finalists.

Create a Free Slideshow

Tags: junior tennis, US Open Junior Championships, Slideroll, Colette Lewis

ITA Campbell Preseason Rankings; All-American Fields; USTA Becomes Sponsor of ITA National Indoor

While I've been concentrating on the juniors, there's been plenty of news in college tennis.

The ITA preseason rankings have been released, with Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State topping the men's list, and Maria Mosolova of Northwestern No. 1 for the women. JP Smith of Tennessee, Robert Farah of Southern Cal, Nate Schnugg of Georgia and Guillermo Gomez of Georgia Tech round out the Top 5. Click here for the complete men's list. Behind Mosolova are Chelsey Gullickson of Georgia, Marrit Boonstra of Florida, Jana Juricova of Cal and Hilary Barte of Stanford. The complete women's list is here.

Davey Sandgren and Smith are the top-ranked men's doubles team, while Renata Kucerkova and Anastasia Petukhova of Fresno State are No. 1 in women's doubles.

The first major college tournaments of the year, the women's Riviera and men's D'Novo All-Americans, begin with prequalifying on October 3rd. The fields have been released, and the wild card into the 32-draw women's event went to Caitlin Whoriskey of Tennessee. Girls 18s runnerup Lauren Embree received a wild card into the qualifying. Her new teammate, Allie Will, has gotten off to a great start in her first tournament, beating three ranked players to win the top flight of the SEC Coaches Fall Classic last weekend: No. 41 Yvette Hyndman of Georgia, No. 29 Ana Zubori of South Carolina and No. 46 Catherine Newman of Vanderbilt.

For the complete Riviera All-American field, click here.

The men's D'Novo All-American in Tulsa, which I'll be covering for the fourth year, has a larger field than the Riviera, with a 64 draw. Ohio State sophomore Chase Buchanan, the Kalamazoo champion and US Open junior boys finalist, received a wild card into the main draw. Kalamazoo doubles champion and USC freshman JT Sundling received a wild card into qualifying. For the complete field, click here.

The USTA announced that it has signed on as the title sponsor of the ITA National Indoor Championships, an individual tournament that is held in November. Beginning in 2010 through 2012, the tournament will be held at the new indoor facility at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. (This year's tournament is at Yale University.) For the complete release, including comments from Patrick McEnroe and Todd Martin on the importance of college tennis as a development option, click here.

Tags: college tennis, Campbell ITA rankings, Riviera All-American, D'Novo All-American, Allie Will, USTA, ITA National Indoor, Colette Lewis