Farah Wins Challenger in Colombia; Falconi Takes Atlanta 10K, Turns Pro

I spent the day traveling to Memphis to begin my live coverage of the USTA Girls 18s Clay Court championship Monday, but before I turn my focus to that tournament, there's news from the Challenger and Pro Circuit level.

Robert Farah, who played No. 1 for the NCAA champion Southern California Trojans, won the $125,000 challenger in Bogota Colombia today. Farah, a wild card, beat No. 7 seed Carlos Salamanca, who also is from Colombia, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(3) in the final. When Farah left USC at the beginning of June he had no ATP points. With his win today, he will likely be inside the Top 300. He and his partner Juan Sebastian Cabal also won the doubles title. A photo of Farah with the trophy can be found here.

Complete draws can be found on the ATP website.

I had received a couple of emails yesterday from readers in Atlanta who had heard that Georgia Tech's Irina Falconi had turned pro, and I can confirm that she has. Falconi defeated Florida sophomore Allie Will 6-1, 6-4 in the singles final of the $10,000 Pro Circuit event in Atlanta today, and I spoke to her by phone while she was on her way to Lexington. The 20-year-old from Florida said she had turned pro, feeling the time was right, and that her coach Bryan Shelton supported her decision. In the doubles, Kristy Frilling of Notre Dame and Julia Glushko of Israel defeated Falconi and Maria Sanchez of USC 6-2, 2-6, 10-7.

At the Peoria Futures, former Florida All-American Greg Ouellette won the singles title over Daniel Yoo, 7-5, 1-6, 6-3, avenging his loss in the June final at the Chico Futures. In the doubles, former North Carolina Tar Heel Taylor Fogleman and former Tennessee Volunteer Benjamin Rogers beat Jack Sock and Sekou Bangoura of Florida 6-2, 6-4.

In Aptos, unseeded Marinko Matosevic of Australia won the $75,000 event, defeating No. 3 seed Donald Young, 6-4, 6-2 in the final. Carsten Ball and Chris Guiccone made it a sweep for Australia with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Australians Adam Feeney and Greg Jones in the doubles final.

This week the men and women have a combined event ($50,000 prize money each) in Lexington as well as two smaller events. The men's $10,000 is in Joplin, Mo., while the women's $10,000 tournament is in Evansville, Ind.

For complete results and draws, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Robert Farah, USC, Irina Falconi, Georgia Tech, Pro Circuit, Colette Lewis

Book Review: USTA's Mental Skills and Drills Handbook

Calling the USTA Mental Skills and Drills Handbook comprehensive is an understatement. Aimed primarily at junior development coaches, it contains over 450 pages which cover topics ranging from mental toughness to giving back to the game, with the emphasis on the practical ways a busy coach can integrate them into daily practice routines.

Edited by Larry Lauer, Daniel Gould, Paul Lubbers and Mark Kovacs, who is currently head of Sports Science at the USTA, the book comes with step-by-step instructions for on-court and off-court drills with the relevant forms available in pdf form on the included CD.

Do you work with a player who gets so nervous that she is unable to perform up to her practice level?

What do you do when a player comes to practice late, is unprepared or fails to work hard in practice?

How do you cope with players who always have an excuse for not playing well?

What's the best way to set goals?

How can you help players relax in pressure-packed matches?

Can the 3R's help with emotional control?

What's the best way to prevent burnout?

How do you change poor body language?

Can you help your players be more independent and accountable?

What's the best way to deal with cheating?

How can you help your player balance tennis with other parts of his life?

Are you able to assist in developing ambassadors for the sport of tennis?

What can you do to foster team chemistry?


These are just a few of the hundreds of mental issues the handbook explores, but the sheer number of suggestions is always balanced by a discussion on the practical way to assess which are appropriate for whom, and how to work them into a daily routine. This is definitely not a theoretical or philosophical book, although it touches on those issues. Overall it is meant to provide real solutions to common problems that young players face as they mature. And there are plenty of great suggestions that would be just as effective for recreational players of any age. The work of sports psychologists such as Yongchul Chung, Kristen Dieffenbach, Russell Medbery and Cristina Rolo, who are the authors of many of the chapters, is not geared as much to the why as it is to the how, making their work accessible to not just coaches, but parents and players too. Most of the suggestions are for the ages 12-18, but there is a section on how to adapt some of the concepts to the under-12 age group.

I hope most of the coaches who visit zootennis.com already have a copy of this handbook, which I was sent for review back in April, but if you don't, you can't hope to find a more comprehensive, practical treatment of the subject. Listed at $49.95, it can be purchased now at Amazon for less than $35.00.

Dave "The Koz" Kozlowski interviewed Kovacs at the Fed Cup tie with Russia back in April and posted this interview on 10sballs.com. Kovacs, who won the NCAA doubles title while playing at Auburn, talks about his junior and college career as well as his position at the USTA.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, USTA, Mark Kovacs, Dave Kozlowski, Colette Lewis

Midwest Wins Intersectionals; Barte Receives WTA Wild Card: Farah Through to Semis in Bogota; Blake Practices at Ole Miss

The 16-and-under USTA Team Intersectionals wrapped up on Thursday, with the Midwest section's boys and girls beating the Southern section's 6-3 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Southern had won three straight titles, and last year blanked the Midwest, but a sweep of the doubles after a split of the six singles matches gave the Midwest team its revenge. Brooke Austin and Kyle McPhillips led the way, winning all four matches they competed in. The Shreveport Times always does an excellent job covering the event, with daily stories throughout the tournament. For their article on the final and the photo galleries from the tournament, click here. For the final results, click here. The tournament's TennisLink site is here.

The Bank of the West Classic at Stanford announced its wild cards today, with Stanford's Hilary Barte receiving a main draw wild card. Barte, who lost today in the Atlanta Pro Circuit tournament to Georgia Tech's Irina Falconi, is in elite company. The other three main draw wild cards went to Dinara Safina, Ana Ivanovic and Victoria Azarenka. Those given qualifying wild cards are CoCo Vandeweghe, Tammy Hendler and Stanford incoming freshmen Nicole Gibbs and Kristie Ahn. For the complete release, click here.

Robert Farah, the recent USC graduate, has reached the semifinals of the $125,000 Challenger in his home country, Colombia. A wild card, Farah beat Giovanni Lapentti of Ecuador, Paul Capdeville of Chile and Alejandro Gonzalez of Colombia, all in straight sets, to reach the semifinals. There he'll meet doubles partner Juan Sebastian Cabal, who dealt Farah the only loss of his brief professional career last month in a Venezuela Futures event. Complete draws can be found at the ATP website.

In addition to Falconi, Allie Will, the Florida sophomore, and 15-year-old Madison Keys have reached the Atlanta semifinals. Will plays top seed Julia Glushko of Israel, while Keys and Falconi will decide the other finalist. Glushko and Notre Dame's Kristy Frilling are in the doubles final against Falconi and Maria Sanchez of USC.

In Peoria, Andrea Collarini has reached the semifinals in singles, while Sekou Bangoura and Jack Sock are in the doubles final.

For draws and results, see the Pro Circuit results page at usta.com.

James Blake is playing the upcoming ATP event in Atlanta, and while in Oxford, Miss. for a friend's wedding, he practiced at Ole Miss. The Oxford Eagle filed this account, with video, and the Ole Miss athletic website had a photo and a brief story.

The tournament to decide the men's qualifying wild card at the US Open begins next Thursday in conjunction with the Atlanta event. The USTA website did a preview (I noticed an error, as Blake Strode also played in the USO qualifying draw last year) and also posted a "getting to know" piece that reveals that Nolan Paige will not be playing, with New England finalist Brandon Wai taking his place. Paige is the No. 1 seed in the 16s Clay Courts, which begin, for him, on Monday, so I presume he had to choose between the two.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, USTA Team Intersectionals, Bank of the West Classic, Hilary Barte, Robert Farah, James Blake, US Open National Playoffs, Colette Lewis

ITA Summer Circuit; Clay Court Seeds Announced; John McEnroe Names Boys Scholarship Recipients

My weekly article for the Tennis Recruiting Network is now available, and it was one of those stories that was a great learning experience for me. I was aware of the ITA Summer Circuit of course, but I had only a vague idea of how it worked, so I needed to ask a lot of questions of those with much more familiarity with it than I had. I was struck, as I hope the story conveys, at how relaxed everyone seemed. The stress level was certainly several notches below what I usually observe at a national tournament, but it still had the validity of an organized competition--these were not practice matches.

In addition to the draw and entry page at the ITA website, there is another page with the results of the finals played for each event in each reason.

The seedings for the USTA National Clay Courts have been released, with Whitney Kay receiving the top seed in the girls 18s in Memphis (which I will be covering) and Bjorn Fratangelo given the No. 1 seed in the boys 18s in Delray Beach. Following Kay are Emina Bektas, Danielle Collins and Kyle McPhillips. After Fratangelo are Emmett Egger, Wyatt McCoy and Gonzales Austin.

Dangerous floaters in the girls 18s draw are Orange Bowl 16s champion Breaunna Addison, Ashley Dai, Whitney Ritchie, Florida Closed winner Lindsay Graff, and Lynn Chi, who beat Collins in the Florida Closed quarterfinals last month on the same Har-Tru surface.

Unseeded boys that no seeded player wants to face in the second round include Andrew Butz, Alexios Halebian, Hunter Harrington, Dennis Mkrtchian, Spencer Newman and Bob van Overbeek. It appears that there was no deviation from the most recent USTA National Standing List.

In the boys 16s, also in Delray Beach, Nolan Paige, Mackenzie McDonald, Maxx Lipman and Richard Del Nunzio are the top four seeds. At the girls 16s in Virginia Beach, Brooke Austin, Spencer Liang, Jamie Loeb and Kourtney Keegan are 1-4.

Except for the girls 16s, the seeds are available only via the competitors list on the Tennis Link sites.

John McEnroe announced the results of the tryouts he held on Wednesday for scholarships to his new tennis academy in New York. Nearly 200 boys attended the tryouts, and the five winners, one of whom will receive a full scholarship, were introduced during the World Team Tennis match between the New York Sportimes and Philadelphia Freedoms. For the names and ages of the scholarship recipients, see the WTT website.

And speaking of tryouts, here's another story on Nick Bollettieri's talent hunt in India.

Tags: junior tennis, college tennis, ITA Summer Circuit, USTA National Clay Court Championships, Tennis Recruiting Network, John McEnroe, Nick Bollettieri, Colette Lewis

Ball State's Women's Program Penalized by NCAA; Dick Gould Interview; Alison Riske Feature; McEnroe Twitter Chat

The NCAA today announced that the Ball State women's tennis program has been given three years of probation for "exceeding playing and practice hour limitations." The NCAA's release also cites the former head coach for unethical conduct for asking the student-athletes to provide false and misleading statements to investigators.

The Muncie Star Press published this article today detailing former coach Kathy Bull's federal lawsuit against the university, filed Monday. Most likely the story was prepared yesterday for publication today, as it refers to a lack of a decision from the NCAA.

A more upbeat college tennis story is this feature on current Stanford Director of Tennis and former men's coach Dick Gould. The author, Dan Markowitz, starts with the premises that dominant teams are good for a sport, and that's why college tennis is suffering, but I'm not sure college tennis is suffering, although there's no arguing with the amazing success of Stanford men professionally in the 70s and 80s, that is not, and will not, be duplicated in today's global game. (One correction: there are actually 7 U.S. men in the ATP Top 100 right now).

Gould is adamant that any player (all the discussion in the article is on men's college tennis) with any academic inclinations at all can benefit from college tennis, and not just for "something to fall back on." He believes even someone like Sam Querrey could have profited from college tennis and that it takes only a year or two to make up the difference in time on the pro tour for those who stay in school versus those who don't.

There are some interesting comments on the post, but it's a bit weird to see Markowitz asking later on why there are no "decent college tennis players." To put the bar at the Top 100, which is admittedly the level necessary to pay expenses and live comfortably, when determining if a player is "decent" is silly.

On the other side of the coin, this Almanac feature on Alison Riske, who decided not to accept a scholarship at Vanderbilt after initially announcing she would, explains her reasons for choosing to go straight to the pros. Playing college tennis would not have been a "ridiculous" decision, as the story implies, but Riske has begun to have success on the WTA tour, and her ranking has steadily risen to the 150s. It's a good feature, revealing Riske as a Dave Matthews fan with a lot of superstitions, who enjoyed every minute of her experience last month at Wimbledon.

For those of you with a Twitter account, the USTA is conducting a twitter chat with General Manager of Player Development Patrick McEnroe Thursday at noon Eastern time. Questions can be submitted to the usta twitter account now.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Ball State University, Dick Gould, Stanford, Alison Riske, Patrick McEnroe, Colette Lewis

Childs Leads New Zealand Past Pakistan in Davis Cup; Bollettieri Recruits; Domijan Settling into World Team Tennis; USTA National Entries Close Thurs.

2010 NCAA finalist Austen Childs of the University of Louisville clinched New Zealand's 3-2 defeat Pakistan last weekend in an Asia-Oceania Group II Davis Cup tie at home. New Zealand trailed 2-1 going into the final day, and Childs had not played in the opening day of singles. Childs' teammate Rubin Statham, who had given New Zealand an early 1-0 lead Friday, on Sunday beat Pakistan's No. 1 player Aisam Qureshi, who had needed over four hours to defeat Michael Venus on the opening day, leaving the score tied at 2. Childs, taking Venus's place, then downed Aqeel Khan in straight sets to put the Kiwis into a September contest with Thailand. For more on the New Zealand win, see the Louisville athletic site and this article from the New Zealand Press Association.

Two former ITF World Junior champions played major roles in their countries' victories in Davis Cup over the weekend. Taiwan's Tsung-Hua Yang, who was the top junior in 2008, won all three of his matches against the Philippines' Cecil Mamiit and Treat Huey. For more on that tie, see this article from the Taipei Times. Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis, the 2007 ITF junior champion, led his team to a 3-2 win over Ireland. Ireland, like the Philippines, had two former U.S. collegians playing for them: James McGee and Conor Niland. Lithuania will now play Slovenia in European Group II action in September.

The complete results of the weekend ties, see the Davis Cup website.

In other global tennis news, Nick Bollettieri is in India recruiting students from that country for stays at his academy (and IMG's) in Bradenton. According to this article from The Times of India, Bollettieri will select 15 students for his camp, with four eventually given full-time scholarships for a year. In another article, this in the Hindustan Times, Bollettieri was asked about Yuki Bhambri, the 18-year-old who trains at his academy. Bhambri made a big leap in the ATP rankings last year, but this year he has not found the same success in the Futures, and he has fallen from 321 to 475.

When I read in this article in the Albany Times Union about Alex Domijan, who is playing World Team Tennis for the New York Buzz in that city again this year, I was a bit baffled about the "amateur" rankings that the writer referred to. I was hoping that he'd found the junior tennis writer's holy grail, which would be a website that has the definitive word on every young player's amateur status, but unfortunately, it was an misinterpretation instead. Domijan may have been ranked atop the USTA 18s in the past, and was as high as 12 in the ITF World Junior rankings, but the numbers the writer used for story came, he said, from Domijan's Buzz profile, which doesn't mention any amateur rankings.

Finally, a reminder that the deadline for entry for the National Championships in August is Thursday, July 15th at noon EDT. As of today, Domijan has not applied for entry into Kalamazoo. For more on this year's tournament, see ustaboys.com.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Austen Childs, Tsung-Hua Yang, Ricardas Berankis, Davis Cup, Nick Bollettieri, Yuki Bhambri, Alex Domijan, World Team Tennis, USTA National Championships, Colette Lewis