Min Claims First $50K Title on Her 18th Birthday; JP Smith Sweeps Vero Beach Futures Titles

Today is Grace Min's birthday, but it was Melanie Oudin who ended up with the biggest gift, the French Open wild card.

The unseeded Min defeated wild card Maria Sanchez 6-4, 7-6(4) in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla., to win her first title at a $50,000 event. Sanchez had an opportunity to capture the USTA's reciprocal wild card into the main draw at Roland Garros, but she had to win to get it, while Oudin, who lost in the second round this week, could only root for her now 18-year-old friend to help her.

The match started with three straight breaks of serve, with Min the first to hold for a 3-1 lead. Sanchez, who was playing college tennis at USC a year ago, pulled even at 3-3, but was immediately broken and Min served out the set.

Unlike the first set, breaks of serve nonexistent in the second set,  although both had more than a few chances. Min was serving from behind, but held steady in both the 4-5 and 5-6 games to force a tiebreaker.

Sanchez took a 4-2 lead at the changeover when she hit a backhand return winner on Min's second serve, but it was the last point the 22-year-old would win. Serving at 4-3, Sanchez hit both a forehand and a backhand wide, and although they weren't wild shots, they were unforced errors at a key time. Min showed no nervousness when she took the lead, getting her first serve in at 5-4 and 6-4, and when Sanchez netted a backhand, Min had her title, and Oudin had her wild card.

Because Min lost in qualifying in the $50,000 events in Dothan and Charlottesville, she was not in the running for the French Open wild card, which the USTA granted based on the best two results from those three tournaments.  Min won the first Pro Circuit event of the year at the $25,000 event in Innisbrook, Fla., and reached the final at the $25,000 Clearwater tournament in March, but this was the best result of her young career.

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

An eight-time All-American at Tennessee, JP Smith has had a fine start to his professional career, and today the 23-year-old Australian collected the singles and doubles titles at the $10,000 Vero Beach Futures.  Seeded No. 2,  Smith, who is currently ranked 337, lost in the semifinals to former teammate Tennys Sandgren in the $15,000 Little Rock Futures last month, but avenged that loss in the semifinals this week, and today beat former Cal standout Pedro Zerbini of Brazil 6-2, 6-0 for his first singles title of 2012. Zerbini was a qualifier who had to win three matches just to reach the main draw,  so a 7-1 week is nothing to be depressed about.

Smith then teamed with Ben Rogers in the doubles final, where the top seeds defeated Vahid Mirzadeh and Ed Corrie, the No. 4 seeds, 5-7, 6-1, 11-9. It was Smith's fifth doubles title of the year, with three of those Challenger titles with John Peers as his partner. Smith reached the NCAA doubles final in both 2009 and 2010, with Tennys Sandgren's older brother Davey.

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

Outside of the United States, Nicole Melichar won her second recent title at a $10, 000 tournament in Turkey, while Devin Britton won the doubles with Darian King at the $10, 000 Futures in Mexico.  Britton has begun writing a blog about his life in the tennis minor leagues, which can be found at devinbritton.com.  Former Tennessee star Caitlin Whoriskey won the doubles at the $10,000 tournament in Germany this week (16-year-old Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan won the singles title) and Nadia Echeverria Alam and Elizabeth Ferris of the US won the doubles at the $10,000 tournament in Peru.

Sharapova, Marino Win Daytona Beach ITF Titles; Min Defeats Hardebeck, Can Deny Sanchez French Open Wild Card in Sunday's Indian Harbour Beach $50K Final

Photo Courtesy Doug Wrege ©2012

The first of three ITF Junior Grade 4s in Florida concluded today in Daytona Beach, with Daria Sharapova (yes, it's her cousin) of Belarus winning the girls title and Juan Sebastian Marino of Colombia taking the boys singles championship.  No. 8 seed Sharapova, who turns 17 next month, defeated unseeded 15-year-old Jessica Ho of the US 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) in today's final to claim her first ITF title.  The fourth-seeded Marino, 17, defeated unseeded Nicolas Jarry by a less-dramatic 6-2, 6-4 score.  Jarry was listed from Chile when he competed in the 16s division at the Orange Bowl last December, but is currently showing on the draws as USA, and played high school tennis in Miami this spring. Like Sharapova, Marino also picked up his first ITF junior title, his in his first ITF tournament outside South America.

The boys doubles title went to Turkey's Alp Horoz and Jonathan Quenard of Switzerland, the No. 7 seeds, who beat No. 4 seeds Daniel Kerznerman of the US and Tommy Mylnikov of Canada 6-7(0), 6-2 10-7.  No. 6 seeds Mingxiu Du of China and Rianna Valdes of the US won the girls doubles title, beating unseeded Jessica Golovin and Ndindi Ndunda of the US 6-1, 6-1.

Qualifying draws for the Plantation Grade 4 this week have begun, and those results and the complete Daytona Beach draws can be found by following the links at the USTA's Player Development page for ITF junior tournaments.

Last weekend's Pro Circuit action brought us one unexpected French Open wild card winner, with Brian Baker coming through qualifying to win the $50,000 Savannah Challenger and with it, enough points to earn the USTA's reciprocal wild card for Roland Garros.  This week, wild card Maria Sanchez can book her spot in the main draw with a win in Sunday's final at the $50,000 tournament in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla.

Trying to deny Sanchez that opportunity will be US Open girls champion Grace Min, who can't win the wild card herself, but can assist fellow Georgian Melanie Oudin, who currently leads in the standings after her win last week in the $50,0000 Charlottesville tournament. Sanchez reached the quarterfinals in Charlottesville, while Oudin lost in the second round in Dothan and Indian Harbour Beach, so  Sanchez will overtake her by 88 points to 80 in the best-two-of-three results used for the women's standings.

Sanchez beat Lauren Davis today, and Davis needed only to win that match to assure herself of the wild card, but Sanchez was much steadier in her 6-4, 6-0 victory. The former USC All-American, in her first full year on the professional circuit, has gone from 696 at the end of 2011 to 341 now, with a big jump coming after this week's results are added, regardless if she wins or loses Sunday.

Min, whose 18th birthday is tomorrow, is ranked 247 now, but she was also unseeded this week. Min had looked very strong up until today, disposing of top seed Irina Falconi in the first round and Shelby Rogers in the second with the loss of four games in each of those matches. After taking out Allie Kiick yesterday, again in straight sets, Min met qualifier Krista Hardebeck today, and was down 4-0 in very short order. But Min worked her way back into the match, serving much better in the second set, and after falling behind 4-2 in the second set, she won 11 of the next 13 games to beat Stanford recruit Hardebeck 2-6, 7-5, 6-1. Hardebeck, who was playing her seventh match in seven days, may have simply run out of gas. Min has used her drop shot very effectively this week, and there's no reason to expect she'll shelve it Sunday against the much bigger Sanchez.

The match will be streamed on SpaceCoastSportsTV, beginning around noon Eastern, after the doubles final at 11.

In the men's $10,000 Futures in Vero Beach, two recent college graduates have reached the final.  Pedro Zerbini of Brazil, who finished at Cal last May, will play JP Smith of Australia, whose stellar career at Tennessee also came to an end at the Stanford NCAAs. Smith, the No. 2 seed, beat former teammate and No. 4 seed Tennys Sandgren 6-2 , 7-5 today, while the unseeded Zerbini advanced when former Pepperdine star Bassam Beidas retired at 2-2 in the opening set. It is Smith's first singles final of the year, while Zerbini reached the Oklahoma Futures final last month.

Smith will also play in the all-collegiate doubles final on Sunday, with former Vol Ben Rogers. The top seeds will face No. 4 seeds Vahid Mirzadeh (Florida State) and Ed Corrie (Texas) after the singles final.

Draws can be found at the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

Ojai Junior Championship Recap; TV For NCAA Championships; Focus on D-I College Tennis Features From Around the Country as NCAAs Near

The Tennis Recruiting Network published two recaps today of the junior tournaments held at the Ojai last weekend. Ali Jones reviewed the final of the girls and boys 14s and the girls 16s in this one,  and the boys 16s, girls 18s and boys CIF in this one.

And while you're over at Tennis Recruiting, fill out your NCAA Division I men's and women's bracket in their May Madness competition for a chance to win some great prizes.

Some very exciting news was brought to my attention today by Amanda Pruitt, the tennis SID at Tennessee.  The NCAA will be offering live streaming of the men's and women's tennis championships in Athens at ncaa.com (and the Division II and Division III tennis champions too) via Turner Sports, which assures television-level production values.  Read more about the agreement here. Right now the first day of the women's competition in Athens isn't showing on the schedule; I hope that's an oversight.  This is just outstanding news after months of thinking there would be nothing at all with ESPNU bowing out.  There will undoubtedly be some glitches and disappointments, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

As the college regular season winds down and the NCAA loom larger on the horizon, the feature stories, particularly about seniors, start to appear in college and local newspapers and on university websites.  In the past couple of weeks, I've collected more than a few of them, and I'll pass the links along via the player's name, with just a few brief comments of my own. As a before and after exercise, I'm including the pre-college articles I wrote on some of them for Tennis Recruiting Network; you will need an account there to see the entire article.

Dennis Nevolo - the longest of these, in two parts (Part I and Part II) spotlights the Illinois senior, who is the No. 7 seed in the individual tournament. It was written prior to the Illini's upset of Ohio State last weekend. Here's my article on Nevolo's commitment to Illinois in October 2007. Links to my articles on the players below are available by clicking the date.

Lauren Embree - This article focuses on the Florida junior, seeded No. 9-16 in the upcoming individual tournament, and her doubles partner senior Joanna Mather. (July 2008)

Allie Will - This article is less about top seed Will and more about Florida's home winning streak  (July 2009)

Beatrice Capra - This article features Duke freshman Capra's transition from a year off playing pro tennis to the college game.  (September 2009 and February 2011)

Jarmere Jenkins -  This article explores Virginia's quest for the NCAA title, with most of the quotes from senior Drew Courtney. Jenkins is seeded No. 4 in the tournament.  (January 2008)

Mitchell Frank - I think I just tweeted this link to the Sports Illustrated piece on No. 2 seed Frank, since it came out while I was covering juniors in California. (March 2012)

Bradley Klahn - An article about the 2010 NCAA champion, who has graduated early from Stanford, giving himself the opportunity to devote all his energy to recovering from back surgery and preparing for the NCAAs.  (June 2007)

Wil Spencer - This article is about the four Georgia seniors, including Spencer, a 9-16 seed.  (October 2007)

The remaining current articles don't have any Tennis Recruiting counterparts:

Kristi Boxx - An article on the Ole Miss senior, who is a 9-16 seed in the tournament.

Marcos Giron - A Q and A with No. 4 seed UCLA's freshman.

Nicole Gibbs - This article tracks the No. 3 seed from Stanford's Pac-12 women's title last weekend.

Steve Johnson - This article on the defending NCAA champion and No. 1 seed from USC puts Johnson in context with the history at the Ojai.

Natalie Beazant - A look at the Rice freshman, who knew little about college tennis as an English junior, but now has qualified for the NCAA individual tournament.

Jason Tahir and Raphael Hemmeler - An article on the two Duke freshman starting for the No. 8 Blue Devils.

Diana Nakic - This article is on the Baylor senior, who is a 9-16 seed in the individual tournament.

Zsofia Susanyi - This article focuses on the Cal freshman, who is a 9-16 seed in the individual tournament.

April Aces, Ponkka and Rinaldi Receive USOC Coach of the Year Honors

Last month's top performances are compiled in my regular "aces" feature at the Tennis Recruiting Network, and in the months when there are USTA National Championships, the difficulty is in keeping the number manageable. Special thanks go out to Melissa and Lloyd Clayton at YourGameFace.com, who provide the photo of Boys 12s champion Sangeet Sridhar. Check out their website to see some of the new poster options they are now offering.

Yesterday, the USTA announced the four coaches who were named USOC coaches of the year for 2011. I know two of them, Kathy Rinaldi of the USTA, and Vesa Ponkka of the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md., quite well from our frequent interactions at major junior tournaments.

Rinaldi, who was named USOC National Coach of the Year for Tennis, has been traveling extensively with Taylor Townsend, Samantha Crawford and Allie Kiick for the past year or more, and she just returned from the Junior Fed Cup qualifying in Mexico with Townsend, Brooke Austin and Gabby Andrews. Her travel is mind-boggling even to me, and I travel a good bit myself, but she's always cheerful and seems to thoroughly enjoy her role as coach.

Until yesterday, I didn't know about Rinaldi's award, so I didn't discuss it with her at Carson or the Easter Bowl, as I might have, but I did hear about Ponkka's award when I was arranging an interview with him for an article I wrote about Mitchell Frank.

Ponkka is the second coach from the Junior Tennis Champions Center to win the Developmental Coach of the Year award, with Frank Salazar receiving it for 2008. I asked Ponkka his reaction and if he expected it to produce any benefits for him or the JTCC.

"It's very nice to be recognized for influencing players in a positive way, there's no question about it.

"I'm not really looking at how it will benefit me, I'm just planning on keeping doing what I am doing until they carry me off the tennis court. I told my wife I will never retire, because I don't feel like I'm working, so there's nothing to retire from.

"It's a very nice recognition coming from USTA Player Development. It's a big honor, and I will treat it like that.

"High performance is such an inflated word and concept nowadays. It's such an in word. Everybody is high performance, every player and coach and facility. But we (JTCC) look at it that you either have good training or bad training.  We like to think we are training well, we try to keep it simple.

"Of course it's great, because I have some really great young coaches, and it's great for them to see that Frank (Salazar) and myself and Chuck (Kriese) have been recognized. It's sort of like young players, who can see that hey, if these guys can do it, then I can do it. So in that sense, I look at it as motivational for our young coaches."

The other two coaches receiving recognition are Craig Boynton, who was named USOC "Doc" Counsilman Coach of the Year for Tennis for his contributions to the sport in the areas of training and conditioning, and Dan James was named USOC Paralympic Coach of the Year for Tennis.

Boynton has been working with former University of Georgia star John Isner for the past three years.  Isner's college coach, Manny Diaz, was the National Coach of the Year in 2008, the year Salazar was Developmental Coach of the Year.

NCAA Division I Individual Selections Announced; Steve Johnson of USC and Allie Will of Florida Top Seeds

Today the NCAA announced the participants and the seeds for the Division I individual tournament, which starts on May 23 and ends on May 28. The 64 singles draw and 32 doubles draw is not done until the day before the tournament, so projecting winners now, or any time before the completion of the team tournament on May 22nd, is dangerous.

I was interested to see what the committee would do with the defending champion Steve Johnson of USC, who has worked his way up to the No. 2 spot (I am using the April 24 rankings, which is all I have), but hasn't been able to dislodge freshman Mitchell Frank of Virginia, who swept the two fall majors that Johnson did not play. The committee went with Johnson, as I would have done, but aside from the recognition factor, there's not much difference between 1 and 2 anyway. Should No. 1 USC and No. 3 Virginia meet in the final, they won't play, as Frank has played No. 3 and No. 2 for the Cavaliers this season. Here are the men's seeds:

1. Steve Johnson - USC
2. Mitchell Frank - Virginia
3. Eric Quigley - Kentucky
4. Jarmere Jenkins - Virginia
5. Henrique Cunha - Duke
6. Evan King - Michigan
7. Dennis Nevolo - Illinois
8. Sebastian Fanselow - Pepperdine

9-16 (alphabetical)

Chase Buchanan - Ohio State
Artem Ilyushin - Mississippi State
Alex Musialek - Kentucky
Nick Meister - UCLA
Costin Paval - Oklahoma
Blaz Rola - Ohio State
Nik Scholtz - Ole Miss
Wil Spencer - Georgia

From the April 24th rankings, Rola, who was No. 6, dropped out of the top 8 and Fanselow moved up from No. 9. Meister was 17 in the last available ranking, but was given the seed over Baylor freshman Mate Zsiga, who was 16.

USC's top 5 made the individual singles field, and Georgia's top 4 were selected, with Hernus Pieters the first alternate. USC's Yannick Hanfmann and Emilio Gomez and several others must have overtaken Pieters in the unpublished final rankings, because he was at 52 and they were in the 53-60 range, but they are in and Pieters is not, at the moment at least.

In the doubles rankings, Johnson was in the Top 4 with two different partners, which makes it impossible to seed both, so it is his current partner, freshman Roberto Quiroz, who will get the seed, at No. 2. Ohio State's Buchanan and Rola, who swept the two fall majors, are the top seeds, with Georgia Tech's Kevin and Juan Spir No. 3 and last year's finalists Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher of Stanford at No. 4.

The complete list of men's participants is here.

Johnson is one of four NCAA singles champions in this year's draws, with Cal's Jana Juricova, who won last year in Stanford, and the 2010 champions Klahn and Chelsey Gullickson of Georgia, who won the last time the tournament was played in Athens.

Allie Will of Florida is the top seed in the women's draw, and the top 5 are seeded in the same order as the April 24th rankings. The women's seeds:

1. Allie Will - Florida
2. Beatrice Capra - Duke
3. Nicole Gibbs - Stanford
4. Robin Anderson - UCLA
5. Mallory Burdette - Stanford
6. Jana Juricova - Cal
7. Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar - Texas A&M
8. Chelsey Gullickson - Georgia

9-16 (alphabetical)
Emina Bektas - Michigan
Kristi Boxx - Ole Miss
Jacqueline Cako - Arizona State
Lauren Embree - Florida
Diana Nakic - Baylor
Jillian O'Neill - Georgia Tech
Zsofi Susanyi - Cal
Zoe Scandalis - USC

Cako is the big mover here, as she was ranked 20th in the last available rankings, but bumped Anna Bartenstein of Miami, who was 16th.

There are four freshmen seeded in the women's draw: Capra, Anderson, Bektas and Scandalis. In the men's draw, there are only two: Scholtz and Frank.

In the women's doubles, Will and Sofie Oyen, who is the first alternate in singles, are top seeds, followed by Stanford's Burdette (defending champion) and Gibbs, North Carolina's Shinann Featherston and Lauren McHale and USC's Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria. This is the same top four as the most recent rankings.

The complete list of women's participants is here.

Speaking of rankings, Granger at the Texas College Tennis blog found a mistake in the rankings he published earlier in the week, which he explains in this post. I am inclined to use these in place of the April 24 rankings for the team event, but I have no choice but to use the April 24 ITA rankings for the individual tournament. From the releases I've been getting from sports information departments, the majority are using the April 24 rankings too.

USC Men, UCLA Women Top Seeds in NCAA Championships

There's much to like about the selections and choices made tonight for the NCAA Division I tournament, which begins with regional play May 11th.

Here's a short list of positives:

• Although an hour late, the two shows produced by the NCAA are straightforward and to-the-point. They don't try to build suspense or provide analysis. 
• The committee rewarded their top 16 seeds, which were the consensus top 16 seeds, with hosting privileges, without reference to the cost of the travel involved. In the past, this has been the justification for taking away that precious home court advantage, earned with a top 16 ranking, even though the NCAA doesn't cover the team's travel costs in the first two rounds.
• No teams from the same conference will meet before the round of 16, which adds a layer of complexity to the regional selections, but is definitely an improvement.

Unfortunately, these positives were introduced along with a very big negative. There will be no release of the April 30 rankings that were compiled by the ITA and used by the committee for their decisions, both in the team and individual selections.  I was under the mistaken impression that the rankings would be released later, but they will not be released at all, leaving those of us who write about college tennis without the information we need to perform our jobs.

But the confusion and uncertainty (should I use the April 24th rankings, even though they don't include the results from the season's last weekend, or should I refer to say, a 17-32 seed, an awkward and not particularly enlightening construction?) is secondary to the question of how this decision improves the student-athlete's experience.

If you are on the bubble for the team or the individual championships selection, how can you be sure there were no errors in the final rankings when you can't see them?

Last year I came across a mistake (you can read about it here) that allowed an unranked player to receive entry into the individual tournament. I don't think another such occurrence is likely, but without the release of the final rankings, it would be impossible to detect.

Transparency in rankings is something the NCAA has embraced in basketball, and their committee is willing to make decisions based on the same information that is available publicly to anyone. None of us are perfect, but the willingness to allow review of your work is a tenet of the academic/scientific model that most universities embrace. Freedom of Information requests are a fact of life at public universities. To change rules solely in order to deflect possible criticism isn't in keeping with the NCAA's stated mission to "govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner so that the experience of the student-athlete is paramount."

I don't know how the SIDs and other media members will handle this, but I will be using the April 24th rankings when I make references to national rankings, even though I know they aren't accurate.  I believe there are significant distinctions to be made between No. 17 Nebraska and No. 32 TCU, and when the 50th-ranked player in the nation beats one of the top seeds, a headline reading "unseeded Joe Smith takes out No. 4 John Doe" doesn't have the same impact. I'm not sure the ramifications of this decision were considered, but I hope it's "one and done" and we can go back to normal next year.

Enough on that subject, and on to the draws.  Due to a direct win over USC, the Stanford women went from No. 5 to No. 4 and so are in top seed UCLA's side of the draw. UCLA beat Stanford in Palo Alto, the Cardinal's first regular season home loss in 13 years, giving them even more motivation in Athens. Defending champion and No. 2 seed Florida, with their starters all returning, is in the same half as No. 3 Duke, whom the Gators shut out in Gainesville this year. Cal was seeded No. 9 for the second straight year, with Alabama getting the No. 8 seed. Last year Cal's battle with No. 8 Georgia was one of the highlights of the round of 16.

The women's seeds:
1. UCLA
2. Florida
3. Duke
4. Stanford
5. USC
6. Georgia
7. North Carolina
8. Alabama
9. Cal
10. Miami
11. Texas
12. Baylor
13. Northwestern
14. Virginia
15. Michigan
16. Ole Miss

The complete draw is available here.

The men have three-time defending champion USC in the top spot, with the only team to beat them this season, UCLA, at No. 4, in their side of the bracket.  The second seed went to host Georgia, who is in the same side of the draw as No. 3 Virginia. I believe 1 and 4 and 2 and 3 are always placed at opposite sides of the draw. ITA Indoor finalist Ohio State, which was among the top 3 teams all year, fell to number 5 in the seedings and they are in the USC and UCLA side of the draw.

The men's seeds:
1. USC
2. Georgia
3. Virginia
4. UCLA
5. Ohio State
6. Kentucky
7. Pepperdine
8. Duke
9. Mississippi State
10. Oklahoma
11. Stanford
12. Florida
13. Ole Miss
14. California
15. North Carolina
16. Illinois

The complete draw is here.

Ten schools will be hosting both men and women's regionals on their campuses. The women start play first,  on May 11th, as they open play in the Sweet 16 on Thursday May 17th, with the men beginning play on Friday May 18th in Athens.

The ten schools with joint regionals are:
USC, UCLA, Stanford, Cal, Georgia, Florida, Ole Miss, Virginia, Duke and North Carolina.