Georgia Men, Florida Women Win Titles at SEC Tournaments; Krajicek Sweeps Little Rock Futures, Kuznetsov, Tomljanovic Win Challengers

SEC Champion University of Georgia Bulldogs (photo credit: Bill Kallenberg)

The University of Georgia men barely escaped in their semifinal Saturday night against Texas A&M, with freshman Ben Wagland winning a third-set tiebreaker against Junior Ore at No. 2 singles to give the Bulldogs a 4-3 victory and a place in the final against No. 2 seed Tennessee.  After such an emotional victory less than 24 hours earlier, a letdown was possible, but Georgia showed no sign of it, cruising past the Volunteers 4-0 in Sunday's final in Oxford, Miss.

The doubles point was extremely close, decided by a tiebreaker on Court 2, but top seed Georgia took five of six first sets in singles and didn't give Tennessee any hope of a comeback.  Nathan Pasha made it 2-0 with a win over Jaryd Chaplin at No. 3, and Garrett Brasseaux at No. 6 and Austin Smith at No. 5 quickly followed to give Georgia the conference tournament title and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

The Georgia women were also seeded No. 1 in the SEC conference, although they, along with Florida and Texas A&M, all had one conference loss. Georgia lost to Florida and beat Texas A&M, while Florida lost to Texas A&M.

In the semifinals, Georgia beat No. 4 seed Alabama 4-2 and Florida avenged their regular season road loss to No. 3 Texas A&M 4-1, with A&M's point from doubles.  In Sunday's final in Starkville, Miss., Florida took another tight doubles point, this one decided in a tiebreaker at No. 1, with the nation's top-ranked team of Silvia Garcia and Kate Fuller falling to Florida's Lauren Embree and Sofie Oyen. Although it was far from quick, taking four hours total, Florida got a shutout, with straight-set wins from Alex Cercone at No. 3 and Brianna Morgan at No. 4, before Olivia Janowicz clinched with a three-set victory over Ayaka Okuno at No. 5.

There were two other major conference tournaments completed today, with the Big East and Conference-USA determining their NCAA representatives.

Notre Dame swept the Big East, with the men defeating Louisville 4-0 and the women beating South Florida 4-1.

The Memphis men won the C-USA title, its first, beating top seed Tulsa 4-2. It was their first won over Tulsa in 12 attempts. The Rice women ended Tulsa's recent dominance in the conference, posting a 4-1 victory in Sunday's final.

Next weekend's conference championships include the Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and the Pac-12 (men only).  The ITA has a new website page called MatchDay central, with links to the tournament pages or live scoring for individual matches.  The NCAA men's selection show is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30 at ncaa.com, with the women's selection show following at 5:30 p.m.

This week's three Pro Circuit events finished today, with qualifier Alex Kuznetsov getting a huge boost in his quest for the USTA's French Open wild card by winning the $100,000 Sarasota Challenger over No. 8 seed Wayne Odesnik 6-0, 6-2.  The doubles winners were also qualifiers, with Somdev Devvarman and Ilija Bozoljac beating Steve Johnson and Bradley Klahn 6-7(5), 7-6(3), 11-9, saving a match point at 8-9 in the final tiebreaker.

Unseeded Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia won the $50,000 Dothan tournament, beating No. 8 seed Shuai Zhang of China 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. Alison Riske and Irina Falconi reached the semifinals, so with two more $50,000 tournaments, they have the lead for the women's USTA French wild card.  Julia Cohen and Tatjana Malek Maria of Germany, the No. 2 seeds, won the doubles title, defeating top seeds Maria Sanchez and Falconi 6-4, 4-6, 11-9.

Austin Krajicek, the 2011 NCAA doubles champion as a Texas A&M senior, won both the singles and doubles at the $15,000 Futures in Little Rock.  Krajicek, the No. 4 seed, beat No. 2 seed Luke Saville of Australia 6-4, 6-2 to win his second Futures title of the year.  Krajicek teamed with Chase Buchanan, the 2012 NCAA doubles champion as a senior at Ohio State, to win the doubles title, with the No. 2 seeds defeating top seeds David Rice and Sean Thornley of Great Britain 6-2, 6-3. All four of their victories were in straight sets. It is the second Futures title of the year for Buchanan and Krajicek, who also won in Canada last month. They are also both former Kalamazoo champions, with Krajicek winning in 2008 and Buchanan in 2009.

The women are in Charlottesville, Va. this week and the men are in Savannah, Ga., both at $50,000 events.

ITF International Spring Championships Slideshow and Videos

Today I'm wrapping up my coverage of the 2013 International Spring Championships in Carson, California.  My written recap appeared last week at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Create a Free Slideshow

Brief videos of the Carson champions in action during the finals are below. Videos of the finalists can be accessed at the TennisKalamazoo YouTube channel, or by clicking on their names below:
Henrik Wiersholm
Jamie Loeb
Catalin Mateas
Claire Liu

UCLA Men Breeze Past USC to Claim Pac-12 Title; Rain Makes Mess of SEC Tournaments and Pro Circuit Events

Expectations for a close match were understandable when the UCLA men hosted USC this afternoon in Los Angeles. After all, in the previous two meetings this dual match season, they had split 4-3 decisions decided in third-set tiebreakers.  Although the score today again ended 4-3, the final two matches were decided in USC's favor in match tiebreakers, well after UCLA's Dennis Novikov clinched for the Bruins.

The possibility for another tight one loomed when USC took number 3 doubles, with Eric Johnson and Max de Vroome beating Alex Brigham and Dennis Mkrtchian 8-3, while UCLA took No. 1 doubles, with Dennis Novikov and Marcos Giron beating Yannick Hanfmann and Raymond Sarmiento 8-6. The point went to the Trojans when Emilio Gomez and Roberto Quiroz defeated Adrien Puget and Karue Sell at No. 2 doubles 8-6.

Once singles started however, it was all UCLA. The Bruins had big leads on almost all courts and when Gomez retired to Giron trailing 6-0, 2-0 at No. 2 singles, the score was quickly 1-1. Twenty minutes later UCLA's Clay Thompson defeated Johnson 6-2, 6-3 at No. 5, and less than five minutes after that Puget downed Hanfmann 6-1, 6-4 at line 3. By then, Novikov was serving for his match with Sarmiento at No. 1, and he took it 6-4, 6-2, giving UCLA an insurmountable 4-1 lead and the regular season Pac-12 title.

It's true that USC was not completely healthy. Gomez was obviously injured, with the UCLA twitter account speculating it might have been his shoulder, and de Vroome is still recovering from a broken wrist on his non-racquet hand sustained during practice a few weeks ago. If the injuries are not severe, both could be ready for yet another meeting between the two teams next week in the final of the Pac-12 conference tournament at Ojai. And then there's the NCAAs next month, of course.

The USC women defeated UCLA 6-1 last night to finish an undefeated Pac-12 season and claim the conference title and the NCAA berth that goes with it, as the women do not have a team tournament at Ojai, just the individual one.

Today in Berkeley, the Cal women defeated Stanford 4-3, avenging a 6-1 loss to the Cardinal last month in Palo Alto. Zsofi Susanyi, who has been out with an injury since the Team Indoor and returned only a week or so ago, is returning at the No. 3 position, rather than her customary place at the top of the lineup. Stanford won the doubles point but the Bears got wins from Lynn Chi at line 4, Susanyi at 3 and Tayler Davis at 5, and Annie Gorransson at 6, after Nicole Gibbs of Stanford had beaten Anett Schutting at No. 1, for a 4-2 lead. Stanford's Kristie Ahn defeated Klara Fabikova at No. 2 after the match was decided.

The SEC men's and women's tournaments have been off to grueling starts, with the weather making for a very late night/early morning finish in Oxford, where the Kentucky men beat Mississippi State in a match that finished after 2 a.m. CDT. There are only three indoor courts at Mississippi. In Starkville, where Mississippi State is hosting and the women are playing, heavy rain caused damage to a court that was eventually repaired but that and lengthy matches have pushed the scheduled quarterfinal between Vanderbilt and Florida back several hours. That winner will play Texas A&M, while Georgia and Alabama will meet in the other women's semifinal.

One of Saturday's men's semifinals will feature Tennessee against Florida. Alabama pulled off a big upset Thursday night, defeating host Mississippi 4-3, but were beaten by Texas A&M today. The Aggies await the winner of the Georgia - Kentucky match, still going as of 9 p.m.

More rain disrupted the Dothan Pro Circuit event, with only Irina Falconi, with a surprising 6-0, 6-0 win over Jessica Pegula, secure in the semifinals when play was called for the day.

In the $15,000 Futures in Little Rock, rain washed out play on Thursday, so two rounds were played today.  Austin Krajicek(4) will play Darien King(8) of Barbados in one semifinal, while two young Australians, Ben Mitchell(5) and Luke Saville(2) will play for a place in the final.

At the $100,000 Sarasota Open, Wayne Odesnik and Alex Kuznetsov are the Americans reaching the semifinals, giving them a boost in the French Open wild card race. Kuznetsov, a qualifier, beat Steve Johnson 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 and will play former NCAA champion Somdev Devvarman in the semifinals. Devvarman and partner Ilija Bozoljac of Serbia, who were qualifiers, will play the unseeded team of Johnson and Bradley Klahn in the doubles final.  Odesnik, the No. 8 seed and the only seed remaining, will play Denys Molchanov of Ukraine in the other singles semifinal.

Sarasota, Dothan Pro Circuit Events Kick Off Har-Tru French Wild Card Challenge; Sean Karl Update; Signing Week

This week marked the start of the Har-Tru USTA Pro Circuit Wild Card Challenge, which will decide the recipients of the USTA's main draw French Open reciprocal wild cards.

The American player who gains the most ATP/WTA points in the three events that are part of the Challenge (only the best two results count) will receive the wild card, one for men and one for women. Last year, the first year the French wild cards were determined this way, saw Brian Baker and Melanie Oudin earn their way into the main draw.

This year, the men's events are this week's $100,000 Sarasota Challenger, next week's $50,000 challenger in Savannah and the following week's $50,000 challenger in Tallahassee. Obviously this week's points are the biggest and only three Americans are left in Friday's quarterfinals: qualifier Alex Kuznetsov, Steve Johnson and No. 8 seed Wayne Odesnik. Johnson defeated Rhyne Williams, the semifinalist last week at the ATP event in Houston, 6-1, 6-3 this evening, in one of the more lopsided scores in their rivalry, and will play Kuznetsov in the quarterfinals. Johnson won a US Open main draw wild card by virtue of his performance in a similar series of events last summer, primarily by winning the $100,00 Aptos Challenger, although he had the security blanket of the traditional wild card extended to an American NCAA champion had he needed it.

Live streaming of the men's challenger matches is available at usta.com, with Johnson and Kuznetsov second on after 11 a.m Friday.

All three of the women's events have $50,000 purses, so other than a good start and confidence, there is no particular advantage to doing well this week.

This week the women are in Dothan, Ala., then move on to Charlottesville, Va. and Indian Harbour Beach, Fla.

Five US women have reached the quarterfinals in Dothan: Shelby Rogers, Alexa Glatch(4), Alison Riske, Jessica Pegula(7) and Irina Falconi.  The latter four play each other Friday.

The direct acceptances for Roland Garros were published earlier this week. There are 12 US women already in the main draw, and seven US men. The men's list is here and the women's list is here.

Amanda Pruitt of the University of Tennessee Sports Information Department provided this link to a local article on Volunteer recruit Sean Karl, who was diagnosed last fall with Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare bone cancer. Karl, who is still undergoing treatment, has even gotten back out on the tennis court to hit for brief periods lately.  Socks, towels and t-shirts supporting Sean are available for purchase, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Karl family for help with expenses.  You can find out more about these endeavors at the Pray for Sean Facebook page.  Sean also has been updating his Caring Bridge page regularly too.

The Tennis Recruiting Network is in the midst of its Spring Signing Week, with commitment announcements, comments and advice. Please check out Marcia Frost's article about staying on track academically, and Donovan Tennis Strategies' article on the loosening of the recruiting restrictions by the NCAA.

Update on USTA Junior Competition Calendar for 2014

I was invited to speak with Scott Schultz, the USTA's Managing Director of Youth and Collegiate Tennis, and Lew Brewer, the USTA's Director of National Junior Competition, via conference call today about the final decision on the National Junior Competition Structure made last Thursday by the USTA Board of Directors. The Board approved the latest changes (the full document is available here, and for those of us who are having a hard time keeping up with what's changed, there are helpful strike-throughs to highlight the differences), so the hope that there would be a permanent pause or a complete rebuild is gone and unlikely to be addressed again.

So with that in mind, my questions centered on what I thought was most important now, which is the dates when all these changes will be carved in stone, so that families and coaches can begin to make plans and schedules. Please note these are dates for the NATIONAL portion of the new junior competition schedule, not SECTIONAL qualifiers, which obviously now need closer coordination since there is no other way to enter the Nationals.

Here are the dates I was given by Lew Brewer:

April 16, 2013: Invitations for bids to host sanctioned tournaments sent out
May 19, 2013: Deadline for submitting bids
June 1-2, 2013: Sanctions and Schedule subcommittee meets, makes preliminary recommendations to Junior Competition and Sportsmanship Committee
On or about June 24, 2013: Announcement of awarded bids, complete with TennisLink tournament ID, site, director, etc.

There are two new events--the National Doubles Championships, which is now a gold ball event, and the 2013 Masters--that were part of the original plan and were not paused, and those events are close to being finalized. Brewer assured me the Masters will be in Boca Raton in October, and the doubles event in August of 2013, and that final information on those two tournaments should be available by the beginning of June.

With the sections holding so much power in national entries now, I asked Schultz and Brewer if they would support more uniformity in endorsing players, as there are currently major differences in endorsement requirements from section to section.

"I think sections that have what we call onerous endorsement requirements will pretty much go out the window," said Brewer. "They don't need to be onerous anymore, because the only way to get in (except for wild cards) is through the section."

Brewer said he has be advocating for better alignment of sectional endorsement critera for years.

"We're going to talk with the sections on the 8th of May, getting down into the weeds of these endorsement policies, and if it's possible to have a pretty uniform policy, then that's what we would like to see happen," Brewer said.

Schultz, who has experience as an endorser when he worked in the Midwest section, agrees there is a need for more consistency now.

"I know sections have different thoughts on this, but what I think we should do is try to lead them down a path that makes the most sense. So for instance, when Tracy Austin was playing and she was invited to Wimbledon,  let's hope her section didn't make her play the section's qualifier to play the Nationals. There are reasons that kids ought to be excluded from their section qualifier and still get automatic bids into the Nationals, and not have to rely on a wild card. There are also players who get up to the top part of their section and suddenly have all these injuries, and you've got to try to avoid that as well.  But I do think with the help of Lew and our staff and other section folks, we should be able to come up with something more uniform, and in general do that across the board.

"But as Lew said, at the end of day, the sections do have some autonomy. We would like to be as consistent as possible."

In addition to the actual 29-page document I linked to above, the USTA has also recently released several less detailed announcements on the changes in the past two months, including the proposed 2014 calendar, which does not include sites for any tournaments and may not be completely accurate as to dates and this five-page summary in pdf form of the National Junior Competitive Structure.

The usta.com page for Junior Competition has been providing updates, and I will post or link to any other releases I receive regarding the calendar for 2013 and 2014.

UVA's Jenkins Takes Over Top Spot in ITA Rankings; ITF Junior Rankings Watch for French Open Entry

Although I've been away from college tennis the past two weeks, concentrating on the juniors, the rankings, at least at the top, didn't show much movement. Today's release again has the Virginia men and the North Carolina women at No. 1, but the men's second-ranked team is now the University of Georgia, which has bumped UCLA into third.

Today's rankings also brought changes to the top of the individual rankings, with Virginia's Jarmere Jenkins now No. 1 in both singles and doubles. Jenkins has inched past teammate Alex Domijan, who had been No. 1 since mid-February,  for the top spot in singles, while he and Mac Styslinger also overtook Duke's Henrique Cunha and Raphael Hemmeler for No. 1 in the men's doubles.

The limitations of the rankings are spotlighted in the women's doubles this week. Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria of USC, who have won the two collegiate majors in the fall and are 25-0 overall, are no longer No. 1. They have been passed by Georgia's Silvia Garcia and Kate Fuller, who are 20-1, but do not have the fall tournament results to bolster their case, with Garcia a January freshman.

The men's team Top 10:
1. Virginia
2. Georgia
3. UCLA
4. USC
5. Ohio State
6. Mississippi
7. Tennessee
8. Pepperdine
9. Mississippi St.
10. Duke

The men's singles Top 10:
1. Jarmere Jenkins, Virginia
2. Alex Domijan, Virginia
3. Mikelis Libietis, Tennessee
4. Emilio Gomez, USC
5. Henrique Cunha, Duke
6. KU Singh, Georgia
7. Matija Pecotic, Princeton
8. Peter Kobelt, Ohio State
9. Sebastian Fanselow, Pepperdine
10. Evan King, Michigan

The women's team Top 10:
1. North Carolina
2. Florida
3. Georgia
4. Texas A&M
5. USC
6. Michigan
7. UCLA
8. Alabama
9. Cal
10. Miami

The women's singles Top 10:
1. Lauren Embree, Florida
2. Sabrina Santamaria, USC
3. Robin Anderson, UCLA
4. Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar, Texas A&M
5. Zsofi Susanyi, Cal
6. Lauren Herring, Georgia
7. Anett Schutting, Cal
8. Danielle Lao, USC
9. Gina Suarez-Malaguti, North Carolina
10. Ema Burgic, Baylor

For complete rankings, see the ITA website.

Coming up this week in college tennis are the men's and women's SEC tournaments, in Oxford and Starkville Miss., respectively, and USC vs. UCLA, both men and women.  The USC women host UCLA on Thursday, with coverage available on the Pac12 Network. The UCLA men host USC on Friday at 3 pm PDT,  which is a College Matchday and will be broadcast on radiotennis.com.  In their last two meetings, the USC and UCLA men have split, with both matches ending in third-set tiebreakers.

Speaking of third-set tiebreakers, UCLA beat Pepperdine last night 4-3, with the last two matches on the court, at No. 1 and No. 5, both in third-set tiebreakers with UCLA leading 3-2. Pepperdine's No. 1 Fanselow beat Dennis Novikov 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) to make it 3-3, and UCLA's Clay Thompson and David Sofaer were well into their tiebreaker, with Thompson leading 5-2, before Sofaer tied it at 6. Sofaer had a match point leading 7-6, but Thompson took the last three points to give UCLA the win.

The ITF junior rankings that will count for the French Open will not be out for another three weeks, but for most US players, their performance at the International Spring Championships in Carson and the Easter Bowl determine whether they are likely to receive direct entry.  Last year's acceptance ITF junior ranking cutoff for the French Juniors was 76 for the boys and an extremely weird 827 for the girls. The 2011 was more indicative of what can be expected this year, with 63 for boys and 55 for girls.

Those likely to be accepted from the US and their current ITF junior rankings:

Boys:
Thai Kwiatkowski(16)
Stefan Kozlov(18)
Noah Rubin(23)
Luca Corinteli(36)
Spencer Papa(38)
Martin Redlicki(47)
Others in the Top 100 who may get in: Francis Tiafoe(78), Dan Kerznerman(82), Michael Mmoh(85) and Mackenzie McDonald(92)

Girls:
Taylor Townsend(11)
Christina Makarova(12)
Sachia Vickery(27)
Samantha Crawford(30)
Jamie Loeb(36)
Louisa Chirico(48)
Others in the Top 100 who may get in: Allie Kiick(69), Johnnise Renaud(82, who just won singles and doubles at the Grade 3 last week in Costa Rica), Katrine Steffensen(86), Rianna Valdes(87), Madison Bourguignon(89), Dasha Ivanova(90), Tornado Black(95) and Usue Arconada(99).  Mayo Hibi, who is a Japanese citizen but eligible to play in USTA events, is up to 62 with her California sweep.

Crawford, Kiick, Vickery, Townsend and Vicky Duval would all be eligible for main draw entry into the French juniors because their WTA ranking is inside 350 (it needs to remain there on the acceptance cutoff date). Hibi would just need a few wins at the upcoming Pro Circuit events, as she is now ranked 364, to be certain of main draw acceptance. Donna Vekic, Madison Keys and Yulia Putintseva are still age-eligible for the French juniors, but are unlikely to play since they've received main draw entry and only Vekic is still subject to the WTA's age restrictions regarding number of tournaments allowed.

Other international players who are currently inside that 350 cutoff are Australia's Ashleigh Barty, Germany's Carina Witthoeft and Russia's Irina Khromacheva, with several others very close to it.

It's unusual for a boy to be able to use an ATP ranking to receive direct entry into the main draw, with the cutoff at 550, but this year Kyle Edmund of Great Britain could need it, with his ITF junior ranking at 66, but his ATP ranking at 515. Gianluigi Quinzi of Italy, Nick Kyrgios of Australia and Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan are also inside that cutoff, but are assured entry with their current ITF junior rankings.