Talking Pro Tennis Development with Top College Coaches; Kuznetsov, Kudla, Harrison and Duval Earn Berths in Wimbledon Main Draw; Puetz Earns Slam Debut

One of the best parts about covering college tennis is the opportunity it gives me to talk, both informally and formally, with the top coaches. During last month's NCAA championships in Athens, I spoke with three of the best--Stanford's Lele Forood, Georgia's Manny Diaz and Southern California's Peter Smith--about the role college tennis can play in the development of professional tennis players.

All three have recently had players go from college into the Top 100 of the professional ranks and I asked them about the pros and cons of developing in a college atmosphere.  Their answers are in this article, posted today at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Thursday's final round of qualifying at Wimbledon went well for the US men and badly for the US women.  Three American men--Denis Kudla, Ryan Harrison and Alex Kuznetsov--advanced to the main draw, but only one woman of the six in action made it--Vicky Duval.   No. 15 seed Duval will be making her Wimbledon debut after defeating  two-time NCAA champion Nicole Gibbs 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Both players struggled with back injuries during the match.   Irina Falconi, Shelby Rogers and Madison Brengle all lost three-setters, while Melanie Oudin fell to No. 23 seed Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada 6-4, 6-3.

Two recent girls Orange Bowl champions will be in the women's main draw for the first time next week, with 2011 champion Anett Kontaveit of Estonia and 2012 champion Ana Konjuh of Croatia getting through qualifying unseeded.  The 18-year-old Kontaveit defeated 2011 Wimbledon girls champion Ashleigh Barty of Australia 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4, while the 16-year-old Konjuh defeated Stephanie Vogt of Liechtenstein 7-5, 6-3.

No. 26 seed Kuznetsov defeated No. 3 seed Tim Smyczek 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 to qualify for the second consecutive year, with No. 9 seed Kudla also earning main draw status for the second straight year, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 over Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia.  Harrison, the No. 22 seed, was in a difficult section of the draw, but he came through Thursday 7-6(3), 6-2, 6-3 over Daniel Brands.  Ben Rothenburg of the New York Times is reporting that Harrison is now being coached by Jan-Michael Gambill.

Wimbledon's 2011 boys champion Luke Saville won the day's Iron Man award, with the 20-year-old Australian beating Yann Marti of Switzerland 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(7) 8-6.  Saville is one of three Australians to advance, along with James Duckworth and Sam Groth.

Only one German man made it into the main draw, and probably not one that was expected, with four seeded players from that country going out, while unseeded Tim Puetz survived.  Puetz, an All-American from Auburn who reached the 2010 NCAA semifinals, outlasted 2010 Wimbledon boys champion Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 7-6(3), 7-6(16), 6-1.  It will be Puetz's first main draw appearance at a slam.

The singles draws will be out at 10 a.m. London time on Friday.  See the Wimbledon website for the complete qualifying draws and articles on several of the day's winners.

Madison Keys defeated Lauren Davis 6-2, 6-1 to reach the semifinals at the WTA event in Eastbourne against Heather Watson of Great Britain.  Read more about Keys and her affinity for grass in this article from livetennis.com.

CoCo Vandeweghe reached the semifinals of the WTA 'S-Hertogenbosch Netherlands tournament with an impressive 7-6(3), 6-1 win over Garbine Muguruza of Spain.

In the ATP event in the Netherlands, Benjamin Becker, the 2004 NCAA champion from Baylor, also reached the semifinals, defeating No. 6 seed Vasek Pospisil of Canada 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 6-4 in the quarterfinals today. Becker was the subject of this Biofile at on the ATP site, and he gives perhaps a surprising answer when asked to name his greatest sports moment.

Six US Women Join Five US Men in Final Round of Wimbledon Qualifying; ITF Roehampton Grade 1 Qualifying Begins Thursday; Loeb, Giron Named ITA Players of the Year

The grass courts of Roehampton have proven hospitable to US players attempting to qualify for Wimbledon, with five US men and six US men reaching Thursday's final round of qualifying.

The men had the day off from singles, with the US women suffering only one defeat, one that was preordained when Shelby Rogers and Grace Min(22) advanced to the second round. It was Rogers who came through, beating Min 6-3, 6-3, joining Nicole Gibbs, Vicky Duval(15), Irina Falconi, Melanie Oudin and Madison Brengle in earning straight-set wins.  Gibbs and Duval will play each other in the final round of qualifying, with Gibbs having won their previous meeting at the 2012 Vancouver Challenger 7-5, 7-6(4).  Duval may not be 100 percent however, according to the article on the Wimbledon website about her 6-2, 6-2 win today over Misa Eguchi of Japan. Duval received treatment for a back injury and according to the article was in visible pain in the second set.

Another interesting match on grass between two young Americans has Lauren Davis meeting Madison Keys in the quarterfinals of the WTA tournament in Eastbourne.  The last time the two met, at the Sony in 2013, Davis beat her Evert Academy training partner 6-1, 5-7, 7-6(7).

Back at Roehampton, Brengle will be attempting to reach her first main draw in a slam via qualifying, with that quest proving to be a frustrating hurdle for her. According to Jonathan Kelley (who has a new blog on American tennis called On the Rise), Brengle is 0-3 in the final round of qualifying for majors and is 0-26 in overall attempts.

Kevin King, the former Georgia Tech All-American, will be playing in the main draw of his first major next week, after he and Ryan Harrison qualified in men's doubles at Wimbledon by defeating Konstantin Kravchuk of Russia and Germany's Tim Puetz, the No. 8 seeds, 6-3, 7-5 today.

For the complete draws, see the Wimbledon website.

While the "seniors" are in the final stage of determining the fields at Wimbledon, the juniors will begin their qualifying for their tournament at Roehampton, which starts Thursday.  The qualifying for the Grade 1 is at Surbiton, with the main draw moving over to Roehampton on Sunday.  The only US player in Roehampton qualifying idraw s Raquel Pedraza, who is the No. 3 seed; Argentina's Jordi Arconada, who lives and trains in the US and just played in the CitiOpen pre-qualifying tournament final on Tuesday, is also in Roehampton qualifying.  Links to the order of play and draws can be found on the LTA website on the bottom right of the home page.

The ITA announced its Players of the Year today, and there were no surprises, with top-ranked Marcos Giron of UCLA and Jamie Loeb of North Carolina receiving the awards.  NCAA doubles champions Hunter Reese and Mikelis Libietis of Tennessee and Erin Routliffe and Maya Jansen of Alabama were named the doubles teams of the year. They will be honored next month during the International Hall of Fame enshrinement weekend in Newport, Rhode Island.  The ITA's release can be found here.

Five US Men Reach Final Round of Wimbledon Qualifying, US Women Go 7-2 in First Round Action; Tiafoe and Arconada Win CitiOpen Qualifying Wild Cards; Pro Circuit Update

Tuesday was another good day for Americans at Wimbledon, with five US men winning to reach Thursday's final round of qualifying and seven US women winning their first round matches.

One American qualifier is certain, with No. 3 seed Tim Smyczek and No. 26 seed Alex Kuznetsov playing each other.  Denis Kudla(9) will play No. 18 seed Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia (although he is switching nationalities to Great Britain soon),  Ryan Harrison(22) plays No. 16 seed Daniel Brands of Germany and No. 31 seed Rajeev Ram play meets unseeded Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic. 

Former Auburn All-American Tim Puetz of Germany also advanced to the final round of qualifying, and he will face 2010 boys champion Marton Fucsovics of Hungary, who is also unseeded.  Australian Luke Saville, the 2011 boys champion and 2012 finalist, also needs to win just one more match to make his main draw Wimbledon debut.

The US women winning their opening matches today are: Madison Brengle, Melanie Oudin, Shelby Rogers, Nicole Gibbs, Grace Min(22) and Vicky Duval(15).  Allie Kiick, beaten by Mayo Hibi, and Sachia Vickery were the only two American women to suffer losses today.  Min and Rogers play each other Wednesday.

Other notable winners include Australian and US Open girls champion Ana Konjuh of Croatia, back from elbow surgery, and wild card Gabby Taylor, a 16-year-old wild card with no WTA ranking, who reached the Junior Orange Bowl 14s final back in 2012. 

For more qualifying news, see the Wimbledon website.  Wednesday's schedule is here.  Qualifying draws are here.

The Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md., staged a tournament to decide qualifying wild cards for next month's CitiOpen, the combined ATP/WTA event in Washington DC.  All four finalists trained at the JTCC, with top seed Francis Tiafoe, 16,  defeating unseeded Jordi Arconada, 17,  6-1, 7-6(3) in the men's final and Jordi's sister Usue, 15, downing former UCLA Bruin and No. 4 seed Skylar Morton 7-6(4), 7-5. Arconada, the No. 2 seed, has already won a qualifying match at the CitiOpen, defeating Argentina's Maria Irigoyen 7-5, 6-3 in the opening round last year. 

For more on the match, see the JTCC blog.  For links to the complete draws, see the CitiOpen website.

After no Pro Circuit tournaments at all in the US last week, there are three this week, two men's Futures and the $10,000 women's event in Bethany Beach, Delaware.  Although qualifying was just completed today, with 14-year-old Nada Dimovska 15-year-old Maria Shishkina, 16-year-old Erica Oosterhout, 16-year-old Caroline Lampl and 17-year-old Alexandra Valenstein among those reaching the main draw,  there has already been a major upset, with Florida recruit Josie Kuhlman defeating top seed Alexandra Mueller 6-0, 6-3 in the first round. Andie Daniell, Ingrid Neel, Julia Elbaba, Katerina Stewart and Caitlin Whoriskey also picked up first round wins today.

The men's events are a $10,000 Futures in Buffalo, NY and a $15,000 Futures in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
As usual, there are many current and former college players in the draws.  Virginia's Ryan Shane won his first round match in Buffalo, with juniors  Nicolas Podesta, Dan Kerznerman and Catalin Mateas among those who qualified.  In Tulsa, 2013 Kalamazoo 18s winner Collin Altamirano and finalist Jared Donaldson both picked up victories in the first round, with Altamirano beating Martin Redlicki  4-6, 6-2, 6-4 and Donaldson beating Dane Webb, the Oklahoma All-American 6-4, 6-2.  Ernesto Escobedo, who lost in the quarterfinals in Kalamazoo last year, defeated 2012 Kalamazoo 18s champion Dennis Novikov 6-3, 7-6(1) in the first round today.

Jarmere Jenkins, who elected to return from Europe without playing the Wimbledon qualifying, was required to qualify in Tulsa, and he is the No. 1 seed in the tournament now that he has.

It's worth noting that Altamirano, Donaldson and Escobedo will all probably need wild cards to compete in Kalamazoo this year. 

US Men Post Nine Wins in Opening Round of Wimbledon Qualifying, Nine US Women Begin Play Tuesday; USTA Clay Court Acceptances Out, Sectional Quota System Makes for Interesting Fields

The first day of qualifying at Wimbledon was a good one for US men, with nine of the 11 in action moving on to the second round.  Tim Symczek(3), Denis Kudla(9), Ryan Harrison(22), Alex Kuznetsov(26), Rajeev Ram(31), Dan Kosakowski, Rhyne Williams, Wayne Odesnik and Bobby Reynolds all picked up wins.  Only Chase Buchanan and Austin Krajicek were defeated in the opening round.

2011 boys champion Luke Saville of Australia upset top seed Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, and No. 2 seed Go Soeda of Japan was also ousted, losing to Austrian veteran Martin Fischer. 

Both US doubles teams in qualifying also advanced, defeating seeded teams. Kevin King and Ryan Harrison defeated No. 3 seeds Rameez Junaid of Australia and Philipp Marx of Germany 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, while Smyczek and Kudla downed No. 2 seeds Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana of Thailand 4-6, 7-6(5), 9-7.

Nine US women, the most of any country, begin qualifying play on Tuesday. Madison Brengle, Melanie Oudin, Allie Kiick, Shelby Rogers, Grace Min(22), Nicole Gibbs, Vicky Duval(15), Sachia Vickery and Irina Falconi will join the nine remaining US men on the Roehampton courts Tuesday.  For the schedule and draws, see the Wimbledon website.

More on today's qualifying matches can be found here.

The Girls 18s Clay Courts in Memphis

The acceptances for July's USTA National Clay Court tournaments were released today, with these acceptances the first for a gold ball event under the new junior competition structure adopted by the USTA. 

To no one's surprise, the strict adherence to the sectional quotas for selection has produced some mismatched rankings and entries, with players with much higher national rankings placed in qualifying, while sectionally endorsed players with lower national rankings are placed in the main draw.

For example,  at the Girls 18s Clay Courts in Memphis, which I've covered for the past six years, No. 59 Mia Horvit, the 2012 16s Clay Court champion, is in qualifying.  Elizabeth Yao of Northern California, who is No. 14 in her section (eight get in from that section, but not all entered), is in the main draw, despite her national ranking of 812.  Alex Rybakov, who is No. 25 in the ITF world junior rankings and was a direct acceptance into the Wimbledon Junior championships, is in the qualifying draw of the Boys 18s Clay Courts, and Zeke Clark, the Easter Bowl 16s finalist, is in the qualifying for the Boys 16s Clay Courts.

This disparity was widely predicted when the system was introduced, but not considered by the USTA as detrimental to its ultimate goal of earned advancement.

It will take more than this year's tournaments to determine whether that's the case, after there is enough data to say whether these nationally lower-ranked players who get in via a sectional endorsement have lower national rankings simply because they have stayed and played within their section.   Or, if the quota system is discouraging good players from competing in the USTA system, leaving the USTA's national gold ball tournaments with fields that do not contain the country's best players.

Lisa Stone at Parenting Aces has looked at all of the acceptances for all of the Clay Court tournaments and I encourage you to read her explanation of it.

There's no question the issues raised by the Clays will be magnified significantly for the Hard Courts, where, in the 18s, a US Open main draw wild card is on the line.

Wimbledon Qualifying Gets Underway Monday with 11 American Men in Action; Chirico Wins Padova $25K; Top Seeds Take Grade 1 Titles in Germany

Qualifying for Wimbledon begins on Monday with the men, including 11 from the United States.   Among the 128 players competing for 16 qualifying places are: Rhyne Williams, Austin Krajicek, Tim Smyczek(3), Alex Kuznetsov(26), Wayne Odesnik, Bobby Reynolds, Denis Kudla(9), Dan Kosakowski, Chase Buchanan, Rajeev Ram(31) and Ryan Harrison.

Wimbledon also has doubles qualifying, and two teams from the US are also entered in that: Harrison and Kevin King and Kudla and Smyczek. 

The United States and France are tied for the most players in men's qualifying with 11; Germany has 10. Italy has seven, but unfortunately not Gianluigi Quinzi, the 2013 boys champion. He's won three straight Futures titles in May, so it's unfortunate he's not in Wimbledon qualifying.  The competition begins at 11 am in London Monday at Roehampton.  The schedule is here.  The draws are here.

Louisa Chirico picked up her first ITF Women's Circuit $25,000 title in Padova, Italy today, coming from 5-1 down in the final set to beat Paul Goncalves of Brazil 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(3).  The 18-year-old New Yorker has always been comfortable on clay; last year at this time she had just reached the semifinals at the French juniors.  Mitchell Krueger was unable to make it a US sweep in Italy. The 20-year-old from Texas, seeded second, lost in the final of the $15,000 Futures in Naples, to top seed Luca Vanni of Italy 6-3, 6-3. 

At the Grade 1 ITF tournament this week on red clay in Germany, top seeds Matias Zukas of Argentina and Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus took the titles.  Only two US girls were in the draw, with Abi Altick and Olivia Hauger losing in the second round.  Zukas beat fellow Argentine Francisco Bahamonde, the No. 5 seed, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the final.  Shymanovich, who reached the quarterfinals at the French juniors before losing to champion Darya Kasatkina of Russia in three sets, beat No. 15 seed Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia 5-7, 7-6(2). 6-1 in the final.  

Unfortunately, the Grade 2 always held in Halle Germany this coming week was cancelled, so preparation for Wimbledon juniors will be confined to Roehampton's Grade 1, which begins next Sunday.

Pepperdine's Steinberg Takes Michigan Job, Amherst's Garner Hired at Navy; Neel, Kecmanovic Win ITF Grade 4 Grass Courts; Scholtz Claims Second Straight Futures; Chirico in $25K Final

The weekend is rarely the time for big college hiring announcements, but the University of Michigan bucked that trend today, naming Pepperdine's Adam Steinberg as its men's head coach. Steinberg was considered one of the front runners for the position, and with the consolidation of power in the BCS conferences, it's no surprise he would consider moving to one of them. Pepperdine has a impressive tennis history, to which Steinberg has contributed greatly, leading the program to its only NCAA team title. But the recent talk of an NCAA Division 4 for high-revenue major athletic departments must concern any coach employed by one of the "have-nots".  Steinberg takes over from Bruce Berque, who was let go last month after ten years.  The Michigan release does not mention current associate head coach Jeremy Wurtzmann, although he is listed on the coach's roster. The Pepperdine release is here.

Division III men's tennis lost one of its superstars, with Chris Garner leaving Amherst to take the head coaching job at Navy.  In his seven years at Amherst, Garner won two team titles, most recently last month, and reached the finals on two other occasions. Garner, who played at Georgia and was an assistant coach at Ohio State, takes over from John Officer, who retired in April after 29 years as head coach. The Navy release is here.

The ITF Grade 4 International Grass Court Championships were decided today in Philadelphia, with Ingrid Neel and Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia taking the titles.  Rain caused matches to be played indoors on at least two days, but the tournament did finish on time.  Neel, who trains at the IMG Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, doesn't play outside Florida very often, but her game is well suited to grass, and she reached semifinals in Philadelphia last year. The No. 8 seed defeated No. 3 seed Francesca DiLorenzo 7-6(8), 6-3 in the final. It's the second ITF singles title for Neel, who turns 16 on Monday.

Kecmanovic, who like Neel, trains at Bollettieri's and won the the Grade 4 in Coral Gables last month, has lost only one match in the six Grade 4s he's played this year, in the final last month at Delray Beach.  The No. 2 seed, Kecmanovic, just 14, defeated No. 4 seed Myles Schalet 6-1, 6-3 in the Grass Courts final. Those three games are the most he lost in any set in his five victories. Kecmanovic has lost only four sets while posting a 31-1 record in junior competition this year.

Sophie Chang and Andie Daniell, who won a $10,000 women's doubles title last month, won the girls doubles championships. The top seeds defeated unseeded Claire Liu and Ryan Peus 6-3, 6-3 in the final.  The boys title went to Caleb Chakravarthi and Evan Zhu, who defeated Schalet and Gabe Tishman 7-5, 4-6, 10-4.  Both teams were unseeded.

At the ITF Grade 4 in El Salvador, Canadian qualifier Isabelle Boulais, 14, swept the titles. Boulais defeated top seed and Georgia Tech recruit Alexis Prokopuik, also from Canada, 6-3, 6-0 in the final. Boulais and Tiffany Lagarde of Canada won the doubles unseeded, beating top seeds Prokopuik and Stephanie Nemtsova of the US 7-5, 4-6, 10-5.

Nik Scholtz of Ole Miss won his second consecutive $10,000 Futures title in his home country of South Africa. The unseeded Scholtz defeated No. 3 seed Fritz Wolmarans, also of South Africa, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the final. Top seeds Ruan Roelofse(Illinois) and Dean O'Brien(Georgia Tech) won the doubles title, beating Scholtz and Tucker Vorster(Ole Miss), the No. 2 seeds, 7-6(6), 6-4 in the final.

In the $10,000 Futures in Israel, Peter Kobelt, the recent Ohio State graduate, reached the finals in singles and won the doubles, with former teammate Devin McCarthy.  Kobelt, who had to qualify, lost to top seed Sam Barry of Ireland 6-4, 7-6(5) in the singles final.  The third-seeded Kobelt and McCarthy cruised to the doubles title, winning every match in straight sets.  They defeated No. 4 seeds Alexander Mozgovoy of Russia and Sebastian Wagner of German 6-1, 6-2 in the final.

Louisa Chirico, the 18-year-old New Yorker who recently signed with the sports management firm Octagon, reached the second $25,000 tournament final of her young career today in Italy.  Unseeded, Chirico has beaten No. 8 seed Gioia Barbieri of Italy, No. 1 seed Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus and No. 7 seed Anastasia Grymalska of Italy to reach the final. She plays unseeded Paula Goncalves of Brazil in the championship match Sunday.