Does Tennis Owe Its Players a Living? Nava Brothers Win Doubles Title in Portugal; Koepfer's Journey from 'Pretty Terrible' in College to ATP Top 70; Zheng Reaches Another $25K Final

Early this month The Ringer published a lengthy look at the financial struggles of lower ranked professional tennis players, focusing on former Tennessee star Hunter Reese. Paul Wachter, who wrote the article Does Tennis Owe Its Players a Living?, played at Division III Swarthmore in the 1990s, so he knows enough about the the structure of the sport and the level necessary to succeed to explore the nuances involved. (He is wrong about Reese getting an "automatic" US Open doubles wild card in 2014; no NCAA wild cards are automatic, and because his partner Mikelis Libietis was from Latvia, Reese was offered a wild card with another American. Also, the US Open and French Open are not ATP Masters events).

Earlier this summer, I published an article from high school senior Nicholas Wernink that looked into the financial inequities in pro tennis, particularly on the Challenger Tour. Those issues are also explored by Wachter, with 2017 NCAA champion Thai Kwiatkowski also weighing in on the perils of being outside the Top 100. The lack of work available for the past six months, particularly in the United States, has just added to the stress; the entire sport of tennis is going to have to continue to deal with the fallout from the pandemic and finding solutions to this decade-old problem is not going to be a high priority. 

Reese did find his way to Europe for Challengers this month, playing in France last week and reaching the semifinals of the Challenger in Romania this week with former Notre Dame star Alex Lawson. Whether those paychecks will cover his expenses is another question, but I'm sure he is happy to just be back playing. 

I hope the USTA is able to figure out a way to schedule some Pro Circuit and Challenger tournaments yet this year; it's tough enough to try to stay afloat as a player when you have opportunities to earn income. Without that, it's impossible.

Emilio Nava lost his quarterfinal singles match to qualifier Nicolas Alvarez Varona of Spain Friday, but he and his older brother Eduardo won their first professional doubles title at the $15,000 tournament in Portugal today. The Navas, who beat the No. 2 seeds in the semifinals, defeated the unseeded German team of Sebastian Fanselow and Maik Steiner 6-3, 6-4 in today's final. Fanselow, the former Pepperdine star, has reached the singles final, where he'll play 2019 Wimbledon boys finalist Carlos Gimeno Valero of Spain. 

Former Tulane star Dominik Koepfer of Germany lost to ATP No. 1 Novak Djokovic today in the quarterfinals of the Italian Open, but he managed to come back from a set and a break down to force a third set before falling 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. Koepfer, who will move into the ATP Top 70 with his showing in Rome, was featured in this ATP website article, which quotes him as saying he was a "pretty terrible" college player at the beginning of his career.

Dominik Koepfer says attending Tulane University beginning in Fall 2012 was an easy choice because he, “didn’t really have one”. It was the only Division I institution to offer him a spot on its team.

"I went to college, but wasn't very good. I would say I was pretty terrible the first year,” Koepfer said. “But I started to work my way up."

Koepfer may not have been impressive early in his Tulane career, but he won one of the collegiate majors, the Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in 2015, and was No. 1 in the country most of his senior year of 2015-16, before finishing at No. 4. He certainly should serve as an inspiration to any player who might have had a late start in the sport and didn't receive a lot of recruiting attention.

China's Qinwen Zheng, who turns 18 in a couple of weeks, has been extraordinarily busy since the end of the shutdown, playing five consecutive weeks on the European clay. After a quarterfinal appearance in her first tournament, Zheng won back-to-back events, a $15K and a 25K, before falling in the second round of a $25K last week. Although her WTA ranking rose more than 200 places, to 410, with those results, Zheng had to qualify at the $25,000 tournament this week in the Czech Republic, but after three qualifying victories and four main draw victories, she has reached another final. She swamped No. 2 seed Victoria Kan of Russia 6-0, 6-1 in the first round and surrendered just two games to Katie Volynets in the second round. In Sunday's final, she will face No. 4 seed Gabriela Talaba of Romania, the former Texas Tech star.

My Look at ITA's Fall Tour; Just Three Division I ITA Regionals Survive; Koepfer Through to Quarterfinals in Italy; Juniors Jimenez Kasintseva and Rune Plus Columbia's Kotzen Reach Pro Circuit Semis

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Fall Tour by UTR begins today at seven sites across the country, with four more starting Saturday, in Week 1 of the ten-week series of regional competitions. I wrote about this new initiative for the Tennis Recruiting Network and in today's article I explain how the Fall Tour is similar to the long-running Summer Circuit and how it's different. With a reduced number of college and junior events on the horizon due to the pandemic, these events are an important source of competition, with over 170 tournaments scheduled over the next ten weeks at a wide variety of sites.  The Sunday prior to the start of the tournament is the deadline for entry, which is based on UTRs. Next week there are 20 events on the calendar; see the ITA page for registration information.  This ITA article has links to the Playsight streaming that is available this week.

When I spoke to Tim Russell about the Fall Tour earlier this week, he mentioned that a few Division I regionals would still be played. It turns out only three, one women's and two men's, out of the usual 24, have survived. The men's Southern regional will be held at Southern Mississippi October 16-19, and the men's Texas regional will be held at Baylor at a date to be determined  The Central women's regional will be held at Arkansas October 23-25. 

Former Tulane star Dominik Koepfer ended the run of 18-year-old Lorenzo Musetti of Italy today, making his way into the Italian Open quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-0 win over his fellow qualifier. It's the 26-year-old German's first ATP quarterfinal; in order to reach his first semifinal, he'll have to defeat ATP No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who beat Filip Krajinovic 7-6(7), 6-3 today.

A lot of ITF World Tennis Tour events are going on in Europe and Northern Africa right now, 13 by my count, so it's been tough to keep up with all the results this week, but I did want to call attention to a couple of high profile ITF juniors who are having good tournaments. Australian Open girls champion and ITF World No. 1 Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra is warming up for the French Open Juniors next month in Spain, where she has reached the semifinals of the $15,000 tournament in Melilla. The 15-year-old, who used her junior exemption for entry, beat the No. 2 seed in the second round and 18-year-old Alina Charaeva of Russia, the No. 7 seed, today.  Jimenez Kasintseva is playing in just her fourth professional tournament this week; she had not won a match in her first three.  She takes on 16-year-old Matilda Mutavdzic of Great Britain, who also received entry based on a junior exemption, in Saturday's semifinals. Mutavdzic has an ITF junior ranking of 28.

Seventeen-year-old Holger Rune of Denmark, the 2019 French Open boys champion, has advanced to the semifinals of the $25,000 ITF WTT tournament in Switzerland, his second career semifinal in professional competition, with both coming since the shutdown. Also using his junior exemption for entry, Rune avenged his loss to No. 2 seed Dimitar Kuzmanov of Bulgaria in a $25,000 semifinal last month in Austria in a second round match this week, and today he defeated 18-year-old wild card Dominic Stricker 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Rune faces unseeded Gonzalo Lama of Chile in the semifinals.

And at the $15,000 tournament in Tunisia, Columbia sophomore Alex Kotzen has advanced to the semifinals after making it through qualifying. The 20-year-old from New Jersey had not won a main draw match on the Pro Circuit prior to this week. 

Koepfer, Musetti Earn Big Wins to Advance to Italian Open Round of 16; Nava Reaches Portugal $15K Quarterfinals; Parenting Aces Interview with Dominic Thiem's Father Set for Saturday; Fed Cup Renamed for Billie Jean King; French Open Reduces Number of Fans

The 10 Americans who participated in the Italian Open singles draws this week have now all lost, with Coco Gauff losing to No. 9 seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-3 and No. 3 seed Sofia Kenin failing to win a game against US Open finalist Victoria Azarenka today. The transition from the hard courts of the US to the clay of Europe isn't easy, and Americans have never been much of a factor in Rome, but for the ten players to earn just two wins total is disappointing regardless of the reason.

While Americans have not had much success, a former collegian is having a terrific run, with former Tulane All-American Dominik Koepfer of Germany picking up his first Top 10 win today in Rome, beating ATP No. 9 Gael Monfils, the No. 5 seed this week, 6-2, 6-4. The 26-year-old left-hander, who is coached by former Tennessee star Rhyne Williams, qualified for the tournament and picked up a win over US Open quarterfinalist Alex De Minaur of Australia in the first round.

Koepfer's opponent in the round of 16 Friday is another qualifier, 18-year-old Lorenzo Musetti, the 2019 Australian Open boys champion. Musetti, who needed a wild card to get into qualifying, defeated Stan Wawrinka in straight sets in the first round and followed that impressive win with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Kei Nishikori today. Ranked 280 coming out the shutdown, Musetti will move past Carlos Alcaraz of Spain to become the second-highest ranked teenager on the ATP tour, behind countryman Jannick Sinner, 19, who is currently at 81.

Emilio Nava, who will always be linked to Musetti in my mind, due to their epic Australian Open boys final, which Musetti won 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(12). Nava is also playing in Europe right now, although on a much less significant level, at the ITF World Tennis Tour M15 in Portugal. Nava, who used a junior exemption for entry into the event, has advanced to the quarterfinals, after beating Patrick Kypson 6-3, 6-3 in the first round and qualifier Arnaud Bovy of Belgium 6-2, 6-2 in today's second round. He will take on another qualifier, 19-year-old Nicolas Alvarez Varona of Spain, in the quarterfinals. Two former collegians are the only seeds remaining, Memphis's Ryan Peniston of Great Britain, the No. 1 seed, and No. 5 seed Sebastian Fanselow of Germany, the Pepperdine standout. 

Nava and his older brother Eduardo, who played at TCU and Wake Forest, have also advanced to the doubles semifinals. 

Lisa Stone of Parenting Aces has announced that she will be talking with US Open champion Dominik Theim's father Wolfgang via Facebook Live on Saturday at 11 a.m. Eastern, 8 a.m. Pacific. For more on what to expect from that conversation, see the Parenting Aces Facebook page.

The Fed Cup, which was canceled for 2020 quite a while ago, made news today by announcing that it would be changing its name to honor Billie Jean King. The women's version of the Davis Cup will now be known as the Billie Jean King Cup. For more on the ITF's decision to rename the competition, see this Associated Press article.

The French Open begins in 10 days, but there are still changes coming from the organizers. Today it was announced that the initial plan to have up to 11,500 fans in three separate zones has been scrapped, and the number of fans will now be limited to 5000 each day. For more, see this BBC article.

NCAA Division I Recruiting Dead Period Extended Through Year End; Fall Competition Dates Announced in Several Conferences; Is Pandemic an Excuse to Dump College Olympic Sports?

The NCAA imposed an NCAA Division I dead period on in-person recruiting back in March, and it has been extended each month since. Today, at the Division I Council meeting that produced a November 25th start date for basketball, the dead period was extended once again, this time through the end of the year. The reason for this prohibition is ostensibly health and safety; that made sense to me when sports were not being played and school was not in session, but now that both are back in many areas, there must be more to it than that. Division II resumed normal recruiting on September 1, so unless you think they care less about health and safety than Division I coaches, there's a disconnect there somewhere.

I spoke this week to a women's head coach Chris Young of Oklahoma State for an article about the ITF Fall Tour that will appear Friday on the Tennis Recruiting Network and he told me that he can't attend the Fall Tour events that are being played at his campus facility because of the dead period. With potential student-athletes allowed to enter, simply being at the tournament, even though he has players from his team competing, is not allowed. In addition, no coaches can attend private practices or go to any other tournaments, including any of the USTA and ITF events this fall, a major departure from normal recruiting calendar.

While many fall sports. including university-sponsored competition in tennis, have been postponed, some conferences are permitting a few competitive dates. The SEC is allowing three team events beginning October 1; here is what the Georgia men and the Mississippi women, for example, have planned for those dates. 

Some teams in the Big 12 are also announcing fall dates, with the Oklahoma men and Texas Tech women among them. The Oklahoma release mentions a new tournament: the Big 12 Individual championships, which for the men will be at TCU and for the women will be at Oklahoma State. The Georgia release also contains information on an individual tournament, the 53rd annual Southern Intercollegiates, which is usually held in Athens in September, but will be held, as will the Big 12 events, November 6-8.  I had understood those to be the dates for the ITA National Fall Championships, but as I said yesterday, the details of that event have not been released, so perhaps it will be scheduled for the preceding or following weekend.

It was announced today that the Big Ten will play football after all, beginning on October 24. This probably isn't much consolation to the men's tennis teams at Iowa and Minnesota, which will be cut after this year according to recent announcements.

Football and basketball are considered the profit centers that fund the Olympic sports at the Division I level, but it's much more complicated than that.  Former Division I athlete D.R. Hildebrand, a William and Mary graduate, wrote this Richmond Times-Dispatch column entitled Cutting sports to steal endowments: The myth of football-funded athletics.

And Greg Couch, a sportswriter who is coaching the NAIA men's and women's teams at Roosevelt University in Chicago, wrote this column for Outkick entitled NCAA Schools Cry Poverty, Use Pandemic to Cut Sports They Didn't Want Anyway.

Both look at the management of athletic departments at the Division I level and wonder about the legitimacy of the cost-benefit analysis those departments are making. 

Oracle ITA Masters Moves to San Diego for 2020; Additional Indictments in Georgetown's Varsity Blues Scandal; Sock, Withrow Take Volunteer Assistant Positions; Musetti Beats Wawrinka at Italian Open

The ITA announced today its Oracle Masters, an individual tournament that had been held in Malibu during the fall season, will take place October 9-11, 2020, but in a new location, the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.

The Masters, which had been a field with representatives from all Division I conferences, will have different entry standards this year, with so many conferences canceling fall tennis competition. According to the ITA release:

The singles-only field is open to collegiate, professional, and high-performance juniors and will be selected based on UTR. In total, four wild cards will be given by the ITA, USTA Southern California, and Barnes Tennis Center. All players will be guaranteed at least three matches throughout the tournament.

The men's and womens's singles finals will air on ESPNU at 2 p.m. Pacific, with the winners receiving wild cards into the ITA Fall National Championships. Details on that event have yet to be released, but the fact that a wild card is being offered for it is a positive indication that it will proceed.

The ITA release on the Oracle Masters, with information on entry and deadlines, can be found here.

While I was covering the US Open remotely I wasn't able to post several articles about college tennis that I want to pass along now.

The Varsity Blues scandal is by no means in the past, with new indictments being issued earlier this month in Boston. Georgetown continues to be in the thick of the tennis-related charges, with a Palm Beach parent charged for using fraud and bribery to gain admission to Georgetown for his daughter. Former Georgetown coach Gordon Ernest, who had already been charged at the outset of the scandal, had additional charges added recently, including filing false tax returns. 

Although unrelated to this college admissions investigation, the Los Angeles Times recently looked at the relationship of controversial US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and the Duke athletic department. DeJoy's son was a member of the Duke men's tennis team from 2014-16. 

Jack Sock and Jackson Withrow, the 2011 USTA Boys 18s National Doubles champions, who have played as a team on the ATP Tour, and most recently at the US Open, are both joining college teams this fall as volunteer assistants. Sock, who has recently moved to the area, will coach at Davidson, while Withrow, who graduated from Texas A&M, has joined the coaching staff at Nebraska. I assume this means they will not be playing on the ATP tour for the remainder of the year, but will look to resume their professional careers in 2021. 

Lorenzo Musetti, US Open Juniors 2018

At the Italian Open, the big news of the day was 18-year-old qualifying wild card Lorenzo Musetti's 6-0, 7-6(2) win over No. 10 seed and three-time slam champion Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland. Italy's Musetti, who reached the 2018 US Open boys final and won the Australian Open boys final in 2019, is the first male born in 2002 to win an ATP level match. 

There are no US men remaining in the Italian Open draw, but four US women are still in contention. Coco Gauff won the battle of the former French Open girls champions today, beating Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 6-4, 6-3. Amanda Anisimova won her first round match Monday, beating No. 16 seed Donna Vekic of Croatia 7-6(4), 7-6(6). No. 3 seed Sofia Kenin received a first round bye, and wild card Venus Williams plays her first round match, against US Open finalist Victoria Azarenka, Wednesday, with the winner getting Kenin in the second round. The order of play for Wednesday is here.

Junior Orange Bowl Canceled; Two ITF Junior Circuit Grade 4s Set for US in October; Blanch Takes Doubles Title at Czech Grade 2; Young French Junior Stars Receive Roland Garros Wild Cards

The Junior Orange Bowl Committee announced today that the 59th annual tournament, scheduled for December 11-20, 2020 has been canceled:

Regretfully, the Junior Orange Bowl International Tennis Championship Committee announces that due to concerns and complications from the Covid-19 Pandemic, the 59th Annual Championship, previously scheduled for December 11-20, 2020 is cancelled. This decision was very difficult and one that was not taken lightly, but is the decision that the Committee believes is best for all involved.

We look forward to welcoming all of our participants, coaches, parents and spectators next year for our 60th Anniversary.

As always we thank you and our sponsors for your continued support. Please check back with the website for updates for next year’s event and other tennis related news and events from the Junior Orange Bowl.

Just as with the US Open Junior Championships, I had covered the Junior Orange Bowl 12s and 14s every year since 2004, so this is another understandable but disappointing cancellation for me personally. Without seeing any of the American 12s and 14s at the Easter Bowl this year, it's now down to the Eddie Herr to provide me with a look at those age groups. The Eddie Herr website has posted that a final decision will be made for that tournament by Friday September 18th.

Although the International Tennis Federation began its Junior Circuit competition two weeks ago, all ITF junior events in the United States were canceled through mid-October. ITF play is scheduled to resume in the US now with two Grade 4s, both of them regular stops on the fall schedule, starting in Atlanta the week of October 19th, followed by the tournament in Lexington South Carolina the week of October 26th.

The Eddie Herr Grade 1 appears on the current ITF Junior Calendar, but as mentioned above, that may change.

In ITF Junior Circuit tournaments that did get played in Europe, Dali Blanch won a doubles title at the Grade 2 in the Czech Republic. Blanch and partner Jack Pinnington-Jones of Great Britain, who won the singles title, were the top seeds in the tournament. They defeated No. 2 seeds Pierre Yves Bailly and Maikel De Boes of Belgium 6-3, 3-6, 10-5 in the final. 

Ellie Coleman and Madison Sieg lost in the doubles final at the Grade 1 in Serbia. The No. 1 seeds fell to No. 2 seeds Polina Iatcenko of Russia and Petra Marcinko of Croatia 6-0, 6-2 in the championship match. Coleman, the No. 3 seed and Sieg the No. 2 seed, lost in the semifinals of singles. 

At a Grade 5 in Singapore, American Cameron Austin Chang won the boys doubles title, with partner Matthew Johnstone of Singapore. The No. 2 seeds defeated top seeds Nathan Barki and Brendan Hendrata of Indonesia 6-3, 6-2 in the final. 

The French Open announced its wild cards today, with a mix of veterans and young players awarded entry into the main draw. One former college player, recent Texas A&M graduate Arthur Rinderknech of France, received a main draw wild card.

The men's wild cards:

Elliot Benchetrit (FRA)

Hugo Gaston (FRA)

Quentin Halys (FRA)

Antoine Hoang (FRA)

Maxime Janvier (FRA)

Harold Mayot (FRA)

Andy Murray (GBR)

Arthur Rinderknech (FRA)

Note that Harold Mayot, who is currently No. 1 in the ITF Junior rankings, is also entered in the junior championships at Roland Garros.

The women's wild cards:

Eugenie Bouchard (CAN)

Clara Burel (FRA)

Elsa Jacquemot (FRA)

Chloe Pacquet (FRA)

Pauline Parmentier (FRA)

Diane Parry (FRA)

Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL)

Harmony Tan (FRA)

The 19-year-old Burel is the 2018 ITF World Junior Champion, Parry is currently No. 2 in the ITF Junior rankings, but is not entered in the junior event. 

The list of qualifying wild cards can be found at the Roland Garros website.