Lauren Davis Upsets Third Seed Babos; Stephens Advances in Three Sets at US Open Junior Championships

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Flushing Meadows, NY--

Of all the U.S. girls playing in the Open Junior Championships this week, none are more inspired by Melanie Oudin's run than 15-year-old Lauren Davis. Davis, who is 5-foot-2, did her imitation of the tennis world's newest star when she defeated No. 3 seed Timea Babos of Hungary 1-6, 7-6(3), 6-4.

"She's like a real inspiration to me, because she's not that much taller than I am," said Davis, of Gates Mills, Ohio. "She has heart and she believes she can win and she does. It's amazing."

Davis found herself down a set and 5-3, but she found the strategy and the mental strength to turn the match around.

"She was hitting really hard and serving bombs and I wasn't really ready for that," said Davis. "I was taking everything late, which totally took me off my game. But I just told myself to believe that I could win. I just started hitting deeper and changing the pace, hitting lobs and then coming in for swing volleys. She can't really move too well, she's so big, so I mainly tried to run her from side to side."

At 3-3 in the third set, Davis broke, but she was immediately broken back. The errors began to pile up for Babos however, and Davis compounded the 16-year-old's problems by using a variety of shots, keeping Babos guessing.

Serving for the match at 5-4, Davis didn't appear nervous, and Babos didn't seem confident she could do what she had done just one game before. Part of Davis's composure came from having played in her first US Open junior championships last year.

"Last year I was really nervous, and this year I just tried not to think about my nerves," said Davis. "I knew I belonged with these girls. I'm mentally tough--if I'm down I can come back, and if I can imagine myself winning, I can win."

On Thursday Davis will face another much bigger opponent in unseeded Elena Bogdan of Romania.



There are three other U.S. girls in the third round; unfortunately Beatrice Capra and Asia Muhammad play each other on Thursday. Fourth seed Sloane Stephens, who has had a very difficult week with the death of her father, returned from his funeral yesterday, and showed remarkable composure in her 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-2 win Wednesday over Maryna Zanevska of Ukraine.

"On the court it's not so bad, but off the court it's rough," said Stephens, who had an aunt, several uncles and her doubles partner Mallory Burdette vocally supporting her throughout the match. "Focusing on the court is pretty easy, but sometimes it gets to you."

Zanevska hits the ball every bit as hard as Stephens, and her forehand was especially effective, but for all the punishing ground strokes exchanged, it was Stephens's defense that proved the difference. After winning the first set, the two 16-year-olds were even at 3-3, and Stephens had a 40-15 lead before losing five straight points. Broken again to end the set, Stephens didn't have much momentum heading into the third, but it was Zanevska who started making errors, giving Stephens an early break. Up 3-1, Stephens got her second break when she threw up an unlikley defensive lob off a deep Zanevska smash, and the combination of the surprise of Stephens getting it back and the swirling winds on the court lead her to put the second one in the net.

Serving for the match, Stephens was down 0-40, but that's when her forehand really began to heat up and she held nothing back. Zanevska saved the first match point with a forehand winner on the baseline, but Stephens took the next one on a second serve winner.

Her opponent on Thursday will be No. 14 seed Jana Cepelova of Slovakia, who beat wild card Julia Boserup 6-4, 6-3 on Wednesday. Qualifier Courtney Dolehide was defeated by Great Britain's Heather Watson, the No. 11 seed, 6-3, 6-2.

The marquee match on the boys side was Alex Domijan against No. 3 seed Bernard Tomic on Louis Armstrong Stadium, and as he had at the French Juniors, it was Tomic who came out the winner, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Armstrong, with its Hawkeye challenges and speed guns, provides a break from the usual junior venue, even if there were only scattered seats occupied for the day's first match. Domijan definitely won the power battle, with his first serves frequently topping 120 mph, but in the end, it was Tomic's court sense and touch that proved too much for the 6-foot-7 Floridian.

At 3-3 in the second set, Tomic fought off two break points, and although he showed little emotion, it seemed to ignite his game. With Domijan serving at 5-6, Tomic began to lure Domijan into the net, using drop shots, slices and disguise. Domijan saved one set point with a 123 mph ace, but on the next set point, he didn't get his first serve in. Tomic brought Domijan into the net and passed him, and in the final set, Domijan was at the mercy of the 16-year-old Australian, falling behind 5-0 before he won a game.

Tomic said after the match that he is 6-foot-4 now, and is having trouble coping with the changes he's experiencing due to his growth spurt.

"I get into these matches now and I sort of push the ball," said Tomic. "I'm not one hundred percent. When I stop growing, I'll be really happy, but until then, I'm still young and I've two or three years of growing ahead of me. Sometimes in practice I play really well for a week, and the next week I'm all over the place, and I think that's due to my body growing."

The only U.S. boy winning on Wednesday was Kalamazoo champion Chase Buchanan, who reached the third round with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Hiroyasu Ehara of Japan. Evan King fell to Buchanan's Thursday opponent Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 6-2, 6-3. Buchanan joins Jack Sock, Denis Kudla and Raymond Sarmiento as Americans in the final 16.

The match of the day in doubles saw Jordan Cox and Tennys Sandgren save seven match points on their way to 5-7, 7-6(16), 10-4 victory over the Austrian team of Maximilian Neuchrist and Tristen-Samuel Weissborn. They are joined in the quarterfinals by Sock and Matt Kandath, who defeated Ahmed El Menshawy of Great Britain and Harry Fowler of the U.S. 6-4, 7-5.

There are also two girls doubles teams in the quarterfinals. Brooke Bolender and Lauren Herring defeated Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and Sai-Sai Zheng of China 2-6, 6-2, 10-5. Grace Min and Kristie Ahn also won the match tiebreaker to advance, beating Paula Kania and Magda Linette of Poland 3-6, 7-5, 10-7. Last year's finalists Stephens and Burdette will not be there this year. The No. 4 seeds lost to Miyabi Inoue and Risa Ozaki of Japan 7-5, 6-4.

For complete draws, see usopen.org.

Rain is still in the forecast for Thursday, but as of 11 p.m. Wednesday, none has fallen in the vicinity of the USTABJKNTC.

Tags: junior tennis, US Open Junior Championships, Lauren Davis, Sloane Stephens, Bernard Tomic, Colette Lewis

Two Wins for King Make it Worth the Wait; Robson Tops Embree

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Flushing Meadows, NY--

Evan King finally took the court on Tuesday, having spent the past two days watching his friends play while his opponent, Argentina's Agustin Velotti, received the extra recovery time after reaching last Saturday's finals in the Canadian Open Grade 1.

It was worth the wait however, as the unseeded 17-year-old took out the No. 5 seed 7-6(4), 6-4, then less than two hours later teamed with Denis Kudla to upset the No. 1 seeded doubles team.

Against Velotti, King got off to a shaky start, losing his serve in the opening game, but he recovered quickly, got the break back and played an excellent tiebreaker. King gave credit to his serve for allowing him to frustrate Velotti to the point of a racquet abuse warning.

"I was serving extremely well today," said King, who also played his first round match on Tuesday in last year's Open, losing a heartbreaker when he couldn't convert match points. "I'm trying to focus on being more aggressive in general, because I think I play better when I'm forcing the action a little bit."

King used an effective slice approach shot and some precise volleys to keep Velotti from getting too much rhythm. At 4-4 in the second set, King got a break, but suddenly his first serve deserted him, and at 15-40, Velotti had two chances to pull even. But with a service winner and a devastating slice that produced an error, King brushed those break points aside, and after a backhand winner, he held a match point.

"He didn't want to give me the match in the 5-4 game, he kind of changed his strategy, making me hit a ton of balls, and not going for much," said King, who was due to start classes at the University of Michigan today. "I was pretty happy that I stepped up a little bit and ended the match with a forehand winner, so that was pretty cool."

King said the experience he gained playing in both the French and Wimbledon Junior Championships this summer helped put last year's disappointing loss out of his mind. He didn't have much time to dwell on his singles upset, however, as he was back on court for his first round doubles match, teaming with Kudla against top seeds Yuki Bhambri of India and Liang-Chi Huang of Chinese Taipei. King and Kudla took a 3-0 lead, lost seven straight games, but ended up winning the second set 6-2 and the match tiebreaker 10-6, after losing the first set 6-3.

"Yuki was beating us, so we tried to change our strategy and hit to the other guy," King said. "We loosened up a little bit and played a really good tiebreaker. It was pretty cool, it was pretty full out there with the crowd, and we were having fun."

Kudla, the No. 16 seed in singles, won his second round match against qualifier Mikhail Biryukov of Russia 7-5, 6-3, finishing with a flourish by hitting three aces in succession to close it out. He couldn't recall ever doing that before, although he does remember once hitting six aces to start a match.

Kudla is joined in the third round by wild card Jack Sock, who defeated Stanislav Poplavskyy of the Ukraine 6-1, 6-4, and Raymond Sarmiento, a 7-6(2), 6-1 winner over Filip Horansky of Slovakia. Sarmiento was down a set point serving at 5-6 in the first set, but something clicked and he played inspired tennis from that stage on. His point construction and execution was flawless, and he made a very good player look overmatched with his variety.

Tennys Sandgren and Matt Kandath were unable to follow their upsets in the first round with wins in the second. Sandgren lost to unseeded Sebastian Lavie of New Zealand 7-6(4), 7-6(5) and Kandath fell to unseeded Arthur De Greef of Belgium 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Wild card Dennis Novikov lost his first round match to Tiago Fernandes of Brazil 6-2, 6-1.

After a very good day on Monday, the U.S. girls had an equally bad day Tuesday, losing five of six matches, not including an all-American contest between wild cards Asia Muhammad and Gail Brodsky, won by Muhammad 6-3, 6-4.

No. 7 seed Lauren Embree was up 4-1 in the final set against Laura Robson of Great Britain, but she lost the last five games, allowing the 2008 Wimbledon champion to advance to the third round with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory. Robson's forehand began to warm up in the sixth game--she said she "got more rhythm on it,"--and she broke Embree at love to get back on serve at 3-4. A forehand winner serving at 40-30 in the next game gave Robson all the momentum she needed and Embree didn't win another point in the final two games.

"I was thinking how did I win that second set so easy," Robson said, when asked what her thoughts were down 1-4 in the third. "And then I tried to bring that into the next few games."


On the court adjacent to Robson and Embree, No. 16 seed Beatrice Capra and Anna Orlik of Belarus battled for nearly three hours before Capra emerged with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 win. Capra was down a break 2-1 in the third set, but took the next four games before Orlik could hold, and only then after saving three match points. Capra closed it out however, and after a double fault to open the final game, she served well and stayed in the points until Orlik overhit her forehand.

Three other U.S. girls fell to seeded players. Tenth seed Richel Hogenkamp of the Netherlands defeated wild card Grace Min 6-1, 6-4; Mallory Burdette lost to No. 9 seed Daria Gavrilova of Russia 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 and No. 15 seed Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway downed Nicole Gibbs 6-3, 7-6(3). Wild card Ester Goldfeld was beaten by qualifier Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand 4-6, 6-0, 7-5.

With the first round of doubles complete, there are five girls teams from the U.S. remaining and four boys teams, not including Harry Fowler, who is playing with Ahmed El Menshawy of Great Britain.

For complete draws and results, see usopen.org, where you can also find Josh Rey's report on the junior action today.

Tags: junior tennis, US Open Junior Championships, Beatrice Capra, Evan King, Colette Lewis

Kandath Takes Out No. 4 Seed Huang in First Round Action; U.S. Girls Have Banner Labor Day

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Flushing Meadows, NY--

It's a rare junior match that features no service breaks and winner after winner, but in today's first round contest between No. 4 seed Liang-Chi Huang of Chinese Taipei and Matt Kandath of the U.S., that's what the crowd gathered around court 10 witnessed. Kandath, who avoided qualifying by reaching the doubles final of the ITF Grade 1 in Canada last week, took a 7-6(4), 7-6(4) decision over the world's fourth ranked junior.

Neither player seemed to suffer any nerves even the tense moments, or if they did, they expressed it by hitting harder and closer to the lines. There were forced errors, but very few of the unforced variety and even more winners, at least in the half dozen games that I saw.

"I knew I was serving great, and that really helped my confidence," said Kandath, who had nine aces in the match to Huang's two. "It was a little frustrating not to be able to break him at all. I think we each had a few break points, but not too many, so I had to grind out all the way to the tiebreak."

Kandath admitted that he had probably never played better, and to do so against a top player in front of several hundred fans, most of them cheering for him, was especially gratifying.

"Usually I get a decent size crowd, just because I'm from New York and I know a lot of the Eastern section kids," said the 17-year-old from Albany. "But as the match went on, people started seeing it was really close, and it did help to have that big of a crowd supporting you and cheering you on, getting you through the tough points."

Huang was serving from behind throughout the second set, and at 4-5 30-40, Kandath earned his first match point. Huang saved it, painting the sideline with his forehand, and played aggressively in the next two points to even the match at 5-5. With both players blasting groundstrokes--Kandath with both hands on forehand and backhand--that landed within inches of the baseline or sideline, errors seemed inevitable, but they rarely came. After both held serve, the tiebreaker began with Kandath taking a 4-1 lead, and his returns, which landed within inches of the baseline that Huang hugged, helped Kandath take a 6-2 lead. Four match points are a great luxury, but a net cord that dropped wide and another near miss brought it to 6-4 brought some tension. It didn't last long however, as in a final scintillating rally typifying the match, Kandath forced a forehand error to secure the win.

Earlier in the day, which was again pleasantly cool and slightly overcast, Alex Domijan squeezed past Indian qualifier Sudanwa Sitaram 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. Domijan was down 3-1 in the final set, but got the break back when Sitaram missed a volley serving at 4-3, 30-40. Domijan wasn't serving well and Sitaram kept up with him on the ground, until the last game. Sitaram was serving to get into a tiebreaker and with that pressure the errors began to mount. At 15-40, he saved one match point, but Domijan pounded a forehand that Sitaram couldn't handle, and the 6-foot-7 Floridian had set up a much-anticipated meeting with No. 3 seed Bernard Tomic of Australia.

"I didn't serve well from halfway through the second set to the end," Domijan said. "He was chipping a lot of my returns and I wasn't really making him pay for that enough, so I got broken a lot."

Kandath and Domijan were joined in the second round by wild card Raymond Sarmiento, who defeated Cheng Peng Hsieh of Chinese Taipei 7-5, 6-3, giving the U.S. seven first round boys winners with two others, Evan King and Dennis Novikov, playing first round matches on Tuesday.

If there's a competition between the U.S. boys and U.S. girls however, it's no contest, as the girls won six of seven matches on Monday, after winning four of seven on Sunday. Ester Goldfeld and Mallory Burdette will play their first round matches on Tuesday. Christina McHale, the No. 8 seed, withdrew with a thigh injury, and her place was taken in the draw by lucky loser Annika Beck of Germany, whose match was postponed until Tuesday.

Wild card Gail Brodsky got off to a slow start, trailing 5-2 in the opening set before winning six games in a row against Paraguay's Veronica Cepede Royg, and the 2008 girls 18s champion came through with a 7-5, 7-5 win. No. 16 Beatrice Capra defeated qualifier Anna Marenko of Russia 6-3, 6-2, and wild card Grace Min beat qualifier Ting-Fei Juan of Chinese Taipei 6-4, 6-2. Qualifer Courtney Dolehide won her first junior Grand Slam match, taking out Cristina Dinu of Romania 6-0, 4-6, 6-4, and No. 7 seed Lauren Embree eliminated qualifier Paula Kania of Poland 7-5, 6-2. The final singles match of the day saw Nicole Gibbs defeat Magda Linette of Poland 6-4, 6-1.



"I came out and got up 3-1, 40-15 and then had a rough patch through there," said Gibbs who found herself at 4-4 in the opening set. "She changed up her game and I was trying to hit the ball out of my strike zone. I was trying to take the ball early but it just took me a little time to get my timing, and I played really well after that."

After yet another ferocious comeback from Melanie Oudin earlier in the day, I asked Gibbs, who is a year and half younger than Oudin, how her achievement was seen by other U.S. junior girls.

"It's inspirational, watching her win today, watching the kind of emotion her family was showing after the match," Gibbs said. "It's hard not to feel really proud of your country and of Melanie. She's doing amazingly, and I think that means really good things for me as a 5-foot 5-inch tennis player," Gibbs said with a laugh. "You know there are still people who are doing some damage in the main draw at my height, so that's good to see."

Junior doubles action also began on Monday, and the top seeded girls doubles team of Kristina Mladenovic and Silvia Njiric of Croatia were defeated 5-7, 6-2, 10-5 by Jana Cepelova and Chantal Skamlova of Slovakia. For complete draws and results, as well as the order of play, see usopen.org.

Tags: junior tennis, Matt Kandath, Alex Domijan, Nicole Gibbs, US Open Junior Championships, Colette Lewis

Unseeded Americans Oust French Junior Champions in Opening Round

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Flushing Meadows, NY--

Tennys Sandgren opened the first day of the US Open Junior Championships with an upset of No. 2 seed and 2009 French Open boys champion No. 2 Daniel Berta of Sweden. Asia Muhammad closed it by stunning top seed Kristina Mladenovic of France, who had won the French girls title and reached the final at Wimbledon this summer.

Picking out a match to watch to its conclusion on the first day of a tournament, especially with 16 American players on the courts, is never easy, but I guessed right Sunday, arriving at the Sandgren - Berta match at 2-2 in the third set. Berta had won the first set 6-4, Sandgren took the second 6-3, and if those two sets were close to the quality of the last nine games, I'm sorry I missed them.

There were no breaks of serve until 5-5, when Sandgren, attacking the 16-year-old Swede's second serve, converted on his second break point. Sandgren, 18, couldn't finish it there, however, hitting a forehand way long at 30-40, but he wasn't too upset about letting that chance slip away.

"I was on the sunny side, and I couldn't really serve the way I wanted to," Sandgren said. "I had to move my toss around a little bit and the last shot I hit, I was blinded. I just said oh, well, in the tiebreak I'll have to toss away from the sun."

Sandgren took a quick 4-0 lead, as he continued to use his slice effectively and Berta continued to find the tape with his forehand. Berta won five of the next six points however, and when he cracked a backhand winner down the line to make it 5-5, Sandgren no longer had the match on his racquet. A long point ended in Sandgren's favor when Berta's forehand went long, and Sandgren had his match point, with Berta serving. This time it was Sandgren who pulled the trigger on a backhand down the line, and his winner ended the match.

"I played two really good points at 5-all," Sandgren said. "At 6-5, I hit two cross court and I said he's probably going to burn me down the line again if I don't go, so I decided to go first and I just swung, and hoped it went in the court."

The pivotal game in Muhammad's 6-1, 6-4 victory over Mladenovic may have been the first one. The 18-year-old from Nevada needed nearly ten minutes to hold her serve in the late afternoon match, which started under overcast skies and temperatures suggesting the approach of autumn.

"It was deuce, ad, deuce ad," said Muhammad, who could have repeated that several more times for accuracy. "But I think that first game really helped. I was pretty nervous, and I think winning that first game helped release some of my tension. It was on my serve, and I knew going in she had a big serve, so I really needed to win my service games."

It wasn't all smooth sailing for Muhammad after that, however. Up two breaks at 4-1 in the second set, she lost three straight games.

"I got a little tentative and she got more aggressive," Muhammad said. "I just had to calm down and go back to being more aggressive. I was making too many errors because I was so tense, so I made the correction. After you get tense so many times, you're either going to go the wrong way or the right way and I think I decided to go the right way today."

Muhammad, who is much more comfortable moving forward and finishing a point with volleys than the average junior girl, broke Mladenovic at 4-4, but had to save two break points in the next game before she secured the win.

"I was actually feeling pretty confident. I was playing so much better, and I knew it would be a close match. I got a little tight, but overall, I'm happy with how I played."

In addition to Sandgren and Muhammad, six other Americans advanced to the second round, while eight others lost their opening round.

Wild card Julie Boserup, back from a serious bout of mono, defeated Sai-Sai Zheng of China 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1. No. 4 seed Sloane Stephens, who is planning on attending her father's funeral on Tuesday, moved past Polina Leykina of Russia 6-4, 6-2. Girls 16s champion Lauren Davis won the final four games of the second set to take a 6-4, 6-4 win over Irina Khromacheva of Russia. Wild cards Chase Buchanan and Jack Sock both knocked out seeds, with Buchanan coming from a break down in the third set for a 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 win over No. 11 seed Kevin Krawietz of Germany, while Sock also overcame the loss of the first set, defeating No. 14 seed David Souto of Venezuela 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. No. 16 seed Denis Kudla also advanced to the second round with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Radim Urbanek of the Czech Republic.

For complete results, see usopen.org.

Tags: junior tennis, US Open Junior Championships, Tennys Sandgren, Asia Muhammad, Colette Lewis

It's All About Oudin; Juniors Start Play Sunday; Top Seeds Get Dangerous Opponents

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Flushing Meadows, NY--

A year ago, Melanie Oudin lost in the first round of the U.S. Open main draw as a wild card, and playing the junior tournament, lost in the semifinals to Gabriela Paz. A year later, she's beaten Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova back-to-back, coming from a set down on the biggest stage in professional tennis to reach the fourth round of the U.S. Open, matching her performance at Wimbledon this year.

At the press conference after her win, the weapon question (framed as a reference to Jelena Jankovic's comments after losing to her at Wimbledon) was again voiced, and here was Oudin's response:

I think the biggest weapon can be mental toughness. It doesn't have to be a stroke or a shot or anything like that. If you're mentally tough out there, you can beat anyone. I think that's what I really did well today and I've done in my past matches. I'm so focused and I fight super hard. So it's not going to be easy to beat me or I'm not going to back down at all.

That attitude is, as you can imagine, attractive to New Yorkers, and there weren't a dozen people watching the Jumbotron outside Ashe today who were actively supporting the 2006 champion, and probably not many more inside Ashe. With each error or winner, the crowd outside groaned or cheered, erupting on match point, then quieting down immediately so they could hear the post match interview with Mary Joe Fernandez. There were tears of joy, and not just from Oudin. It was a tennis community taking a new star under its wing.

The junior draws have been released and it did no favors for the top seeds. Boys No. 1 Yuki Bhambri of India will take on fellow Bollettieri student and Wimbledon finalist Jordan Cox of the U.S. on Sunday, it what is certainly the marquee match on the boys side. Girls top seed Kristina Mladenovic of France will face wild card Asia Muhammad of the U.S. in the other must-see Sunday match.

Unseeded Laura Robson did not land in an awkward place; she plays unseeded Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, also on Sunday. In addition to Muhammad, other U.S. girls playing Sunday are wild cards Alexandra Cercone, Jacqueline Cako, Julia Boserup and Lauren Davis, as well as No. 4 seed Sloane Stephens. U.S. boys playing their first round matches are Tennys Sandgren who goes against No. 2 seed Daniel Berta, Mitchell Frank, Junior Ore, No. 16 seed Denis Kudla, and wild cards Chase Buchanan, Jack Sock, Bob van Overbeek, and Gonzales Austin.

The U.S. qualifiers today--Sekou Bangoura Jr., Courtney Dolehide and Noel Scott--are likely to play Monday, or even Tuesday, due to players still competing in the Repentigny, Canada Grade 1. Nicole Gibbs again finished runnerup, losing 7-6(1), 6-2 to Miyabi Inoue of Japan. Julien Obry of France won the boys title, over Agustin Velotti of Argentina. For complete results, see the ITF junior site.

For complete draws and order of play for Sunday, see usopen.org.

Tags: junior tennis, US Open Championships, US Open Junior Championships, Melanie Oudin, Colette Lewis

US Open Junior Preview; Five U.S. Players Reach Final Round of Qualifying; USTA Announces Boca Residents; Ammunition For Weapons Talk

We're leaving very early Saturday for New York, so just a quick post to direct you to my US Open Junior preview at the Tennis Recruiting Network. I was surprised when I looked back through this decade's results how few top seeds had won, especially on the boys side. It was rare for the boys No. 1 seed to even reach the final in the past nine years, although there may not be any conclusion to draw from that limited sampling.

The Americans who are still in the running for a main draw spot in the juniors are Sekou Bangoura, Alexios Halebian and Nathan Pasha on the boys side; Courtney Dolehide and Noel Scott will reach the main draw with wins on Saturday. The draws and order of play can be found here.

The USTA has announced the names of the 13 boys and six girls who are training at the Boca Raton Center this school year in this release.

Diane, whose blog Women Who Serve is daily reading for me, posted a thoughtful and convincing post entitled "Melanie Oudin, another unarmed winner". As the title suggests, this goes straight to the "weapons" question that has been such a hot topic on this site in the past several weeks. I am tempted to keep this link handy for a response to that charge, which so frequently crops up here.

And speaking of comments, please remember that no anonymous comments will be published. Select a name (url not necessary) so that conversational responses can be followed. Also, please understand that next week is extremely busy for me, and I am not always able to review comments right away. If you are in New York, please introduce yourself--I always wear a straw hat with a leopard print hatband.

Also, it's my first US Open on Twitter, which I hope to use regularly, but I have been hearing that the A T & T coverage is iffy at the USTABJKNTC, and may be more so during the holiday weekend, which is entirely sold out.

Tags: junior tennis, US Open Junior Championships, Tennis Recruiting Network, USTA Player Development, Melanie Oudin, Colette Lewis