2011 Talbert Sportsmanship Award Winners; Farah Wins First ATP Match; Bricker on Brian Baker and Michael Yani

At this year's International Tennis Hall of Fame induction, which includes the enshrinement of Jennifer Capriati, Gustavo Kuerten, Manuel Orantes, Mike Davies and Randy Snow, four junior players will be honored with the 2011 Bill Talbert Sportsmanship Awards. Not only do these four players get to rub elbows and share the stage with tennis legends, but they also are able to watch current men's stars at the ATP Campbell's Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport, RI that week in July. 

The USTA announced the recipients: Whitney Kay, Josh Hagar, Andrew Ball and Sierra Halverson, at last month's annual meeting in California, and prepared videos about each one of them.  If you click on a player's name above, you will be taken to the video created about him or her. They are brief, but you will learn more about these four players than just their comportment on the tennis court.

Austin Tennis Academy has more on Josh Hagar's award here. Halverson has committed to play for Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, and their article about her award is here. Andrew Ball's school acknowledged his award in this article.  Congratulations to these four and to all other juniors nominated by their sections for this award.

The 2010 ITA Men's Player of the Year, Robert Farah of USC, won his first two matches on the ATP tour this week, after qualifying for the Barcelona Open, a 500 event. He beat former Tulsa All-American Arnau Brugues in yesterday's first round and today took out No. 16 seed Pablo Andujar of Spain 7-6(8), 4-6, 7-5. Andujar is No. 38 in the ATP rankings this week. Next up for the 25-year-old Colombian is Rafael Nadal.

Charlie Bricker hasn't been writing regularly for any print publication since leaving the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, but he writes regularly for World Tennis online, and his visit to the Sarasota Challenger last week produced two interesting stories.  The first is about Brian Baker, who is finally beginning to get some attention beyond this site for his comeback, with Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim urging via twitter yesterday that the Tennis Channel to get to Nashville with a camera crew pronto, after Baker beat Mike Russell in the opening round of the Savannah Challenger.

Bricker's most recent article is a look at former Duke Blue Devil Michael Yani, who shares with Bricker his goal to win a singles match in a slam, or at least play one of the Big Four at night in Arthur Ashe stadium. Bricker does the math, and the journeyman position that Yani occupies doesn't make for a fat bank account, but it certainly has its rewards.  When he finally decides to leave the tour, he'll not only have his Duke degree to help with the transition, but a whole lot of other life experiences to draw on, and few regrets. I hope he gets that win, or that opportunity.  Yani lost in the second round of the Savannah Challenger to qualifier Rhyne Williams, now in his first full year on the tour.

The Charlottesville women's $50,000 tournament has completed its first round, with all several notable results.  Julia Cohen beat top seed Stephanie Dubois of Canada and will now play Lauren Davis, in what could be an important match in the race for the French Open wild card.  Allie Kiick beat No. 5 seed and WTA No. 123 Olivia Rogowska of Australia, and University of Virginia wild card Lindsey Hardenbergh beat lucky loser and WTA No. 211 Johanna Konta to advance to a meeting with No. 8 seed and 2011 Charlottesville finalist Michelle Larcher de Brito.

See the usta.com Pro Circuit results page for draws.

Townsend Reaches No. 1 in World Junior Rankings; Losses Don't Cost USC and UCLA Top Spots; 112th Ojai Begins

Taylor Townsend had a stated goal of reaching No. 1 in the world after she won the Australian Open girls singles and doubles titles, and she achieved it yesterday, when she took over the top spot from Irina Khromacheva of Russia.  Khromacheva, who will be 17 next month, finished 2011 as the top-ranked junior girl, so although she played the Australian junior championships, her focus this year has been on her WTA ranking. She hasn't had outstanding results in the ITF Women's Circuit events this year, at least not since she reached a $25K final in Australia, but she is at 253 in the WTA rankings, a career high. Khromacheva has entered the French junior championships, perhaps with an eye to recovering her place at No. 1.

Congratulations to Chalena Scholl, who rose to No. 10 this week in the ITF junior rankings. Scholl, along with Allie Kiick, qualified today at the $50,000 Pro Circuit event in Charlottesville. See the Pro Circuit page at usta.com for draws and schedules.

For the junior rankings, which are now easily sortable by country and age, see the ITF website.

The new ITA rankings were released today, for both teams and individuals, with the UCLA women and USC men remaining on top despite losses to their LA counterparts last Friday. In the men's rankings, Georgia has moved to the No. 2 spot, the highest they've been this year, with Virginia falling to No. 4. Ohio State remains at 3.  Despite their win over USC, UCLA stayed at No. 5.

In the women's rankings, UCLA's closest rival is now Florida, which moved up to No. 2, followed by Duke, USC (who also gained nothing for their win over No. 1 UCLA) and Stanford.

Virginia's Mitchell Frank and Florida's Allie Will remain No. 1 in the country in the singles rankings, although neither is playing in the No. 1 spot on their teams.

The complete rankings can be found at the ITA website. Next Monday will see the publication of the last set of rankings before the NCAA team selection, which is next Tuesday, May 1. According to this schedule, the women's selections will be announced at 5 p.m., followed by the men's selections at 5:30 p.m.

For an interesting alternative set of rankings, see the Texas College Tennis blog, which has Florida in the No. 1 spot on the women's side, and Virginia at No. 2 (behind USC) on the men's side.

Oh, and for those of you following USC's protest of the UCLA lineup on Friday, I understand the protest was disallowed for Friday, but was upheld for this week's Ojai Pac-12 men's team championship.

Steve Pratt, who I worked with at Carson and the Easter Bowl, is helping promote and market the Ojai tournament this year, and he wrote this piece about last Friday's 4-3 UCLA win with the rematch between USC and UCLA in next Saturday's final in mind (both teams have byes into the semifinals, which will be played Friday.)  For more information on all the other divisions and events at the legendary tournament, check out the tournament website, which will provide links to all the draws.

Easter Bowl 14s and 16s Recap, Videos

My recap of the 14s and 16s Easter Bowl USTA Spring National Championships can be found today at the Tennis Recruiting Network. Last week I posted the slideshow for all age divisions, and for my recap of the 18s ITF tournament, see this Tennis Recruiting Network article. Champions Brooke Broda, Joe DiGiulio, William Blumberg and Emma Higuchi are featured in the videos below, with videos of the finalists available on the tenniskalamazoo YouTube channel by clicking on their names:

Catherine Bellis
Kyle Seelig
Meredith Xepoleas
Aron Hiltzik

Sandgren Sweeps Titles in Little Rock $15K; Georgia and Virginia Men, Forida and Duke Women Take Conference Tournament Titles

With all the junior tennis I've been covering this month, I haven't been able to keep tabs on the Pro Circuit as much as I'd like. This week, I've been able to follow more closely, and took particular interest in the $15,000 men's Futures in Little Rock, Ark., where all four semifinalists were recent college players.

No. 5 seed Tennys Sandgren, who left Tennessee after his sophomore year last May, won both the singles and doubles titles today. On Saturday he beat JP Smith of Australia, who played in front of Sandgren in the two years they were both in Knoxville, 6-4, 7-5, and today he took out former Middle Tennessee State and Baylor player John Peers of Australia, the No. 8 seed, 6-1, 7-6(6) in the final. Peers had beaten unseeded Dennis Lajola, who recently completed his eligibility at Hawaii, in the semifinals.

Also notable was qualifier Christian Harrison's run. The 17-year-old brother of Ryan Harrison hadn't played the first three months of the year, but he beat top seed Stefan Seifert of Germany, ranked 232 by the ATP, 7-5, 6-1 in the opening round and won another match before losing to Sandgren in the quarterfinals.

In the doubles, Sandgren and former Florida Gator Greg Ouellette, who won the Futures singles title in Oklahoma City a week ago, beat former Texas Longhorn Ed Corrie of Great Britain and Marvin Barker of New Zealand in today's final. Sandgren and Ouellette, seeded fourth, beat third-seeded Barker and Corrie 4-6, 7-6(2), 10-8.

The women have been in Alabama the past two weeks, with Canada's Heidi El Tabakh taking the title at the $25,000 Pelham tournament, and unseeded Italian Camila Giorgi winning today at the $50,000 event in Dothan. Giorgi beat Lauren Davis 7-5, 7-5 in the semifinals, which were held over to today after rain disrupted play Saturday. Giorgi beat No. 2 seed Edina Gallovits-Hall of Romania 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in the the final, after Gallovits-Hall had defeated Julia Cohen in the semifinals. The Dothan tournament is the first of three events that will decide the USTA's wild card into the French Open. The American with the most WTA points earned in two of the three events (the upcoming Charlottesville and Indian Harbour Beach tournaments are the others) will be given the wild card. See the Pro Circuit page at usta.com for full draws. The qualifying draw in Charlottesville this week features juniors Grace Min, Liz Jeukeng, Krista Hardebeck, Chalena Scholl, Allie Kiick and Samantha Crawford.

There are only two men's events to decide the French Open wild card, in Sarasota and Savannah. This week's $100,000 tournament in Sarasota was won by Sam Querrey, who is already in the main draw at Roland Garros, but Wayne Odesnik and Michael Russell both need a wild card, and they made the semifinals. The Savannah challenger this week is a $50,000 tournament, so fewer points are available, but both Odesnik and Russell are in the main draw. Dan Kosakowski and Bjorn Fratangelo received wild cards into the main draw.

Complete results and next week's draws are available at the Pro Circuit
page.

In the major college tournament finals today, the Virginia men won their sixth straight ACC conference tournament title, beating Duke 4-1. The Georgia men avenged their regular season loss to Kentucky, winning the SEC conference tournament title with a 4-1 victory.

The Duke women took the ACC conference title with a tight 4-2 win over North Carolina, and the Florida women took the SEC conference tournament title with a 4-1 win over Georgia.

The Louisville men and Notre Dame women took the Big East conference tournament titles today.

Another notable result was posted by Oklahoma State's women, who defeated No. 6 Texas 4-3. Oklahoma State, currently ranked 51, should see a boost in their ranking come Tuesday, and will head into next weekend's Big 12 tournament with added confidence, where they'll probably meet Texas again.

Wimbledon Bound; Both No. 1s Lose in LA Friday; ACC, SEC Conference Finals Set

It's official. I will be covering the Junior Championships at Wimbledon this year at zootennis.com. I had received an email a couple of weeks back informing me that I was approved, and today I received the official accreditation in the mail. It speaks to the Wimbledon way of doing things that they actually use the post; the other two slams I've covered--Australia in 2006 and the US Open since 2004--simply send emails.

This will be my second trip to Wimbledon. I went in 2007, the year Donald Young won the boys title, and it rained for the first three days and often the next two, resulting in match tiebreakers to decide third sets once play resumed, and leaving many second round matches unfinished as late as Thursday. Madison Brengle made the final, losing to Urszula Radwanska, so despite the miserable weather, which improved dramatically for the last three days, it was great to be there.

I had received my credential back then through Tennis magazine, because until this year, all journalists had to be accredited through a print publication. Internet-only journalists were not accepted. This year that policy was changed and in late January I sent an email requesting a credential. An immediate response assured me I would be considered "at a later stage", but since I had filled out no formal request, I was shocked when I was received an email two months later saying I had been approved.

With the excitement also came the anxiety. The expense is one of the reasons I didn't try to get a magazine or newspaper to sponsor me the past four years, but I was able to find a reasonably priced flight this year, and hope to find convenient accommodations, although I haven't yet. Wimbledon is now very strict about photographs, and as a member of the media, I am not allowed to take photos myself without special permission (on the outer courts only), which I am to request when I arrive. Without my usual accredited photographer, I will be working out an arrangement with someone accredited and onsite at least for the final few days if I can. I hope what I can add by being there will make up for the lack of visual evidence that I am.

The junior fact sheet is out, but it will be some time before the acceptances are released, with the closing date for entries May 22. Last year the boys ranking cutoff for the main draw at Wimbledon was 53 and the girls ranking cutoff was a puzzling 314. (In 2010 the numbers were 70 and 275, and in 2009, a more balanced 58 and 64). I hope that doesn't discourage any US boys from applying and I hope it encourages girls who are considering a possible trip over there.

To return to the upcoming focus of zootennis, the climax of the college tennis season, there's been some spice added to the soup with both No. 1s losing at home yesterday in Los Angeles. The fourth-ranked USC women zipped past top-ranked UCLA, winning the doubles point and getting three straight-set wins from Sabrina Santamaria, Kaitlyn Christian and Valeria Pulido at 3, 4 and 6 to clinch the match. The final score was 6-1, with Chanelle Van Nguyen collecting UCLA's lone point at 5. This gave USC at least a share of the Pac-12 title. Stanford, who beat Cal 4-3 today, will join USC as conference champs if they beat Washington State next week in a make-up match at Ojai. Both have one conference loss, with USC losing to Stanford and Stanford losing to UCLA. None of this clears up anything regarding favored status at the NCAAs next month in Athens, which just means more excitement and anticipation.

The USC men fell 4-3 to No. 5 UCLA yesterday, suffering their first loss of the year and ending their winning streak at 45. The Trojans won the doubles point and four first sets in singles, but both Bruin freshmen Marcos Giron at 4 and Dennis Mkrtchian at 6 rebounded from first set losses to post their points. Unlike the women, the men are playing a conference team event for the first time next week in Ojai, so their rubber match (USC won their first meeting in February) could be as soon as Sunday.

The SEC conference tournament finals are Sunday, with the Georgia men facing Kentucky and the Georgia women meeting defending NCAA champion Florida in Starkville. Both Georgia teams lost 4-3 in Athens to their opponents earlier in the year.

In the ACC conference tournament finals in Cary, NC, also Sunday, the Virginia men face Duke for the title. It's Virginia's ninth straight appearance in the ACC tournament final, while Duke is in its third. The women's ACC conference title will be decided between Duke and North Carolina. Ten days ago, Duke and North Carolina met in a conference dual match, with the Blue Devils posting a 4-0 win.

In the Big East tournament, host University of South Florida has both men's and women's teams in the finals Sunday. The women will play Notre Dame and the men, who upset Notre Dame today, will play Louisville.

Easter Bowl ITF Recap and Videos plus Slideshow

My Easter Bowl recap for the Tennis Recruiting Network comes in two parts, with the 18s ITF available now, and the 14s and 16s review posting on Monday. The slideshow for all divisions is below, as are the videos of the ITF champions, with the ITF finalist videos available via these links:

Brooke Austin
Alexios Halebian

The 14s and 16s champions and finalists videos will be posted on Monday, so check back then.