Notes From All Over

Time for a grab bag of items that have shown up in my inbox or twitterfeed in the past couple of weeks.

Tuesday's match between 18-year-olds Alexander Zverev of Germany and Borna Coric of Croatia was even better than anticipated with Coric taking 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(5) victory. Steve Tignor, writing for tennis.com, took note in his account of the match.  Having watched both boys since they were 11 years old, I have a different perspective from someone who is just now taking notice.  I don't disagree with any of Tignor's observations, but do feel compelled to note that Coric's mental stability was not as exemplary in those early years. The moral? Some players never change, and some do.

Chris Oddo also watched the match closely, and wrote this piece for TennisNow.

Also at TennisNow, this interview with Frances Tiafoe, in which he says he is not the "leader" of the current crop of rising American boys. Although confident, he reiterated that point several times in interviews at Kalamazoo.

The USTA released its annual "What's New at the US Open" announcement, and the item that was most interesting to me involved the second Thursday, September 10. The two women's semifinals are on Ashe in the evening, so the day session will be free of charge, with no grounds pass required for entry.  Men's, women's and mixed doubles will be scheduled for the day, and if singles is your thing, the juniors round of 16 and the opening round of the American Collegiate Invitational are also on tap.  Just two years ago, fans could have seen Zverev, Coric,  Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia, Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and Ana Konjuh of Croatia in junior competition that day. It's a great opportunity to see the best college players as well, with both NCAA champions, Jamie Loeb and Ryan Shane, scheduled to play the American Collegiate Invitational. (The list of ACI participants is in this post, with Jared Hiltzik of Illinois and Julia Jones of Ole Miss receiving the two wild cards.)

Denis Kudla and his coach, former Illinois player Billy Heiser, are the subject of this article by Josh Meiseles on the ATP website.

Allie Kiick revealed the distressing news that she has a rare form of melanoma via twitter yesterday. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Stephanie Myles has an update on 15-year-old Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, who did not receive a wild card, even into qualifying, at the recent Rogers Cup in Montreal.  Instead, he's sticking to juniors for the foreseeable future.  As the top seed in the Canadian National 18s championships, he lost to No. 2 seed Denis Shapovalov 6-1, 6-2 in today's final. Bianca Andreescu, the top seed in the girls draw, beat No. 2 seed Vanessa Wong 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 in the final.

The NCAA Team Championships' Most Outstanding Player Astra Sharma of Vanderbilt is the subject of this feature by Stefano Berlincioni at Last Word on Sports.

A new website focusing on professional tennis stars off the court, outsidetheball.com, has produced its second webshow, and is currently featuring an interview with Great Britain's Heather Watson.

Own The Zone, a longtime sponsor of Zootennis.com, has announced a partnership with Mats Wilander and his company WOW for the EcoGrip. Wilander's endorsement of the biodegradable grip can be found in this release, and orders can be placed here.

US Open Men's and Women's Wild Cards Emphasize Youth; US Open National Playoff Singles Draws Posted

The USTA announced the wild cards for the US Open, which begins on Monday, August 31st.  Several of these were known in advance, with the Wild Card Challenge winners and National Junior champions guaranteed a place in the main draw.  Below are the recipients, with ages, and their reason for receiving the wild card noted, if applicable. For those receiving discretionary wild cards their pro ranking is included.

Women's Main Draw:
Sonya Kenin, 16, Girls 18s national champion
Samantha Crawford, 20, USO Wild Card Challenge winner
Jamie Loeb, 20, NCAA singles champion
Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 30, 99
Nicole Gibbs, 22, 117
Louisa Chirico, 19, 119
Sachia Vickery, 20, 137
Oceane Dodin, French reciprocal

Notes on women's main draw wild cards:
Australia returned its women's main draw reciprocal wild card, giving the USTA one more than they usually have.

Last year's girls 18s champion CiCi Bellis applied for a main draw wild card, but did not receive one, so she will need to go through qualifying to get into the main draw this year.  Vicky Duval, returning to competition this month after a year battling Hodgkin's lymphoma, also applied for a main draw wild card and was turned down, receiving a qualifying wild card instead.

Women's Qualifying Draw:
Robin Anderson, 22, 538
Usue Arconada, 16, 477
Tornado Alicia Black, 17, Girls 18s national finalist
Vicky Duval, 19
Raveena Kingsley, 17
Claire Liu, 15, 820
Jessica Pegula, 21, 258
Bernarda Pera, 20, 246

Notes on the women's qualifying wild cards:
Robin Anderson, the ITA Player of the Year, was rewarded for her excellent results this summer. Pegula, who returned this winter after a long injury layoff, and Pera received wild cards over more highly ranked players Lauren Embree and Julia Boserup, who will need more withdrawals to move into qualifying. Sanaz Marand, who has posted some strong results this summer, also did not receive one and is unlikely to get into qualifying, although a doubles wild card may still be forthcoming for her.

Last year's US Open girls champion and WTA 352 Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic was not extended a qualifying wild card, as is often customary at other slams.

There will be one more wild card awarded, to the winner of the US Open National Playoffs this weekend in Connecticut. The draw has been released, with two finalists added to fill out a 16-player draw.  Emma Davis, the New England winner, has apparently withdrawn, with runner-up Carol Finke taking her place.

On a personal note, the girls field at the ITF Grade 1 in College Park that I'm covering next week took a hit with Arconada and Kingsley playing in Flushing Meadows instead.

Men's Main Draw:
Frances Tiafoe, 17, Boys 18s national champion
Bjorn Fratangelo, 22, USO Wild Card Challenge winner
Ryan Shane, 21, NCAA singles champion
Austin Krajicek, 25, 113
Ryan Harrison, 23, 126
Jared Donaldson, 18, 153
Lleyton Hewitt, Australian reciprocal
Pierre-Hughes Herbert, French reciprocal

Notes on the men's main draw wild cards:
First, let me say that it's great that the NCAA American champions, who are not guaranteed wild cards, have been receiving them without a problem since 2009. (In 2008, Amanda McDowell was given only a qualifying wild card). Ryan Shane has been out most of the summer with an injury and hasn't had any impressive results since returning late last month, but, much like fellow Cavalier Danielle Collins in 2014, a wild card was extended. Collins drew Simona Halep, and took the No. 2 seed to three sets, so perhaps Shane can get a better draw and get a chance to show his powerful game too.

Ryan Harrison's wild card was bound to generate discussion, as it's the fourth he's received in the past five years. His ranking takes much of the controversy out of the selection, as it's higher than Donaldson's and no one else is Top 200, but the case for his earning his way into the tournament via qualifying is a compelling one. He did that once, in 2010 and went on to win a match in the main draw. The only other main draw win Harrison has in New York was in 2012, when he received direct entry via his ranking.

Donaldson also received a wild card last year; Krajicek will be making just his second appearance in a slam main draw, with his only previous one at the US Open via the wild card he got for winning Kalamazoo in 2008.

Men's Qualifying Draw:
Marcos Giron, 22, 2014 American Collegiate Invitational champion
Stefan Kozlov, 17, Boys 18s national finalist
Taylor Fritz, 17, 679

Mitchell Krueger, 21, 239

Michael Mmoh, 17, 490

Reilly Opelka, 17, 1112

Tommy Paul, 18, 434

Noah Rubin, 19, 631

Notes on the men's qualifying wild cards: 

As with the women, one more qualifying wild card is up for grabs, with 

the US Open National Playoff winner receiving it.  The draw for that tournament, with again, two finalists receiving entry as well as the 14 sectional winners, is also posted.  The doubles draws, men's, women's and mixed, are not up yet, because those competitions are next week. Those are for main draw wild cards, not qualifying wild cards.  The draws will be here when available.

None of the teenagers who received qualifying wild cards are in any way controversial. Kozlov, Fritz and Tiafoe received qualifying wild cards last year. Mmoh, Paul and Opelka played the Grade 1 in College Park that week. The credentials of this group don't need further mention from me.

Last year there were reciprocal qualifying wild cards for French players, but that did not happen this year.  

Twenty-four-year-old Connor Smith, at 211, is the highest ranked American player not in qualifying and not the recipient of a wild card.

US Open boys champion Omar Jasika of Australia was also not given a qualifying wild card. His current ATP ranking is 259.

My post on the women's US Open wild cards last year is here.

My post on the men's US Open wild cards last year is here.

American 12-and-Under Teams Win Coupe Le Blanc; Corley and Johns Claim ITF Titles in Mexico and St. Vincent; Austin, Lovett Take ITA Summer Championships

Owensby, Gauff, Mayo and Kittay
photo courtesy Gary Kittay

Coupe Le Blanc, a competition for 12-and-under players annually in Quebec, Canada is one of the biggest international tournaments of the year for that age group, but it often gets lost in the shuffle of the USTA National Championships and the ITF's World Junior Tennis 14U team competition in the Czech Republic, also held in August.

Unlike the 14U teams, only two players make up a country's team, and this year the USA was represented by girls Cori Gauff and Charlotte Owensby and boys Aidan Mayo and Benjamin Kittay.  As was the case in both 2013 and 2014, the US finished first in both competitions.

Gauff and Owensby defeated Canada 3-0 in Monday's final, while Kittay and Mayo took out Brazil 2-0, with the final match not played due to travel considerations.

The results from yesterday's finals are below:

Cori Gauff (USA) defeated  Daria Tomashevskaya(CAN)  6-2, 0-6, 6-1

Charlotte Owensby (USA) defeated Mélodie Collard(CAN) 6-4, 6-2

Gauff/Owensby (USA) defeated Collard/Tomashevskaya (CAN) 8-2

Aidan Mayo (USA) defeated Pedro Boscardin (BRA) walkover

Benjamin Kittay (USA) defeated João Victor Couto (BRA) 6-1, 6-4

Mayo/Kittay (USA) defeated Boscardin/Couto (BRA) 8-6

Richard Ashby of the USTA coached both teams.

For a complete list of all the countries and players who participated, see the tournament website. Under the history tab, you can see the players who have taken part in the competition, dating back to 2007.

In ITF Junior tournaments last week, four US players collected titles. At the Grade 5 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, 14-year-old Garrett Johns won his first ITF title, as a qualifier.  The only set Johns lost in his seven victories came in the final, where he defeated unseeded Andrew Rozanov of Great Britain 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.  The top-seeded US team of Kianah Motosono and Zoe Spence won the doubles title, beating Isis Gill of the US and Kiana Marshall of Barbados, the No. 2 seeds, 4-6, 6-3, 10-3.

At the Grade 4 in Mexico, unseeded Paris Corley won her first ITF singles title, with the 17-year-old from Mexico beating the No. 3 seed in the second round and the top seed in the semifinals.  In the final, Corley defeated No. 4 seed Alexia Coutino Castillo of Mexico 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Another event I am not able to follow as closely as I would like given its place on the calendar is the ITA Summer Championships in Bloomington, Indiana.  The prize on the line there is a wild card into the All-American Championships this fall, but this year's women's winner, Brooke Austin, will not need hers after finishing her freshman year at Florida ranked fourth in the country. Austin didn't drop a set in her six victories, beating Maddie Lipp of Northwestern(9) 6-1, 6-3 in the final. Alabama's Korey Lovett(9) defeated Jeffrey Schorsch(9) of Valparaiso 7-5, 1-6, 10-7 to take the men's singles title.

Links to the final results and draws can be found at the Indiana website.

King Wins Champaign Futures; Anderson Falls Just Short in Landisville; Fratangelo Clinches US Open Main Draw Wild Card; Bencic Claims Toronto Title

Kevin King, photo courtesy iphotonews.com 

Kevin King won his third career Futures title and first of 2015 today in Champaign, taking out unseeded Richard Gabb of Great Britain 6-3, 6-1 in the final. No. 4 seed King, whose previous two titles were back-to-back at $15,000 Futures last spring in Mexico, saved match points in his 6-1, 2-6, 7-6(8) quarterfinal win over Tommy Paul, but won his semifinal match over top seed Ramkumar Ramanathan of India 6-2, 6-2 and had a similarly convincing win today.  When the points from this week are added a week from Monday, the 24-year-old Georgia Tech grad will be back in the Top 300.

At the women's Pro Circuit tournament in Landisville, Pennsylvania, qualifier Robin Anderson fell just short of her first $25,000 title, losing to unseeded Naomi Broady of Great Britain 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5).  The 25-year-old Broady had 17 aces and just one double fault in the match, while the recent UCLA graduate was 3 and 0 in those categories.

In the doubles final, Ivana Jorovic of Serbia and Jessica Moore of Australia beat Brynn Boren(USC) and Nadja Gilchrist(Georgia) 6-1, 6-3 in a final between two unseeded teams.

At the $100,000 ATP Challenger in Aptos, seventh-seeded Austin Krajicek lost to top seed John Millman of Australia 7-5-, 2-6, 6-3 in the final, meaning that Bjorn Fratangelo will win the USTA's US Open Wild Card Challenge.  Krajicek will, I'm sure, be considered from one of the three wild cards not yet designated by the USTA. 18s champion Sonya Kenin and Wild Card Challenge winner Samantha Crawford are guaranteed main draw wild cards, and NCAA champion Jamie Loeb is expected to receive one (it's not guaranteed however), plus the two reciprocal wild cards traded with Australia and France leave the number remaining at three.  Frances Tiafoe, Bjorn Fratangelo, Ryan Shane (again not guaranteed, but customary) leave three others to be handed out. That announcement should come out early this coming week.

This week's Pro Circuit action is in Canada, at the $100,000 events for men and women in Vancouver. Qualifying is underway, with UCLA's Mackenzie McDonald through to the final round of qualifying.  Main draw wild cards were given to Laura Robson of Great Britain, Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada, Vania King and Samantha Crawford for the women's draw and Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, Dennis Novikov and Alex Sarkissian are the men's main draw wild cards.

The Western and Southern Open, the joint ATP/WTA tournament in Cincinnati, has finished its qualifying, with Americans Denis Kudla, Christina McHale and Lauren Davis earning places in the main draw.  Two former junior slam winners, 2014 Australian Open boys champion Alexander Zverev of Germany and 2013 Australian and US Open girls champion Ana Konjuh of Croatia also qualified.  Zverev will play fellow 18-year-old Borna Coric of Croatia in the first round, with Coric holding a 1-0 edge in ITF junior play. In the 2013 US Open Junior championships, Zverev was the top seed, but lost in the semifinals to Coric, the No. 4 seed, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. Coric went on to beat Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis, who also qualified in Cincinnati today, in the final 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

The former junior slam champion who made the biggest splash today however was Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, who beat world No. 1 Serena Williams in the Toronto semifinals Saturday and world No. 3 Simona Halep of Romania today in the final 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 3-0, ret. having beaten Genie Bouchard, Caroline Wozniacki, Sabine Lisicki and Ana Ivanovic earlier in the week.

Bencic, who two years ago, at age 16 won the French and Wimbledon junior titles, will move to No. 12 in the WTA rankings with the title. Her rise has been notable for its consistent but not spectacular trajectory, and although she struggled a bit during the clay season this year, once she got on grass and won her first WTA title in Eastbourne, she has been playing outstanding tennis. Her confidence and competitiveness, on display throughout her junior career, are genuine, as seen in her results this week.

For more on all the "firsts" Bencic earned today, see this article from the WTA website.

Kalamazoo Videos; Anderson Beats Top Seed, Advances to Landisville $25K Final, Krajicek Still in Hunt for US Open Wild Card

As promised, the videos from the Kalamazoo 16s and 18s finals are up and embedded below.

The 18s videos contain some impressive points, and with the notable exception of the Frances Tiafoe forehand winner at 4-4, 30-all that gave him a break point in the fifth set, the key ones are included. (See my coverage of the final here).

The point early in the match (in retrospect), where Tiafoe collapsed on the ground after losing a kitchen-sink point to Stefan Kozlov would have been the highlight had he finished the match off in straight sets. But he didn't, we got more: the point Kozlov won with Tiafoe serving at 4-3 in the third, in which he got two overheads back in play, the first match point Kozlov saved with Tiafoe serving for it a 5-4 in the fifth, the "touch" point that wasn't on break point in that same game, the ace that set up the second match point, and the match point.

ITA Player of the Year Robin Anderson, who finished her senior year at UCLA in May, has reached her second $25,000 final, and the first since 2013, by defeating top seed and WTA 101 An-Sophie Mestach of Belgium 6-2, 6-4 in Landisville, Pa.  The 22-year-old from New Jersey, a qualifier, will reach a new career high regardless of the outcome of Sunday's final against unseeded Naomi Broady of Great Britain. Anderson's win over Mestach is not her best, ranking-wise, as she had previously recorded a top 100 win against Russian Evgeniya Rodina, then No. 83, in the first round of the 2011 WTA New Haven qualifying.

Since finishing school, Anderson has reached a $50,000 quarterfinal, and the semifinal in the $25,000 tournament in El Paso, and now the final in Landisville.  Anderson only other singles title on the Pro Circuit came in 2011, when she won at Landisville, then a $10,000 event. Her four losses (two in qualifying) were all in three sets; she has 13 win this summer so far, in qualifying and main draw.

At the $15,000 Futures in Champaign, Kevin King(Georgia Tech) has reached the singles final for the second straight week on the Midwest Pro Circuit swing. After beating top seed Ramkumar Ramanathan of India 6-2, 6-2 today, the No. 4 seed will take on unseeded Richard Gabb of Great Britain, who beat lucky loser Justin Shane(Virginia) 5-7, 7-5, 4-1, ret.  Shane did get a title however, partnering his younger brother Ryan to beat No. 4 seeds Kevin King and Evan King, last week's Futures doubles champions, 6-1, 7-6(4) in the final.

Cincinnati qualifying did not go well for three of the Kalamazoo 18s semifinalists, with Stefan Kozlov, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul all losing in the first round, to Yen-Hsun Lu, Nicolas Mahut and Denis Kudla, respectively. Paul was the only one of the three to take a set.  Irina Falconi (over Jennifer Brady), Christina McHale and Nicole Gibbs did pick up first round qualifying wins, as did Steve Johnson. Qualifying is still going on, but update results can be found here.

At the $100,000 Aptos Challenger, No. 7 seed Austin Krajicek defeated No. 4 seed Bjorn Fratangelo 6-3, 7-6(2) to keep his hopes for the US Open main draw wild card alive. If Krajicek defeats top seed John Millman of Australia in Sunday's final, he will win the USTA's Wild Card Challenge. If he loses, Fratangelo will get it based on more points over two tournaments.