Georgia's Dan Magill Dies at Age 93; Xu, Majchrzak Win Youth Olympic Games Gold; US Wins Le Blanc Cup; NCAA Champion Collins Kicks Off US Open Monday Against Halep on Ashe

Georgia men's coach Manny Diaz with Dan Magill

There's not much I can add to the tributes being paid to former University of Georgia men's tennis coach Dan Magill, who died earlier today at 93.  Magill is one of the most influential Division I tennis coaches in history,  revered for his ability to coach, promote and lead, while always recognizing the place of history in the college game. With his health deteriorating over the past three years, Magill was not much in evidence at the 2012 and 2014 NCAA championships, but in 2007 and 2010 he was a vibrant part of the tournaments being played in the complex named for him. Magill's influence on college sports was not confined to tennis, as Chip Towers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution explains in this obituary for the "greatest Bulldog ever."

The tennis portion  of the Youth Olympic Games concluded today in China, with gold medals going to unseeded Shilin Xu of China and Kamil Majchrzak of Poland in singles.  Xu defeated No. 8 seed Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus 6-3, 6-1 in Sunday's final, while Majchrzak, seeded No. 7, defeated No. 2 seed Orlando Luz of Brazil 6-4, 7-5 in Saturday's boys final.

Luz did take home a gold medal however, partnering Marcelo Zormann to take the boys doubles 7-5, 3-6, 10-3 over top seeds Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev. Zormann and Luz, the No. 2 seeds, also won the Wimbledon boys doubles title last month.

Shymanovich also collected a gold medal to go with her silver in singles, when she and Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine, the No. 3 seeds, defeated No. 2 seeds Darya Kasatkina and Anastasiya Komardina of Russia 6-4, 6-4  in the girls doubles final.

The mixed doubles gold medal went to No. 5 seeds Jil Teichmann of Switzerland and Jan Zielinski of Poland, who defeated Ye Qiu Yu of China and Jumpei Yamasaki of Japan 4-6, 6-3, 10-4.

Complete draws can be found at the ITF junior website.

Majchrzak has withdrawn from the US Open Junior Championships, as have Noah Rubin, Elias Ymer, Gianluigi Quinzi and Johan Sebastien Tatlot.  Xu is still in, as are Shymanovich, Kalinina, Luz and Zormann, who now have a little less than a week to adjust from playing in China.

This week's ITF Grade 1 is in Repentigny Canada, with Quentin Halys of France and Aliona Bolsova Zadoinov of Spain the top seeds. Neither played the Olympics or the Hard Courts last week in College Park.  The tournament website has results, draws and order of play.

Last week the US teams of 12-and-under players won the Le Blanc Cup competition in Canada.  Results are below:

The USA boys defeated France 3-0, and the USA girls defeated Canada 2-1.  

Boys Singles

#1 Zane Khan defeated #1 Arthur Cazaux 6-2, 6-3

#2 Faris Khan defeated #2 Quentin Kouvtanovitch 6-1, 6-2 

Doubles

Khan/Khan defeated Cazaux/Kouvtanovitch 8-3

Girls Singles

#1Whitney Osuigwe defeated #1 Sofiya Babych 6-1, 2-6, 6-3   

#2 Victoria Hu lost to #2 Ariana Arseneault 3-6, 3-6

Doubles

Hu/Osuigwe defeated Babych/Arseneault 8-6

The US Open doubles draws were released today, with Kalamazoo champions Noah Rubin and Stefan Kozlov drawing another wild card team of Michael Russell and Jared Donaldson.  San Diego champions Katerina Stewart and Louisa Chirico will play Marina Erakovic of New Zealand and Arantxz Parra Santonja of Spain. 

Other wild card teams are:

Tornado Alicia Black and Bernarda Pera

Jennifer Brady and Samantha Crawford

Asia Muhammad and Taylor Townsend

Nicole Gibbs and Maria Sanchez

Grace Min and Melanie Oudin

Irina Falconi and Anna Tatishvili

The men's wild card teams include Michael Mmoh and Francis Tiafoe, and neither had any inkling they would receive a wild card (they didn't request one) until Friday night, when they learned via twitter that they needed to be in New York by Monday for possible play on Tuesday.  The other men's wild card teams:

Bradley Klahn and Tim Smyczek

Tennys Sandgren and Chase Buchanan

Peter Kobelt and Hunter Reese

Marcos Giron and Kevin King

Draws can be found at the US Open website.

The mixed doubles draws have not been released yet, but one wild card team has been determined.  Jacqueline Cako (Arizona State) and Joel Kielbowicz (UNLV) won the US Open National Playoff yesterday in New Haven, beating  Ena and Shuhei Shibahara 6-3, 6-1 in the final.  For more on their win, see this article.

NCAA champion Danielle Collins will open play on Arthur Ashe Stadium tomorrow morning when she plays No. 2 seed Simona Halep of Romania. Collins has played only one match since having wrist surgery immediately after winning the NCAAs in May: a qualifying match in New Haven, where she lost 6-4, 6-3 to Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan. She has been training at the IMG/Bollettieri Academy near her home in St. Petersburg to prepare for her US Open match, according to this article from the IMG website.

Other Americans in action on Monday are Venus Williams(20), Sloane Stephens(21), Donald Young, Madison Brengle and Bradley Klahn. Monday's schedule is here.