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.

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.

My Kalamazoo 16s Recap; Three Kalamazoo Quarterfinalists Reach Futures Final Eight, Finalists Receive Cincinnati Qualifying Wild Cards; NCAA Approves No-Ad for Division I 2016 Championships;

Championship week is in full swing at the Tennis Recruiting Network, and my recap of Patrick Kypson's remarkable 16s title in Kalamazoo is available today. My wrap-up of the memorable 18s tournament will come out Friday afternoon.

Three of the Kalamazoo 18s quarterfinalists have reached the same stage at this week's $15,000 Futures tournament in Champaign, Illinois.  Wild card Reilly Opelka defeated Aleksandar Vukic of Australia, a rising sophomore for the University of Illinois, 6-3, 7-6(6) in today's second round. Tommy Paul, the No. 6 seed, defeated Evan King(Michigan) 6-4, 6-1 and Alex Rybakov, who Paul beat in the Kalamazoo quarterfinals a week ago, upset No. 2 seed and former Virginia star Sanam Singh of India 6-3, 7-5.

Opelka's quarterfinal opponent is lucky loser Justin Shane(Virginia), while Paul faces No. 4 seed Kevin King(Georgia Tech) and Rybakov takes on unseeded Richard Gabb of Great Britain.

No. 4 seeds Evan and Kevin King (no relation) will play brothers Justin and Ryan Shane in the doubles final on Friday.

Vicky Duval won her second match at the Landisville $25,000 Pro Circuit tournament, but then withdrew with an injury from doubles, so her status going forward is uncertain. Qualifiers Robin Anderson, the ITA Player of the Year, and 17-year-old Nicole Frenkel have advanced to the quarterfinals, where they'll play fellow Americans Alexandra Mueller and No. 2 seed Shelby Rogers.

In Aptos, the two Americans into the quarterfinals at the $100,000 Challenger are No. 4 seed Bjorn Fratangelo and No. 7 seed Austin Krajicek, who are the only two players still in the running for the US Open wild card given in the USTA Challenge. Krajicek would have to win the tournament to pass Fratangelo.

The Cincinnati ATP Masters and WTA Premier event has announced its wild cards, with Kalamazoo 18s champion Frances Tiafoe and Kalamazoo 18s finalist Stefan Kozlov receiving qualifying wild cards. Main draw men's wild cards were given to Mardy Fish, Fratangelo, Jared Donaldson and Rajeev Ram.  Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, CoCo Vandeweghe and Allison Riske received the women's wild cards.

In addition to Tiafoe and Kozlov, Ryan Harrison, Vicky Duval, Taylor Townsend, Sachia Vickery, Alexa Glatch, Louisa Chirico and Nicole Gibbs received qualifying wild cards. One more men's qualifying wild card is to be announced.

The full announcement is here.

The NCAA announced today that the format used in the ITA National Team Indoor Tournaments in February will be adopted for the 2016 NCAA Championships in Tulsa. This is a six-game no-ad set for three doubles matches, and best-of-three tiebreak sets with no-ad scoring for six singles match singles. The individual championships will also be played best of three with no-ad scoring, and in lieu of a third set in doubles, a match tiebreaker will be played as is done on the ATP and WTA tours.

As I detailed several times in the past year, I will not be providing any on-site coverage of these events due to my dislike of the no-ad tennis format, but I will continue to follow tournament results from home and write about the college game and players.

The men's and women's Division III NCAA championships are in Kalamazoo in 2016, so I will be providing on-site coverage of that event.

Pro Circuit Update; My Guest Appearance on No Challenges Remaining Podcast

My usual routine in following Pro Circuit tournaments gets disrupted during Kalamazoo, or any junior tournament I'm covering live, actually, so this post will be my attempt to catch up on the results from last week on the USTA Pro Circuit.

Only two tournaments were played last week in the US, with a $10,000 event for women in Fort Worth, Texas and a $15,000 Futures tournament for men in Decatur, Illinois.  Neither produced an American singles champion, but two college players, Vanderbilt rising senior Frances Altick and former Georgia Tech star Kevin King, reached the finals, and both doubles champions were Americans with college ties.

Both Altick and the eventual champion Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway were qualifiers, with the 22-year-old Eikeri winning three qualifying matches, and Altick, because she was unseeded, four.  In the heat of Texas in August, that's a tough route, with Eikeri helping herself by winning all her matches in straight sets, although she did not face a seed in the main draw.  Altick needed three sets in her final round qualifying match and was into a third set in the quarterfinals against No. 4 seed Zoe Hives of Australia when Hives retired. She defeated the No. 5, No. 4 and No. 6 seeds en route to the final.  Eikeri took the final by a 6-3, 6-1 score.

The 21-year-old Altick has gone 19-5 this summer, including qualifying, in USTA Pro Circuit events and will debut in the WTA rankings next week.

Two other current Division I players claimed the doubles title, with Cal's Maegan Manasse and Florida's Josie Kuhlman teaming for a 6-4, 6-4 win over incoming Duke freshman Jessica Ho and Giuliana Olmos, the Southern Cal rising senior. Both teams were unseeded.

In Decatur, No. 5 seed Kevin King fell short in the singles final, losing to top seed Luke Saville of Australia 6-4, 6-4, but he claimed the doubles title with Evan King, the former Michigan All-American. The No. 4 seeds breezed through the draw without dropping a set, beating No. 3 seeds Tom Jomby(Kentucky) and Gregoire Barrere of France 6-0, 6-2.

Jonathan Kelley of On The Rise was in Decatur prior to making his way to the Nats at the Zoo and asked many of the Americans competing there for their memories of Kalamazoo in this video production.

This week has three USTA Pro Circuit events on the schedule. The women are in Landisville, Pennsylvania for a $25,000 event, which features the return of Vicky Duval to competition after more than a year away after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Ben Rothenberg provides an update on Duval's recovery and plans for the rest of this summer for the New York Times.

Qualifying for the tournament was completed today, with Robin Anderson(UCLA), Aleksandra Mally(Louisville), Ema Burgic Bucko(Baylor) and teens Sophie Chang and Nicole Frenkel among those earning places in the main draw.

Duval, who received a wild card, is scheduled to play Chang in the first round on Wednesday.

The men have the $100,000 Challenger in Aptos that will decide the USTA's US Open wild card challenge, with Bjorn Fratangelo, who won his first round match, leading that race.  Taylor Fritz received a wild card and served for the match at 5-4 in the second set of his first round match against qualifier Mischa Zverev today, but lost 6-7(1), 7-5, 6-3. Jared Donaldson and Mitchell Krueger also received wild cards, with Donaldson winning his first round match and Krueger losing his. Live streaming of the tournament can be found here.

Three of the top seven seeds in Kalamazoo are in the main draw of the $15,000 Champaign, Illinois Futures tournament this week, and two of them won their matches today.  Alex Rybakov defeated Jared Hiltzik 5-7, 6-2, 6-0 and Tommy Paul, the No. 6 seed, beat wild card Ryan Shane, the NCAA champion from Virginia, 6-4, 6-3.  Reilly Opelka, who received a wild card, will play NCAA semifinalist Quentin Monaghan of Notre Dame, who came through qualifying, in a first round match Wednesday.

The recent success of American junior boys has not gone unnoticed by the tennis media, and with the field in this year's Kalamazoo one of the most accomplished ever, I was invited to join Courtney Nguyen (formerly of Sports Illustrated and now with the WTA) and Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times as a guest on their weekly podcast, No Challenges Remaining.  I was thrilled to be asked, as I listen to their thoughts on pro tennis every week, but I had no idea we would end up talking about junior and college tennis for more than an hour. The time flew by and I enjoyed answering their questions and getting their opinions on the issues surrounding the level of tennis that I cover.

You can listen to the podcast here, or download it via iTunes.

All Top 10 ITF Boys and Girls Entered in US Open Juniors; Southern Cal Wins USTA Boys 18 Team Championship; Donaldson, Kudla Advance in Atlanta

The acceptances for the US Open Junior Championships were released today, and all players in the ITF top 10, and all but one of the top 15, girls No. 15 Julieta Estable, have entered.

Nine US girls have received direct entry: Usue Arconada, Sonya Kenin, Michaela Gordon, Raveena Kingsley, Francesca Di Lorenzo, Ingrid Neel, Claire Liu, CiCi Bellis and Katerina Stewart.  Kayla Day is the first alternate, with an ITF ranking of 56.  Alexandra Sanford and Tornado Alicia Black, the 2013 US girls finalist, are in qualifying Stewart, a semifinalist in New York last year, received entry based on her WTA ranking, currently 158.  Magdalena Frech of Poland, 378 in the WTA rankings, also received her entry by that method.

Caroline Dolhide, ranked No. 16 and a semifinalist last year after advancing through qualifying, has not entered and is not playing the G18s Nationals in San Diego either. She played earlier this month at Wimbledon and reached the third round there.

Seven US boys have received direct entry: Taylor Fritz, Michael Mmoh, Reilly Opelka, William Blumberg, Tommy Paul, Nathan Ponwith and Ulises Blanch.  Sam Riffice has already assured himself of a wild card into the main draw by winning the 18s Clay Courts.

The cutoff for the boys is 45, extremely high for the US Open, but not unusual for the French.  Five players received entry via their ATP rankings, with South Africa's Lloyd Harris (609), Argentina's Juan Pablo Fichovich(706) and two Spanish 18-year-olds: European Championships finalist Bernabe Zapata Miralles(708) and Pedro Martinez Portero(691).  The fifth is 14-year-old Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime, who became the youngest player ever to reach the quarterfinals of an ATP Challenger last week in Granby. Those results moved his ATP ranking up to 749, which is one spot better than necessary for main draw acceptance.  It will be his first junior slam
appearance.

The USTA Boys 18 Team Championships finals were today in Champaign-Urbana, with the Southern California section defeating the Eastern section 5-2.  Eastern's No. 1 player William Blumberg won all his matches during the tournament, including today's over Austin Rapp, but it wasn't enough to counter the depth of coach Barry Horowitz's team.  The results of today's final are below:

The girls 18 final Wednesday gives Southern Cal an opportunity for a sweep of the USTA Team championships. They will play defending champion Southern for the title. The TennisLink site for the girls competition has all the results.

At the ATP event in Atlanta, Jared Donaldson defeated fellow qualifier Somdev Devvarman 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the second round, where he will play No. 7 seed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.  Another US qualifier, Denis Kudla, outlasted wild card Ryan Harrison 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) to set up a second round metting with No. 3 seed Jack Sock. Sock and Kudla have played five times, including, of course, in the US Open boys final in 2010, with Sock winning three, but Kudla has won their last two meetings, though those were in 2012.

No. 6 seed Steve Johnson advanced with a 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-2 win over Lukas Lacko of Slovakia. Qualifier Austin Krajicek fell to No. 5 seed Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, and Frances Tiafoe saw his attempt at a first ATP-level win thwarted by Australia's Sam Groth 7-6(3), 6-4.   Mardy Fish and Donald Young both suffered straight-set losses.

Georgia Tech rising sophomore Christopher Eubanks, who received a wild card, plays his first round match against Czech Radek Stepanek on Wednesday.  For more on Eubanks, and his friendship with Donald Young, see this article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Mmoh, Herring, Dome and Jones Win Pro Circuit Titles; Bondar and Ymer Claim European Championships; USTA Girls 18 Team Event Underway

Four Americans collected singles titles today, three in North America and the fourth in Egypt.

Julia Jones, a recent Ole Miss graduate, won her first pro title at an $10,000 ITF Pro Circuit event in Egypt, after reaching the finals in singles and doubles the previous week as a qualifier. The unseeded 21-year-old, who received a special exemption into this week's tournament, defeated the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds en route to the final, where she beat unseeded Giada Clerici of Italy 6-3, 6-4.  Jones talks about her victory and her decision to play pro tennis after graduation in this article from the Ole Miss website. Jones, who was not initially named to compete in the American Collegiate Invitational, may be receiving the remaining wild card, although I'm not certain if that's the competition the article is referring to.

Another No. 1 player in the SEC last season, Georgia's Lauren Herring, claimed her first Pro Circuit title since 2010 at the $10,000 tournament in Evansville, Indiana. Herring, a qualifier, defeated Alabama incoming freshman Andie Daniell 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 in today's final.  Herring, who had reached the finals in singles and doubles at the $10,000 tournament in Charlotte last month, won eight singles matches to take the title in Evansville, while also reaching the doubles final.

At the Godfrey, Illinois $15,000 Futures, No. 6 seed Michael Mmoh won his second career title at that level with a tough 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 win over Illinois rising senior Jared Hiltzik, the No. 8 seed. Mmoh, who also won a $15,000 Futures in Texas last fall, will now break into the ATP Top 500 when the points are added in two weeks.  Bobby Knight of College Tennis Today was at the final, and he has promised a report on the final, which featured (according to Knight's twitter feed) a rain delay, a medical timeout, a conceded point by Hiltzik, and a shirt-tossing celebration by Mmoh when it was all over.

At the $15,000 Futures in British Columbia, former Cal Poly All-American Andre Dome has also assured himself a place in the ATP Top 500, winning the title with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 decision over top seed Matt Reid of Australia.  The 24-year-old No. 2 seed also captured the doubles title with former Pepperdine star Finn Tearney of New Zealand. Those two titles now give Dome the fourth and fifth of his career, three singles and two doubles, all earned this year.

The European Championships ended today, and at the ITF Grade B1 in Switzerland the boys champion was no surprise, while the girls champion was unexpected.

Wimbledon finalist Mikael Ymer, who won the European 14s title in 2012 and was runnerup last in the 16s, added the 18s title to his resume. The 16-year-old, seeded No. 2, beat unseeded Bernabe Zapata Miralles of Spain 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

The girls title went to Anna Bondar of Hungary, an 18-year-old playing in her first junior event of the year.  The unseeded Bondar defeated No. 12 seed Jil Teichmann of Switzerland 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the final. Teichmann had taken out top seed Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in the semifinals.

Vondrousova and her partner Miriam Kolodziejova won the doubles title, avenging their Wimbledon semifinal loss to Hungary's Dalma Galfi and Fanni Stollar, a loss that ended the Czech pair's quest for a Grand Slam.  Vondrousova and Kolodziejova, the No. 2 seeds, beat Galfi and Stollar, the No. 3 seeds, 6-4, 7-5 in the final.

The boys doubles title went to the German team of Tim Sandkaulen and Louis Wessels, with the No. 3 seeds beating unseeded Alexander Erler and Matthias Haim of Austria 7-6(4), 6-1 in the final.

The 16s titles both went to Czech players. Top seed Patrik Rikl defeated No. 8 seed Artem Dubrivnyy of Russia 6-4, 6-1 in the boys final, and unseeded Anna Slovakova beat No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina of Russia 6-0, 2-6, 6-3 in the girls final.

Unseeded Iga Swiatek of Poland, a 2014 Junior Orange Bowl 14s semifinalist, won the girls 14s title, beating top seed Taisya Pachkaleva of Russia 6-2, 6-1 in the final. No. 8 seed Duje Ajdukovic of Croatia won the boys 14s title, beat No. 4 seed Filip Jianu of Romania 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. 

Complete draws can be found at the Tennis Europe tournament page.

I mentioned the USTA Boys 18 Team Championships in yesterday's post. The USTA Girls 18 Team Championships began today in Claremont, California, with the TennisLink site here.  Results can be found by selecting Flight (there's only one), Round (1 was today) and match.

Smith, Rohrbacher Capture New Balance High School Titles; Auger-Aliassime Wins Again in Granby Challenger; Teens Reach Quarterfinals in Sacramento, Granby, Godfrey and Evansville

The New Balance High School Tennis Championships concluded today in Boston, with Keegan Smith and Olivia Rohrbacher winning the titles.
From the tournament:

Keegan Smith of San Diego defeated Jaird Meyer of Los Angeles 6-1, 6-3 to win the boys’ title. Keegan was able to get off to a quick start early in the match. After that he used his big game to dictate play throughout to get the victory.

Olivia Rohrbacher of Sandusky, OH defeated Jenna Moustafa of Los Angeles (a finalist last year as well) 6-4, 6-4 to win the girls’ title. Olivia and Jenna had a very tight match, but Olivia came up big on some important points  throughout. She moved up on her return of serve and was dictating the points early in play to close it out.

In addition to the titles, Smith and Rohrbacher also receive wild cards into the ITF Grade 1 International Hard Court Championships in College Park Maryland next month.  Complete draws are at the tournament's TennisLink site.

Fourteen-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada defeated ATP No. 205 Darian King of Barbados 7-5, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals of the $100,000 Granby Challenger. Auger-Aliassime, who turns 15 in two weeks, is the youngest player to ever reach an ATP Challenger quarterfinal.  He will play No. 4 seed Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan, who, at 19, is a seasoned veteran compared to Auger-Aliassime.  

Former Florida State star Jean-Yves Aubone, who lost to Auger-Aliassime in the final round of qualifying, got into the main draw as a lucky loser and has advanced to the first Challenger quarterfinal of his career.  Eric Quigley, the 2012 NCAA finalist from Kentucky, has also reached a Challenger quarterfinal for the first time, beating Peter Polansky of Canada tonight 6-3, 0-6. 7-5.  

Overshadowed by Auger-Aliassime is another Canadian teenager having a breakout tournament in Granby.  Sixteen-year-old Charlotte Robillard-Millette, who received a wild card into the $50,000 ITF Women's event in Granby moved into the quarterfinals with a 0-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) win over No. 8 seed Amandine Hess of France.  Eighteen-year-old Ellie Halbauer has reached her second quarterfinal at the $50,000 level, beating Laura Robson of Great Britain 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. Robson had been injured and out of competition for more than a year until last month, but regardless of the circumstances, that's a great win for Halbauer.

Sixteen-year-old CiCi Bellis and 19-year-old Brooke Austin have advanced to the quarterfinals of the $50,000 Women's Pro Circuit event in Sacramento. Bellis, the No. 3 seed, defeated Asia Muhammad 2-6, 6-1, 6-1, while Austin beat No. 2 seed and WTA 165 Eri Hozumi of Japan 7-5, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals of a $50K for the first time in her career.  Austin will play fellow wild card Robin Anderson, who just returned from the Hall of Fame Championships in Newport, where she received her ITA Player of the Year Award.  Anderson defeated teammate Jennifer Brady, the No. 5 seed, 6-3, 6-2 to pick up her second career win at the $50,000 level, with her opening round victory over Lauren Embree having been her first.  Bellis will play No. 8 seed Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine, the 2014 US Open girls finalist, in the quarterfinals.

At the $50,000 Binghamton Challenger, the teens fared less well. Frances Tiafoe lost to No. 2 seed Bjorn Fratangelo 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, while wild card Tommy Paul was beaten by Mitchell Krueger 7-5, 6-4.  Noah Rubin took the second set from top seed Kyle Edmund in a tiebreaker and they were at 1-1 in the third set when play was suspended due to darkness. 

At the $15,000 Futures in Godfrey, Illinois, Michael Mmoh reached the quarterfinals. No. 6 seed Mmoh, the only quarterfinalist without college ties, will face former Cal star Ben McLachlan of New Zealand on Friday.

The $10,000 women's event in Evansville saw its top two seeds eliminated Thursday, with qualifier Frances Altick (Vanderbilt) taking out No. 1 seed Bianca Botto of Peru 6-2, 6-2 and North Carolina recruit Sara Daavettila defeating No. 2 seed Naomi Totka of Hungary 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

DeVine, Smith Win Wild Card Tournaments, Entry into Nationals; Paul Advances at Binghamton. Joins Bryde in ATP Event in Atlanta; Kentucky's Gomez Beats Baghdatis; Are Spain and Switzerland Heading for Men's Tennis Decline?

The inaugural USTA Wild Card tournaments for entry into the 18s Nationals were completed today in Arlington, Texas, with Jake DeVine and Maria Smith earning their places in Kalamazoo and San Diego.

DeVine, the No. 2 seed, defeated unseeded Erik Kerrigan 6-2, 6-4 in the final. DeVine, who reached the final of the Kalamazoo 16s in 2013, losing to Tommy Paul, won all five of his matches in straight sets. 

Smith, also a No. 2 seed, needed only three victories to earn her wild card, with a bye and a walkover in her first two rounds.  The 18-year-old from Texas beat top seed Olivia Hauger 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the final.

The complete list of Kalamazoo wild cards:
18s

John Jorgeson

Eduardo Nava

Dennis Uspensky

Vasil Kirkov

Mwendwa Mbithi

Logan Smith

Frances Tiafoe

Jake DeVine

16s

Sean Hill 

Alexandre Rotsaert 

Matthew Rodriguez

The complete list of San Diego wild cards:
18s                                                      
Helen Altick
Summer Dvorak
Dasha Ivanova
Kaitlyn McCarthy
Maria Smith

16s       
Alexandra Angyalosy             
Emma Decoste
Abigail Desiatnikov              
Elvena Gevargiz
Britt Pursell
Stephanie Taylor

Today in Binghamton, Tommy Paul joined Frances Tiafoe in the second round of the $50,000 Challenger, defeating Gonzalo Escobar of Ecuador 6-3, 7-5.  Paul has received a qualifying wild card into next week's BB&T Atlanta Open, the first ATP event in the US Open Series.  Fifteen-year-old Trent Bryde won a wild card challenge playoff today in Atlanta, earning a qualifying wild card with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Kyle Montrel of Xavier University of Louisiana.  Tiafoe was awarded a main draw wild card into the tournament last month.

At the women's $50,000 Sacramento Challenger, wild cards Brooke Austin, Jamie Loeb and Robin Anderson won their first round matches, as did Kristie Ahn and No. 5 seed Jennifer Brady. UCLA teammates Brady and Anderson will play in the second round Thursday.

After Alex Sarkissian picked up his first ATP win last night in Bogota, former Kentucky star and qualifier Alejandro Gomez of Colombia came up with an even bigger victory there tonight, beating No. 5 seed Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-3, 0-6, 7-6(3). Gomez, who completed his senior year in 2014, is ranked 698, while the former Australian Open finalist is No. 45 in the ATP rankings. For more on Gomez's win, see this article from the University of Kentucky website.

ESPN.com's Kamakshi Tandon looks at the men's talent pipeline in Switzerland and Spain and asks if those two countries are prepared for the seemingly inevitable decline they face as their superstars move closer to retirement.

Steed Johnson: What Sean Karl and Tennessee Tennis Taught Me

Photo courtesy YourGameFace.com

Steed Johnson supported Sean Karl and his family throughout Sean's battle with cancer, which he lost last November. Johnson organized fundraising events, sold T-shirts and towels and provided a constant reminder that the tennis world was united in its support of the University of Tennessee student-athlete, who was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma during his senior year of high school.

Johnson, who played Division I tennis at Longwood University, completing his eligibility this year, contacted me about publishing his reflections on Sean's illness and the inspiration Sean and his Tennessee teammates provided in such a difficult situation. His tribute is below:

How I Became a “Vol For Life”

At this point, much of the tennis playing world has heard the name Sean Karl as well as bits and pieces of the journey this University of Tennessee tennis player endured. What a lot of the tennis playing world has not heard is the story of the journey his team endured with him. Sean Karl passed away in mid-November of 2014 and, to say the least, I was devastated to say goodbye to someone who had been my competition, my occasional teammate, and most importantly, my good friend. Little did I know when I made my way to Tennessee upon news of Sean’s passing that both the memorial and the weekend I spent with Sean’s family and teammates would change my perspective, not only on the sport of tennis but life, forever.

From a young age, those of us who play tennis competitively are often taught that it’s an individual sport and that we only have ourselves to rely on. We hear this from our parents, we hear it from our coaches and we even hear it from some of the greatest tennis players throughout the history of the sport. I myself was completely convinced of this all through juniors and then continued to think this way for three and a half years of college tennis. When you play tennis it is just you out there. There is no one else on the court besides your opponent. So when you lose, it seems like it’s all on you. When you win, it seems like it’s all on you. When you are having an off day, it seems like it’s all on you. Too often, there truly seems to be no one else to blame or to lean on when something goes bad or when you lose. There is only you. Or so I thought.

I played college tennis for Longwood University for four years. Throughout my time with Longwood’s division one program, I was pushed to my limits and was able to learn many lessons, all while being surrounded by exceptional people. But during much of that time, I felt something was missing. Every match I played I only relied on myself. Every problem I had, I relied on myself, and unfortunately it kept me from developing and reaching my full potential. Until November of 2014, I had always thought of my team as nothing more than a team of friends, unrelated but caring for each other. Three and a half years into my college career, I finally learned that this kind of thinking was not what a team or even tennis is truly about.

When I arrived in Knoxville for Sean’s celebration of life at Tennessee’s tennis facility, I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn’t know who would be there, how the event would turn out, or how I would handle everything. As I walked through the door of the facility, I was shocked. Pictures of Sean filled the room. They documented his life from a young boy all the way up to the collegiate tennis player he became. Surrounded by these memories, his teammates conversed with everyone who walked in the door. Dressed in their all orange warm-ups and looking as if they had suffered through more than a few sleepless nights, his teammates smiled and greeted the travelers who had made the trip to celebrate Sean’s life. As I would come to learn, this was the easiest of tasks the team had volunteered to do in the past months.

Once the celebration of Sean’s life officially started, I was not surprised to see his best friend, Maxx Lipman, speak. Maxx has known Sean for years and his speech was truly incredible. But when a good friend of mine, Brandon Fickey, stood to speak, I was surprised. Brandon has always been an awesome competitor and in his older years he became one of the more humble opponents I faced. I knew Brandon had played a vital role on the Tennessee team as well and that he served as captain in his senior year (2014-15). As Brandon spoke, and as he would continue to speak with me over the weekend, I learned that the show of unity when the entire team shaved their heads in Sean’s honor and the money they raised to help Sean’s family were just the tip of the iceberg. Over that weekend, I came to learn that there was so much more generosity and love than we, the outsiders, saw. And it’s this love and generosity that I want the nation to know about.

In Sean’s last months of life, he wanted to stay with his team in Knoxville instead of being at home in Nashville. Being the amazing parents they are, Laurie and Mike allowed Sean to do so and to this day will say it was one of the best decisions they ever made. At this stage in his cancer, Sean was too sick to stay alone, so Brandon opened his apartment to Sean and allowed him to live there for the remainder of his days. While living at Brandon’s, Sean still attended practices and watched from the sidelines as his team worked hard. He got mad if he ever had to miss a practice due to a doctor’s appointment. During the day, Sean had no alone time. Every person on the Tennessee team found time to spend with Sean, whether he was awake or asleep. Teammates would visit between classes and many would even go at night to study there, just to spend time with Sean. From what I heard, the apartment had a revolving door of friends always coming and going. I also learned the team had weekly meetings at the tennis center (which Sean never missed, even in his last days) to discuss their troubles and their concerns for Sean as well as to let him talk to them about what was on his mind. At the end of every meeting, the team would join hands and pray together. On weekends, one could find nearly all of the teammates over at Brandon’s apartment, either talking to Sean or watching television, just wanting to be near him. Laurie told me the team had been there for Sean as much as anyone and at times even refused to leave his side. During his last breaths, Sean was surrounded by his family and team, although I came to realize that, to Sean, family and team were one and the same. The Tennessee Men’s tennis team had become part of Sean’s family. They had been there through the good, the bad and the ugly and never gave up hope that Sean would win his battle with cancer. Throughout the journey with Sean, Brandon said he had learned how to fight and claimed that Sean had inspired him and his team much more than the team had inspired Sean, though I bet Sean would say otherwise. While spending time with Sean’s teammates and family I heard personal testimonies and stories about the vital role the team played in Sean’s life that will have to remain personal for now, for brevity’s sake. Before I left the memorial, I remember giving Laurie what she would call a “humongo hug”. She told me how amazing it was that I would come all this way for Sean. I was shocked that this woman, having just lost her son, was thanking me! And that’s when I realized that everything that had happened this November weekend had happened because of what Sean had done for his team and what they had done for him. What was amazing wasn’t that someone like me would drive all the way for Sean, but that Sean was the kind of person who could inspire me and countless others to drive any distance just to say goodbye.

As I gave my final farewells and walked away from the memorial to begin my journey home, I suddenly realized that the idea of tennis as an individual sport is an illusion. In an instant, Sean Karl and his team shattered that illusion for me. Throughout Sean’s battle, his team was there supporting him as he continued to support them. They were all in it together. It took me three and a half years of college tennis to finally realize that we are not alone out there on the courts, and I must give the credit to Sean Karl and the Tennessee Men’s tennis team. Without you all sharing your stories and allowing me to be a part of the journey, I would never have experienced my final semester of college tennis quite like I did. I would have continued to fully rely on myself and no one else, thinking I was all alone out there. But, the truth is, I was not alone because with me was a team that I will call my family for the rest of my life.

Thank you, Sean Karl and all of the Tennessee Men’s Tennis Team, for showing me what a team is all about. Thank you for opening my eyes to things I couldn’t see before. And thank you for making me a “Vol For Life.”

Clay Court Champions Crowned; Pierre-Louis Sweeps Titles at ITF Grade 4 in Jamaica; Bobby Reynolds Joins Roddick at Oklahoma; The Lighter Side of Junior Tennis

Rain hampered several USTA Clay Court finals today, but all champions have been decided (result of boys 12s doubles final posted Sunday morning). Two top seeds won singles titles: Sam Riffice in the boys 18s and Alexa Noel in the girls 14s. Riffice, 16, has earned a US Open Junior championships main draw wild card with his victory over Alexandre Rotsaert.  Girls 18s champion Ellyse Hamlin, who like Riffice, won singles and doubles titles today, beat fellow Duke recruit Kaitlyn McCarthy in the singles final. Hamlin is not eligible for the US Open junior wild card, because she turns 19 in November, making her too old by the ITF calendar-year system of eligibility.

Boys 18s:
Sam Riffice(1) def. Alexandre Rotsaert (17) 7-6, 6-3
Vasil Kirkov and Riffice(2) def. William Genesen and Johnathan Small(8)  6-3, 6-4

Girls 18s:

Ellyse Hamlin(6) def.  Kaitlyn McCarthy(17) 6-7(8), 6-1, 7-5

Katherine Fahey and Hamlin(2) def. Madison Battaglia and Victoria Flores 7-6(4), 6-0

Boys 16s:
Danny Thomas(17) def. Aleks Huryn(17) 6-2, 6-4
Blake Croyder and Bradley Frye def. Aleksandar Kovacevic and Robert Maciag 7-6, 6-4

Girls 16s:
Samantha Martinelli(2) def. Natasha Subhash(1) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
Subhash and Ann Li(2) def. Anna Brylin and Clarissa Hand(4) 2-6, 7-5, 6-2

Boys 14s:
William Grant(7) def. Jenson Brooksby(4) 7-6(2), 6-3
Garret Johns and Scott Sculley(9) def. Connor Fu and JanMagnus Johnson(7) 5-7, 6-0, 6-1

Girls 14s:
Alexa Noel(1) def. Hailey Baptiste(17) 6-4, 6-3
Chloe Beck and Reilly Tran(2) def. Carmen Corley and Katelyn Thomas(9) 6-1, 6-3

Boys 12s:

Saud Alhogbani(12) def. Karl Lee(4) 6-1, 6-4

Evan Lee and Thomas Navarro(10) def. Benjamin Kittay and Lee(2) 7-6, 5-7, 6-4

Girls 12s:

Elvina Kalieva(9) def. Charlotte Owensby(1) 1-6, 6-4, 6-3
Owensby and Rachel Arbitman(2) def. Savannah Broadus and Kenadee Semenik(1) 4-6, 7-5, 6-1

Kariann Pierre-Louis remained undefeated in ITF junior play this month, sweeping the singles and doubles titles at a Grade 4 for the second week in a row.  The 16-year-old from Miami, seeded No. 1,  lost only 15 games in her five singles victories in Jamaica, beating No. 2 seed Rika Tanaka of Japan 6-1, 6-4 in the final.  Last week Pierre-Louis won the doubles with Naomi Waters, this week she partnered Safiya Carrington, and the No. 3 seeds defeated unseeded Y-kit Tan of Singapore and Elysia Bolton 7-5, 7-5 in the final.  Camilo Ugo Carabelli of Argentina swept the boys titles, with the No. 6 seed beating No. 2 seed William Tutecky of Canada 6-3, 6-4 in the singles final. In the doubles final, Ugo Carabelli and fellow Argentine Valentino Caratini, the No. 3 seeds, beat unseeded Andrew Fenty and Tristan McCormick 7-6(2), 2-6, 10-6.

There has yet to be an official announcement, but former ATP Top 100 player Bobby Reynolds has accepted the men's assistant coaching position at Oklahoma.  Reynolds takes over for Bo Hodge, who is now the men's associate head coach at Georgia. Reynolds, who turned 33 yesterday, spent three years at Vanderbilt, leading the team to the NCAA championship match in 2003 and finishing No. 1 in the singles rankings that year. He turned pro after his junior year, but returned to complete his degree at Vanderbilt this year after retiring from the tour last year.

This post by Avery Shackelford at mytennislessons.com, entitled "Fifteen Things You'll Understand if You Played Junior Tennis", is a humorous look back at some of the experiences that make the competitive side of the sport so memorable for a young competitor. 

My Wimbledon Recap; USTA Clay Court Finals Set; Nedovyesov Tops Kyrgios in Davis Cup; Zhao Wins Pan Am Gold

My recap of the Wimbledon Junior Championships is available today at the Tennis Recruiting Network. Although Sunday was a bit bleak, in general the weather was outstanding, the best I've experienced in my four trips.  And it's always a plus for me when US juniors do well which they certainly did this year: six quarterfinalists and a singles champion and doubles finalist in Reilly Opelka.

Because Wimbledon was a week later this year, I was unable to cover the Girls 18s Clay Courts in Memphis after being there the previous seven years. All finals in the four age divisions are scheduled for Saturday. The results of today's semifinals, with full draws available by clicking the link contained in the age division heading.

Boys 18s:
Sam Riffice(1) def. Nathan Perrone(17) 6-2, 1-6, 6-2

Alexandre Rotsaert(17) def. (9) Vasil Kirkov(9)
7-6, 6-1


Girls 18s:

Ellyse Hamlin(6) def. Mia Horvit(5)

6-2, 7-6(3)

Kaitlyn McCarthy(17) def. Meible Chi

(8) 6-4, 7-5

Boys 16s:

Aleks Huryn(17) def. Kyrylo Tsygura(6) 6-3, 6-4

Danny Thomas(17) d. Robert Maciag 6-3, 6-3

Girls 16s:
Samantha Martinelli(2) def. Nicole Mossmer(4) 4-6, 6-3, 6-1
Natasha Subhash(1) def. Hannah Lairmore(3) 6-3, 6-4

Boys 14s:
Jenson Brooksby(4) def. JanMagnus Johnson 6-1, 6-7(7), 6-3
William Grant(7) def. (17) Stefan Leustian(17) 6-1, 6-2

Girls 14s:
Hailey Baptiste(17) def. Victoria Hu(8) 5-7, 6-4, 6-1
Alexa Noel(1) def.  Alana Wolfberg(4) 6-2, 6-1

Boys 12s:

Saud Alhogbani(12) def. Alexander Bernard(8) 6-4, 6-3

Karl Lee(4) def. Hugo Hashimoto(1) 7-6(4), 6-3

Girls 12s:

Elvina Kalieva(9) def. Ellie Pittman(17) 5-7, 6-3, 6-1

Charlotte Owensby(1) def. Rachel Arbitman(17) 6-2, 6-3

Davis Cup is underway, and Bobby Knight has all the results involving current and former collegians from World Group to Group III competition at College Tennis Today.  The biggest win for a college player was that of former Oklahoma State star Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan. Nedovyesov defeated Nick Kyrgios 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 7-6(5), 6-4 to give Kazakhstan a 2-0 lead over the Australians in a World Group quarterfinal in Darwin.

Also playing Davis Cup this week is 16-year-old Hady Habib, who is representing Lebanon in its relegation playoff with Sri Lanka. Habib, currently 91 in the ITF world junior rankings, is a regular on the ITF circuit here in the United States.

Other international tennis competitions concluded today, with gold medals decided at the Pacific Games and the Pan American Games.  Papua New Guinea's Abigail Tere-Apisah, the former Georgia State All-American and 2014 NCAA semifinalist, collected four gold medals, winning singles, doubles, mixed and team events.

At the Pan American Games in Toronto, the women's doubles gold went to the Canadian team of Carol Zhao(Stanford) and Gaby Dabrowski. They defeated the Mexican team of Victoria Rodriguez and Marcela Zacarias 6-1, 4-6, 10-5.  Mariana Duque-Marino of Colombia won the singles gold medal, beating Rodriguez 6-4, 6-4.  Monica Puig of Puerto Rico took the bronze with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Lauren Davis.

Fields Announced for American Collegiate Invitational at US Open

The USTA has announced 14 of the 16 participants in the American Collegiate Invitational at the US Open September 10-12, 2015. Last year's inaugural tournaments featured eight American men and eight American women in a single-elimination tournament that takes place over the Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the second week of the US Open, and this year's tournament will continue to follow that schedule. UNC's Jamie Loeb defeated Virginia's Julia Elbaba in the 2014 women's final, and both will be returning this year.  UCLA's Marcos Giron won the men's final, beating Ohio State's Peter Kobelt in the men's final. Neither of them are eligible to return. Mackenzie McDonald of UCLA is the only one of the men who competed in the tournament last year.   Jennifer Brady of UCLA, who would be eligible this year and did play last year, is not participating.  The criteria for selection, which Brady would have reached via her WTA ranking, is the top two American collegians in WTA/ATP rankings, joined by the top five in the final ITA rankings.Two wild cards, one women's and one men's, have yet to be named. The women's field: *Robin Anderson (Sr., UCLA; Matawan, N.J.) Brooke Austin (Fr., Florida; Indianapolis) Julia Elbaba (Jr., Virginia; Oyster Bay, N.Y.) *Lauren Herring (Sr., Georgia; Greenville, N.C.) Josie Kuhlman (Fr., Florida; Ponte Vedra, Fla.) Jamie Loeb (Soph., North Carolina; Ossining, N.Y.) Maegan Manasse (Soph., Cal; Redondo Beach, Calif.) The men's field: *Gonzales Austin (Sr., Vanderbilt; Miami) *Mitchell Frank (Sr., Virginia; Annandale, Va.) Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Soph., Virginia; Charlotte, N.C.) *Winston Lin (Sr., Columbia; Williamsville, N.Y.) Mackenzie McDonald (Soph., UCLA; Piedmont, Calif.) Quentin Monaghan (Jr., Notre Dame; Chatham, N.J.) Ryan Shane (Jr., Virginia; Falls Church, Va.) *Indicates player is a graduating senior and/or has turned pro/exhausted collegiate eligibility.  The American Collegiate Invitational champions will receive main draw wild card entries into the 2016 US Open if either is ranked No. 120 or better by the US Open entry deadline next summer. This ranking target is much tougher than last year's, which required the women's champion to be in the WTA Top 150 and the men's champion in the ATP Top 250. The winners will receive qualifying wild cards if they do not meet that ranking target. The champions will also get wild cards into two USTA Pro Circuit events, while each runner-up will get one. My coverage of last year's tournament is here. I have been told the tournament will feature regular scoring, not the no-ad format currently in use by the ITA.

ITF Junior Update, Non-Wimbledon Edition; USTA's US Open Wild Card Challenge; Robbye Poole's Role in Serena's Grand Slam Quest; World University Games Medal Results

While Sofya Zhuk and Reilly Opelka's Wimbledon titles highlighted last week's ITF Junior competition, plenty of junior tennis competition took place away from the purple and green of the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

The Caribbean is a popular destination this time of year for US players looking to collect points at lower level events, and Kariann Pierre-Louis swept the titles at the Grade 4 in the Bahamas.  The 16-year-old, seeded third, defeated No. 2 seed Hurricane Tyra Black 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the final, her second win in three meetings this year with the 14-year-old.  Pierre-Louis partnered Naomi Waters to also take the doubles championship, with the top seeds beating No. 2 seed Rika Tanaka and Saya Usui of Japan 6-0, 6-4 in the final.

At the Grade 4 in Canada, Americans Paris Corley and Michelle Wang won the girls doubles title in a walkover, with Canadians Stacey Fung and Katarina Kopcalic unable to compete in the final.

There is a Grade 1 on clay in Austria this week, with two American girls through to the second round.  Nada Dimovska qualified and won her first round match; Victoria Emma will play No. 10 seed Jade Lewis of New Zealand after winning her first round match.  Emily Arbuthnott of Great Britain in the top girls seed, with Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece the No. 1 boys seed. Sami Kirberg and Sean Hill, the two American boys in the draw, lost their first round matches.

In US Pro Circuit action last week, two-time NCAA champion Somdev Devvarman of India won the $50,000 Challenger in Winnetka, beating former USC star Daniel Nguyen 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(5) in the longest final in ATP Challenger history, a three hour and 31 minute match that ended at 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning.   Jonathan Kelley covered the tournament throughout the week (although not the final) for his On The Rise blog, so check out his coverage and interviews from the only Pro Circuit event in the US last week.

This week marks the beginning of the USTA's US Open Wild Card Challenge for women, which kicks off at the $50,000 Stockton, California tournament.  The best two results in three events, with Sacramento and Lexington Challengers in the following two weeks will earn one American woman a place in the US Open main draw.  For more on the Wild Card Challenge (the men's version begins next week in Binghamton, New York), see usta.com.

In today's action in Stockton, former Stanford Kristie Ahn qualified for the main draw, and Jamie Loeb, Jennifer Brady and Danielle Lao advanced to the second round.  Wild card Loeb defeated Caitlin Whoriskey 7-6(5), 7-6(4), Brady took out No. 2 seed Eri Hozumi of Japan 6-3, 6-3, and wild card Lao beat Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-1.

When I was at Wimbledon I saw former Clemson and Ole Miss star Robbye Poole at several junior matches, on the days when his new employer, Serena Williams, was not playing.  Now serving as her hitting partner, a position he first took this spring at Indian Wells thanks to a referral from John Isner, Poole will be on the inside while the world's No. 1 attempts to complete the Grand Slam in New York next month. For more on how he got the job, see this article on the Ole Miss website.

The World University Games in Korea are wrapping up, with the tennis competition completed over the weekend. The medal results are available here.  Former University of Memphis star Joe Salisbury and Darren Walsh, who played at SMU, won the gold medal in men's doubles for Great Britain, and recent Clemson standout Beatrice Gumulya of Indonesia took the bronze in women's singles.  Hyeon Chung of Korea won the men's singles gold and Kai-chen Chang of Taiwan the women's singles gold.

Joffe Leaves Texas A&M for Texas; Neel, Mmoh and Opelka into Semifinals at Roehampton; Wimbledon Junior Qualifying Draws

The highest profile women's head coaching position open this summer has been filled, with Texas A&M's Howard Joffe leaving College Station to take over the University of Texas job in Austin.

Joffe was at Texas A&M for four years and led the Aggies to the finals of the NCAAs in 2013. Prior to his four years in College Station, Joffe was head coach at the University of Maryland and Miami of Ohio, and an assistant at Southern California, all in the women's programs.  The complete release is here.

At the ITF Grade 1 in Roehampton, all three American juniors who reached the quarterfinals won today to move into the semifinals. Ingrid Neel, who has something of an old-school grass game, defeated No. 2 seed Shilin Xu of China 7-5, 6-1 and will play No. 3 seed Dalma Galfi of Hungary in Thursday's semifinal.  Top seed Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic will play No. 5 seed Katie Swan of Great Britain in the other girls semifinal.

No. 3 seed Michael Mmoh downed No. 6 seed Marcelo Barrios Vera of Chile 6-2, 6-3 and No. 16 seed Reilly Opelka defeated No. 12 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-7(7), 6-4, 7-6(5) to set up their fifth meeting since last August, with each having won twice. Mmoh defeated Opelka in the quarterfinals of the French Open junior championships last month.  The other boys semifinal will feature No. 7 seed Akira Santillan of Japan against No. 5 seed Viktor Durasovic of Norway.

Three US boys have reached the doubles semifinals.  Tommy Paul and William Blumberg, the No. 2 seeds, and unseeded Ulises Blanch and his partner Juan Pablo Ficovich of Argentia will play for a place in the final.

The qualifying draws for the Wimbledon Junior Championships are out, with play beginning at Roehampton on Thursday.  Seven US juniors are in qualifying: Raquel Pedraza, Mia Horvit, Meghan Kelley, Gabby Pollner, Catalin Mateas, Liam Caruana and Emily Reinberg.  Draws and the order of play can be found at the ITF junior website.

In the men's and women's second round Wednesday, seven Americans advanced, two men and five women making the third round, with No. 21 seed Madison also finishing off her first round match against Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland. No. 17 seed John Isner defeated wild card Matt Ebden of Australia 6-2, 7-6(8), 6-4 and wild card Denis Kudla topped 18-year-old Alexander Zverev 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-4.

Top seed Serena Williams (d. Timea Babos of Hungary 6-4, 6-1), Venus Williams (d. Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 7-6(5), 6-4) and Sloane Stephens (d. Lauren Davis 6-4, 6-4) all won as expected. CoCo Vandeweghe and Bethanie Mattek-Sands pulled off upsets, with Vandeweghe taking out No. 11 seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 7-6(5), 6-4 and Mattek-Sands outplaying No. 7 seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4.

Keys, Christina McHale and Sam Querrey are the Americans on the schedule for Thursday's singles play.

The links to the draws are here.

Querrey, McHale Sole US Winners Tuesday at Wimbledon; Mmoh, Opelka and Neel Reach Roehampton Quarterfinals; William and Mary's Daub Retires

After a relatively good opening day Monday, only two Americans posted wins at Wimbledon Tuesday: Sam Querrey and Christina McHale.  No. 21 seed Madison Keys was at 2-2 in the third set of her match with Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland when play was suspended due to darkness.

Querrey defeated qualifier Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to a Thursday match with No. 2 seed Roger Federer, while McHale downed Joanna Larsson of Sweden 6-3, 6-2 and will play No. 18 seed Sabine Lisicki of Germany Thursday.

No. 31 seed Jack Sock fell to Sam Groth of Australia 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 and Tim Smyczek was beaten by No. 30 seed Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.  Varvara Lepchenko lost to No. 20 seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain 6-4, 6-1 and qualifier Sachia Vickery fell to No. 8 seed Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-2, 6-4.

American men in action on Wednesday include No. 17 seed John Isner (vs wild card Matthew Ebden of Australia), wild card Denis Kudla (vs 18-year-old Alexander Zverev of Germany) and Steve Johnson (vs No. 11 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria).

Six US women play on Wednesday, with two of them playing each other in Lauren Davis and Sloane Stephens. Top seed Serena Williams faces Timea Babos of Hungary and No. 16 seed Venus Williams will take on Yulia Putintseva of Russia.  CoCo Vandeweghe is up against No. 11 seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic and qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands plays No. 7 seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia.

I neglected to mention yesterday the big win for 2014 Wimbledon girls champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia on Monday. Given a main draw wild card by the All England Club (she had already earned a place in qualifying), the 18-year-old made good use of it, defeating Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-2, 6-0. She will play Kristina Mladenovic of France on Wednesday.



Draws are here; Wednesday's order of play is here.

The quarterfinals are set for the ITF Grade 1 in Roehampton, with three Americans advancing to the final eight in singles.  Ingrid Neel defeated No. 6 seed Charlotte Robillard-Millette of Canada 6-3, 6-3 and will face No. 2 seed Shilin Xu of China, who defeated No. 16 seed Caroline Dolehide 6-3, 6-4.

No. 3 seed Michael Mmoh downed unseeded Kenneth Raisma of Estonia 6-3, 6-4 to set up a meeting with No. 6 seed Marcelo Barrios Vera of Chile.  Reilly Opelka, the No. 16 seed, took out No. 2 seed Corentin Denolly of France 7-6(6), 6-4 and will play No. 12 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece.  No. 4 seed Tommy Paul lost 6-3, 6-3 to Alex Molcan of Slovakia, ending Paul's winning streak at 13 matches. Ulises Blanch fell to No. 5 seed Viktor Durasovic of Norway 6-3, 6-4.

Blanch is still alive in doubles, with Argentina's Juan Pablo Ficovic, and No. 2 seeds Paul and William Blumberg have also advanced to the doubles quarterfinals.

Tornado Alicia Black, partnering Australian Naiktha Bains, is the only US girls still remaining in the doubles competition.

A few college notes:

Peter Daub has resigned from the men's head coaching position at William and Mary after 22 years. According to the release, a national search is being conducted for his successor.

Former University of Michigan star Brooke Bolender has been named assistant coach for the women's team at Western Michigan University. Former WMU assistant Ryan Tomlinson took over the head coaching position from the retiring Betsy Kuhle at the end of the season. Kuhle has not retired from tennis however, as she continues to be active in her role as tournament director for the upcoming USTA Zonals.

Madison Harrison, the sister of Ryan and Christian Harrison, has transferred from Kansas to Mississippi State.

The ITA Summer Circuit is underway (Harrison was one of the early winners) in venues across the country.  See the ITA website for draws and entry information.

The ITA's David Benjamin will retire Wednesday, with Tim Russell taking over as Executive Director.  Dave "The Koz" Kozlowski has prepared a video tribute, which can be found here.

There are again three USTA Pro Circuit events in the US this week: a $10,000 men's Futures in Pittsburgh, a $15,000 men's Futures in Wichita and a $25,000 women's event in El Paso.

A couple of notable results from today's action:  2014 Kalamazoo 16s champion John McNally, a wild card,  picked up his first ATP point in Pittsburgh, beating No. 7 seed Collin Johns 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-0 in the first round.

In El Paso, Cal junior Maegan Manasse, also a wild card, defeated No. 5 seed Samantha Crawford 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 in the first round.

Vickery, Mattek-Sands Qualify for Wimbledon; ITA Names Collegiate All-Stars, Oracle Masters Field

Qualifying was completed on schedule today at Wimbledon with Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sachia Vickery advancing to the main draw.

Mattek-Sands, who has won the first two legs of a women's doubles Grand Slam with Lucie Safarova, is a veteran of the women's main draw, although she hasn't won a main draw match at Wimbledon since 2008, when she made the fourth round.  She defeated No. 11 seed Shahar Peer of Israel 6-1, 6-4 today and will learn her opponent when the draw is made on Friday.

At 20, Vickery is 10 years younger than Mattek-Sands, and she will be making her Wimbledon main draw debut. The No. 4 seed, who won the USTA 18s title in 2013, defeated Jessica Pegula 7-5, 7-5 in today's final round of qualifying.

Louisa Chirico, the No. 3 seed in qualifying, lost to Yi-Fan Xu of China 7-5, 6-3, but she drew the No. 1 lucky loser position, so if any of the 128 entries withdraw, she will get in.  Anna Tatishvili also lost in today's final round of qualifying going out to Ying-Ying Duan of China 6-2, 6-4.

For complete draws, see the Wimbledon website.

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced its Collegiate All-Star Team yesterday. These are the players who have been invited to the Oracle/ITA Outing & Awards Luncheon held at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, NY, on Friday, August 28, prior to the start of the US Open: (The Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award winners are also invited and are included below.)

Divison I Singles
Axel Alvarez, Oklahoma (ITA Player of the Year)
Ryan Shane, Virginia
Brayden Schnur, North Carolina
Sebastian Stiefelmeyer, University of Louisville (Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award recipient)
Robin Anderson, UCLA (ITA Player of the Year)
Jamie Loeb, North Carolina
Julia Elbaba, Virginia
Lorraine Guillermo, Pepperdine University (Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award recipient)

Division I Doubles
Diego Galeano and Julian Lenz, Baylor
Yannick Hanfmann and Robert Quiroz, Southern Cal
Lloyd Glasspool and Soren Hess-Olesen, Texas

Maya Jansen and Erin Routliffe, Alabama
Taylor Davidson and Carol Zhao, Stanford
Kyle McPhillips and Catherine Harrison, UCLA

Division II
Jan Meyer Azusa Pacific
Mark Heimberger, Palm Beach Atlantic University (Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award recipient)
Dallas Zhang, BYU Hawaii
Lauren Howard, West Liberty University (Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award recipient)

Division III
Warren Wood, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
Tyler Carey, University of Mary Washington (Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award recipient)
Eudice Chong, Wesleyan
Rebecca Curran, Williams College (Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award recipient)

NAIA
Deni Zmak, Embry-Riddle
Wesley Ng, Missouri Valley College (Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award recipient)
Valeria Rodda, Georgia Gwinnett
Clara Ruegsegger, Olivet Nazarene University (Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award recipient)

Junior and Community Colleges
Hironori Koyanagi, Ventura
Shane Trebisky, Meridian Community College (Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award recipient)
Macarena Olivares, ASA
Cassidy McWhorter, Eastern Arizona College (Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award recipient)

Today the ITA announced the field for September's inaugural ITA/Oracle Masters, a tournament in Malibu for top Division I college players. See the singles fields below.  Notable absentees from the women's 2015 final Top 10 are: Carol Zhao, Jamie Loeb, Brooke Austin and Josie Kuhlman. Mackenzie McDonald of UCLA is a Top 10 men's player not competing. The doubles teams can be found in this article from the ITA.