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.

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.

Price Outlasts Herring for Charlotte $10K Title; Olmos Wins Second Straight Singles Crown in Mexico; Sandgren, Baughman Also Claim Titles; Katie Swan Feature

Caroline Price (photo via twitter)

Recent North Carolina graduate Caroline Price won her first pro title Sunday, outlasting recent Georgia graduate Lauren Herring 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the final of the $10,000 women's Pro Circuit event in Charlotte, North Carolina.  The 22-year-old Price, a wild card, got a break at 3-4 in the third set of the three-hour match and held on for the win over Herring, who was playing in her eighth match in nine days, not including doubles.

It was a great week for both women, who were playing their first tournament since competing at last month's NCAAs.

Giuliana Olmos (photo via Facebook)

Price lost in the second round of the NCAA singles tournament last month, as did another of this week's champions, Southern Cal rising senior Giuliana Olmos. Olmos captured her second straight title this week in Mexico at a $10,000 tournament in Manzanillo after winning her first pro title the previous week. Receiving main draw entry via a special exemption, she beat the No. 1 seed in the semifinals, WTA No. 335 Fernanda Brito of Chile, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(4) and defeated No. 2 seed and WTA No. 363 Gaia Sanesi of Italy 6-1, 6-2 in today's final. Olmos also reached the doubles final, with Constanza Gorches of Mexico, falling to top seeds Camila Fuentes of Mexico and Francesca Segarelli (Florida State) of the Dominican Republic 2-6, 6-4, 10-5.

At the $15,000 ITF Futures in Charlottesville, Virginia, No. 3 seed Tennys Sandgren took the title, beating Ernesto Escobedo, seeded eighth, 6-4, 6-4.  Sandgren had reached three Futures finals in the past month, with this his second Futures title in 2015.

At the $15,000 Futures tournament in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 19-year-old Deiton Baughman won his second career Futures title. The No. 6 seed beat top seed Nils Langer of Germany  0-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the semifinals and in the final outlasted No. 8 seed Duje Kekez of Croatia 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.

This week's ITF Grade 1 in Germany is complete, with players from India claiming both singles titles.  No. 5 seed Sumit Nagal defeated No. 3 seed Mate Valkusz of Hungary 7-6(5), 6-4 for the boys championship, while unseeded Karman Kaur Thandi beat No. 15 seed Jessica Hinojosa Gomez of Mexico 6-1, 6-4 to take the girls title.

Valkusz won the boys doubles title with Tim Sandkaulen of Germany with the No. 2 seeds beating top seeds Marcelo Barrios Vera of Chile and Jake Delaney of Australia 6-4, 6-3.  No. 8 seeds Olivia Hauger and her partner Jade Lewis of New Zealand fell in the girls doubles final to unseeded Jule Niemeier and Linda Puppendahl of Germany 1-6, 6-1, 10-3.

In Challengers overseas, No. 7 seed Bjorn Fratangelo fell to unseeded 19-year-old Elias Ymer of Sweden 6-3, 6-2 in the final of the €106,500 tournament in Italy, and No. 4 seed Denis Kudla lost to unseeded Matthew Ebden of Australia 6-7(4), 64, 7-6(5) in the final of the €42,500 tournament in England.

Seventeen-year-old Ana Konjuh of Croatia has reached her first WTA final after beating both Sachia Vickery and Alison Riske today in rain-delayed quarterfinal and semifinal matches in England. The 2013 Australian and US Open girls champion will face Monica Niculescu of Romania in the Nottingham final on Monday.

Sixteen-year-old Katie Swan of Great Britain, who lives in the US, will make her WTA debut Monday at the Premier tournament in Birmingham. The wild card, who reached the Australian Open girls final this year, will face Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria.  Swan is the subject of this Daily Mail feature, which casts her in the role of Britain's top prospect among the juniors.

ITF Team Qualifying Recap; Oosterhout Upsets Top Seed Townsend; NCAA Final Lineups Posted; Assorted Features on Young Pros

My recap of the three days of North/Central American qualifying for the ITF team events is available today at the Tennis Recruiting Network. It was my first opportunity to cover an ITF team competition and although it was short on drama, I'm sure the US is happy with four first-place finishes and a chance to compete again with the other 15 teams seeking a world championship.

Qualifying was completed at the $50,000 Pro Circuit event in Indian Harbour Beach, Florida, which is the third and final tournament which will decide the USTA's French Open wild card.  Louisa Chirico, one of the three women still in the running for the wild card, qualified today with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Sonya Kenin, and although she would have been seeded under the men's ITF rules, she is not seeded in the main draw, despite having the second highest WTA ranking of any of those in the main draw.  She drew Justyna Jegiolka of Poland for her first round,  and cannot meet Katerina Stewart or Allie Kiick, her two rivals for the wild card, until the finals. Kiick and Stewart could meet in the semifinals.

Chirico will not have to face top seed and defending champion Taylor Townsend, who was playing her first match since Indian Wells today.  Townsend, who won the reciprocal wild card to the French Open last year, lost to 17-year-old Harvard recruit Erica Oosterhout 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. The wild card, ranked 894 to Townsend's 115, kept her composure and didn't beat herself, while Townsend looked rusty and often impatient.

Oosterhout was not the only incoming freshman with a big win today, as wild card Rianna Valdes, who will be joining the Southern Cal team this fall, defeated No. 4 seed Patricia Tig of Romania, ranked 179, 6-2, 6-3.

Live streaming of the tournament is available through the USTA Pro Circuit website.

The final NCAA Division I lineups, which have gone through the challenge process, have been posted.  The lineups for the men's teams are here.
The women's lineups are here.

Several features on young pros came out in the past several days.  Hyeon Chung of Korea, one of just two teenagers in the ATP Top 100, had a conversation with Hyung-taik Lee, the 39-year-old Korean who reached the ATP rank of 36 back in 2007, the highest ranking of any man from that country.

A detailed look on Reilly Opelka's decision to turn pro, with quotes from Jay Berger, Tom Gullikson, Lagardere's Sam Duvall and Justin Gimelstob, can be found at Flaglerlive.com.  Lisa Stone also spoke at length with Reilly's father George for her weekly blog radio show, which can be found here.

Christian Harrison is back on the court, playing points and preparing for a return late this summer, according to this article from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Few players, save maybe Brian Baker, have every dealt with so many injuries and illnesses, and they are all detailed here. Everyone who knows Christian is hoping all that is behind him and he can have a stretch of good health that will allow him to compete regularly.

Jon Wertheim spoke with Frances Tiafoe about his recent success, the French wild card, his coaching situation and Jay-Z in this article for Sports Illustrated.

Coric Hires New Coach; Rybakov Earns First ATP Point; Americans Top Seeds in Bolivia ITF Grade 3; ATP Top 100 Age Data

Croatia's Borna Coric, the youngest player in the ATP Top 100, split from his British coach Ryan Jones recently and just announced he will be working with Zeljko Krajan, the Croatian Davis Cup coach.

Krajan has coached Dinara Safina, Dominika Cibulkova, and, for a short time, Jelena Jankovic and Laura Robson. Coric's management agency Starwing posted an announcement on the hiring on its Facebook page, with Coric, who turns 18 next week, quoted as saying:

"I am happy to announce that as of immediately I will be working with Zeljko. He has a world of experience on the tour and I'm very much looking forward to spending time and learning from him. Really believe we can be a great team and hopefully achieve together big things."

Coric, the 2013 US Open boys champion, is the top seed at the €64,000+Hospitality ATP Challenger in France this week. He was the subject of this Reuters feature a few days ago, and in it he explains how he handled his emotions when playing Rafael Nadal at the Swiss Indoors last month.

At the $10,000 Futures in Birmingham, 17-year-old Alex Rybakov picked up his first ATP point, with the wild card defeating No. 6 seed Arthur Surreaux of France 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.  Rybakov had played 13 previous Futures, losing ten times in qualifying and three times in the first round of the main draw.  He also advanced in doubles with former Ole Miss star Catalin Gard of Romania. Rybakov may meet friend Reilly Opelka in the second round, if Opelka defeats Antoine Richard of Canada in the first round Wednesday.   In the only other singles match of the day, University of Miami freshman Piotr Lomacki of Poland also took out a seed, No. 8 Mikhail Fufygin of Russia, 7-5, 6-2. 

Qualifying is complete at the two $50,000 Pro Circuit tournaments, with three American men earning a place in the main draw in Knoxville, but no American women getting through in Captiva.  Tennys Sandgren, Eric Quigley and Sekou Bangoura, as well as Great Britain's Marcus Willis, advanced in Knoxville. In first round play today, Jared Donaldson defeated fellow wild card Daniel Nguyen 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 despite getting only 35 percent of his first serves in play.  In Florida, Jan Abaza and Katerina Stewart lost in the final round of qualifying. In first round action, Louisa Chirico beat Connie Hsu of Taiwan 7-5, 6-1. 

At the ITF Grade 3 in Bolivia, Americans Catalin Mateas and Olivia Hauger are the top seeds in the boys and girls draws.  In addition to Mateas and Hauger, several other Americans made the trip, with Brian Shi, Maria Mateas, Ally Miller-Krasilnikov(4), as well as qualifier Katie LaFrance, competing in the main draw.

I ran across this graphic breakdown of the current ATP Top 100 with research on when each of these players broke into the Top 100 and where they were ranked at age 20.  I noticed however, that Steve Johnson's age of breaking into the Top 100 is given as 25, which is not correct, since the 37th-ranked Johnson is only 24 right now.  So don't take the specifics too literally, although the theme--that every player's pace is unique--is probably still valid.

Orange Bowl Acceptances Include Xu, Bellis, Ostapenko, Bouzkova, Rublev and Kozlov; Harrington and Wagner Top Seeds at USTA Collegiate Clay Court Invitational

The acceptances for the Metropolia Orange Bowl were released today, with the initial girls field an exceptionally strong one. The top three girls in the ITF Junior rankings--Shilin Xu of China, CiCi Bellis and Wimbledon girls champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia--have all entered, as has US Open girls champion Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic.

In addition to Bellis, other US girls in the main draw are Raveena Kingsley, Usue Arconada, 2013 Orange Bowl semifinalist Sonya Kenin, Dasha Ivanova, Michaela Gordon, Jessica Ho and Mia Horvit.  Tornado Alicia Black is not entered, although she could always request a wild card should she decide to play. Although both are still age-eligible, neither of last year's finalists--champion Varvara Flink of Russia and Ivana Jorovic of Serbia--has entered.

Two years ago the Orange Bowl results decided the ITF World Junior champion, with Taylor Townsend clinching it there, and this year's champion could also come down to the 2014 calendar's last Grade A.

This feature on Xu from China Daily says she is scheduled to play the Eddie Herr (although that tournament is a week earlier, the entry deadline is a week later than the Orange Bowl) and will also be defending her singles and doubles titles at the Grade B1 in Korea next month.  Xu is not entered in the Abierto Juvenil Grade A in Mexico City next month however, so Bellis can gain ground there, but as of right now there are way too many tournaments left to even speculate that the top spot will come down to those two players.  But it does make for an interesting six weeks coming up.

Current boys No. 1 is Andrey Rublev of Russia, and he is entered in both upcoming Grade As. 2013 Orange Bowl finalist Stefan Kozlov, a frequent doubles partner of Rublev, is now No. 4 in the ITF rankings and he is entered only in the Orange Bowl.  Rublev, who won the French this year, is the only junior slam champion in the field, with Alexander Zverev of Germany, Noah Rubin and Omar Jasika of Australia not playing.  Defending champion Francis Tiafoe is also not entered in either Grade A, so his current ITF ranking of 7 will drop. Rublev is not defending any points the rest of the year except in doubles, so he is in the good position to retain the top spot.

Other US boys who received direct acceptance into the Orange Bowl are Taylor Fritz, Michael Mmoh, Alex Rybakov, Henrik Wiersholm, Dennis Uspensky, Sameer Kumar, Reilly Opelka, William Blumberg and Kalman Boyd.

The USTA Collegiate Clay Court Invitational begins tomorrow in Orlando, with live streaming available at ESPN3 beginning at 8 a.m. There is no streaming for Friday and Saturday's matches, but the coverage will return for the finals on Sunday. Clemson's Hunter Harrington and Miami's Stephanie Wagner are the top seeds.  See the Florida State page for links to the draws with match times.

ITF Top-ranked Juniors Rublev, Bellis Lead Entries to Mexican Grade A; Coric Defeats Gulbis; Zverev Feature; Former Collegians on Wall Street

The acceptance lists for the ITF Grade A Abierto Juvenil Mexicano, which moved from January to November and onto clay were released today and both No. 1s--CiCi Bellis and Andrey Rublev of Russia--have entered.

The tournament in Mexico City, which begins Nov. 17, is the first of four consecutive weeks of major clay court events on the ITF junior circuit, with the Grade 1 Yucatan Cup, the Grade 1 Eddie Herr and the Grade A Orange Bowl following it. With the Orange Bowl, the last tournament of the year, ending on December 14th and the first Grade 1 of 2015 not until January 5th, this actually provides something like an off-season, even if only three weeks, and an opportunity to be home for the holidays. Previously, the Abierto Juvenil began around Christmas even though the points counted for the following year.

This year's US entries in the girls main draw are: Bellis, Usue Arconada, Michaela Gordon, Olivia Hauger, Jessica Ho, Mia Horvit, Raquel Pedraza and Kelly Chen.

US boys in the main draw are: Michael Mmoh, Taylor Fritz, Alex Rybakov, Sameer Kumar, William Blumberg, Kalman Boyd, Ulises Blanch, Nathan Ponwith, Robert Levine, Catalin Mateas and Anudeep Kodali.

The complete lists can be found at the ITF junior website.

At the current ITF Grade A in Osaka, Japan, rain disrupted the schedule for Wednesday, but No. 4 seed Taylor Fritz did advance to the third round.  No. 14 seed Mia Horvit, who did not play her second round match, is the only other American with a chance to reach the third round.

Seventeen-year-old wild card Borna Coric of Croatia defeated No. 6 seed Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 7-6(2), 6-3 in the first round of the ATP 500 tournament in Basel, making him the first 17-year-old to win matches in three different tour events in the same year since Rafael Nadal did it in 2003.  Coric will play Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan Thursday for an opportunity to face No. 2 seed Nadal in the quarterfinals. For more on Coric's win, see the ATP website.

The ATP website provided a feature on 2014 Australian Open boys champion Alexander Zverev of Germany, who lost today in Basel to No. 5 seed Grigor Dimitrov 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.  Zverev, also 17, is expected to join Coric in the next generation of ATP stars, and in the article, Andy Murray and John Isner give their views on his potential.

Business Insider regularly updates its readers on who plays tennis with whom on Wall Street, and I believe I posted a link to this article from last year (since updated) on the many former college stars now working in finance in the area.  There's another such article today, with video of James Blake, rumored to be in contention for the USTA's General Manager of Player Development vacancy. I missed earlier that former Notre Dame standout Stephen Bass is now a professional poker player and am still trying to determine who is the "extremely tall 22-year-old, who was a former top-ranked NCAA doubles player with a 4.0 GPA at a southern university more known for its football" who has captured investment banker Jeffrey Appel's attention.  Any ideas?

Clarke, Kuhar Win New Balance National High School Championships; Coric Advances to Quarterfinals at ATP's Umag; Papa, Chen, Arconada Reach Futures Quarterfinals

The first annual New Balance High School Tennis Championships were completed today in Cambridge, Mass, with No. 2 seeds in both the boys and girls draws winning the title. Madison Clarke, a rising senior from Phoenix, won the girls championship, defeating No. 5 seed Jenna Moustafa of Los Angeles, a rising sophomore, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the final. The boys final was also a three-setters, with Matt Kuhar of Rhode Island, who will be competing for Bryant University this fall, defeating No. 7 seed Maxwell Cancilla, a rising junior from Huntington Beach, Calif., 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.  For complete draws, see the TennisLink site.

Another week, another 17-year-old making waves on the ATP Tour. 2013 US Open boys champion Borna Coric of Croatia received a wild card into Umag, in his home country, and he has beaten tour veterans Edouard Roger Vasselin of France, the No. 7 seed, and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina, to advance to the quarterfinals. He will play top seed Fabio Fognini of Italy next.  

After so many years without any male teenagers in the top 200, all of sudden we have three: Nick Kyrgios of Australia, Alexander Zverev of Germany and with his win today, Coric.  Is this a trend? It's too early to tell, but for more on Coric's win today, see this from Steve Tignor at tennis.com. (Don't put much stock in his ATP height references. Those are notoriously inaccurate.)

Teenagers at the Austin, Texas $10,000 tournament for women and the Godfrey, Illinois $10,000 tournament for men, also had a good day. Eighteen-year-old Spencer Papa, who had beaten No. 3 seed and current Wimbledon boys champion Noah Rubin in the first round, defeated TCU's Nick Chappell 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals.  Papa, who starts at Tulsa this fall, had advanced to the final of a Futures in Mexico earlier this month, and reached the quarterfinals at last week's Futures tournament on his future campus. One of the unfortunate results of the current entry system for the Nationals is that Papa, who will not be 19 until October, was unable to get a wild card into Kalamazoo, with all eight going to other (deserving) players.  Certainly setting aside four wild cards for qualifying should be considered when suggestions for improving the new system are solicited.

Papa is one of five Americans in the quarterfinals, with UNC's Ronnie Schneider, Virginia's Mitchell Frank and former collegians Daniel Nguyen(USC) and Jeff Dadamo(Texas A&M) the others.

In Austin, 15-year-olds Usue Arconada and Kelly Chen are through to the quarterfinals, with Chen going directly from the Clay Courts in Memphis to the qualifying in Austin.  Arconada and Chen are joined in the quarterfinals by three former US collegians: Alex Guarachi of Alabama (last week's Vancouver $10K winner), 2013 NCAA finalist Mary Weatherholt (Nebraska), who play each other in a rematch of the 2013 NCAA semifinals, won 6-0, 6-3 by Weatherholt,  and recent Florida graduate Alex Cercone of Florida, who faces Chen.

At the $50,000 Lexington Challenger, two-time NCAA champion Nicole Gibbs kept her hopes for a third straight US Open wild card alive, saving a match point in her 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-2 win over UCLA rising sophomore Jennifer Brady.  Gibbs, Oudin and Brengle, all into the quarterfinals, still have an opportunity to win the USTA's Wild Card Challenge.

At the men's $50,000 Challenger in Lexington, Chase Buchanan(Ohio State) and Wayne Odesnik are the sole Americans still in the singles draw.

For those waiting for a release from the University of Virginia on Andres Pedroso's decision to leave his position as men's assistant, it's here.

New Balance High School Tournament Underway; Sarkissian Wins Futures in Canada; Teens Making Inroads; Pasha Receives ATP Atlanta Wild Card

The inaugural New Balance High School tournament began today in Cambridge, Mass., with Grant Solomon and Stephanie Schrage the top seeds.  So far, the seeding, which I understand was done with the help of the Universal Tennis Rating system, has held up well, with only 4 seeds--2 boys and 2 girls--losing in today's first round of the 64-player draw. The complete draws can be found at the TennisLink site.

Scott Gerber of OhioTennisZone.com compiled a review of this week's fields, using the Tennis Recruiting Network as a basis for his analysis.  Some of the players have since dropped out, but it provides data to assess the strength of the field.  Gerber also recently put together a detailed report on all the participants in June's Midwest Closed.

Last night after I posted my review of the Pro Circuit, 2014 NCAA finalist Alex Sarkissian(Pepperdine) won his first Futures title, at a $15,000 tournament in Canada.  Sarkissian, the No. 6 seed, defeated top seed Connor Smith(Ohio State) 7-6(3), 6-4. No. 2 seeds Daniel Chu of Canada and Kyle McMorrow(Washington) won the doubles title, beating unseeded  Riaan Du Toit and Alejandro Tabilo of Canada 6-2, 5-7 10-7.

Had I not been covering the Girls 18s Clays last week, I would have paid much more attention to the impressive results of 17-year-old Alexander Zverev of Germany, the 2013 ITF World Junior Champion and 16-year-old Ana Konjuh of Croatia, who won two junior slams last year.  Zverev, as a wild card, reached the semifinals of the ATP 500 in Hamburg and Konjuh reached the semifinals of the WTA International in Instanbul.  Teen breakthroughs may have slowed a bit on the women's side, but still exist, while on the men's side, teenagers have had difficulty just getting into the Top 100, let alone going deep in ATP tournaments or slams.  Whether Zverev, and 19-year old Nick Kyrgios of Australia are outliers or the start of a trend remains to be seen, but Zverev's week has put him in the company of some impressive players when viewed historically.  Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times spoke with both Konjuh and Zverev after their dream weeks for this article.

Qualifying for this week's ATP tournament in Atlanta is complete, and due to late withdrawals of Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet and Radek Stepanek, three lucky losers got into the main draw, as well as four qualifiers. Kevin King(Georgia Tech), who lost to JP Smith(Tennessee) in the final round of qualifying was the only loser in the final qualifying round who did not get into the main draw.  Wild cards went to Ryan Harrison, Robby Ginepri and the University of Georgia's Nathan Pasha.  Pasha's wild card was originally offered to Georgia's Austin Smith, but his failure to withdraw from the Godfrey Futures this week left him unable to accept the wild card, so it went to teammate Pasha instead.  Pasha will play Lucas Lacko of Slovakia in the first round Tuesday night. For more on the wild card situation, see this article from georgiadogs.com.

My Interview with ITA Rookie of the Year Brayden Schnur; Division III Final Rankings, All-Americans Revealed; Stewart, Langmo Win Florida Championships

At last month's NCAA tournament, I interviewed several coaches and student-athletes for an article I'm writing on college tennis for the US Open program.  I spoke to North Carolina freshman Brayden Schnur, who I thought would provide some perspective from outside the US college sports culture, and I was particularly interested in his decision to enter college even after he had success on the Futures circuit last summer.  I was impressed with his long term view, and I was also surprised by the support for college tennis at Tennis Canada, where Schnur trained prior to attending North Carolina.  The question and answer session with one of the new stars of college tennis is available now at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

The Division III final rankings and All-America teams have been announced, with no surprises.  The Emory women and Amherst men, both of whom won the team championships last month,  ended the year at the top spot.  Both singles champions also finished atop the rankings, with Emory's Gabby Clark and Amherst's Joey Fritz closing out their careers with two NCAA titles.  The list of the Division III All-Americans is here.  For the release with the links to the rankings, see the ITA website.

The Bobby Curtis Florida State Championships ended today, with Katerina Stewart and Christian Langmo winning the 18s divisions.  It was Stewart's fourth title, putting her in elite company, with Luanne Spadea the most recent girl to accomplish that, back in 1987. Chris Evert, who won five, and Evert's sister Jeanne, who won four, are also in that select group.  Stewart, the No. 9 seed, defeated No. 6 seed Gaby Pollner 6-2, 6-2 in the final.

No. 8 seed Langmo, who will starting at the University of Miami in the fall, won his first state title, beating top seed Dan Stefan in a 7-5, 2-6, 7-6(7) thriller.

For more coverage of the tournament, including photos of all the champions in the 12s, 14s, 16s and 18s divisions (and some of Bobby Curtis himself), see this article from the USTA Florida website.

Complete draws for the 16s and 18s are at this TennisLink site.  Draws for the 12s and 14s are here.