Women's Team Indoor Begins Friday; Stanford Women Top Recruiting Class Rankings; Osaka Beats Gibbs in Midland; Sewing and Sanford Reach Inka Bowl Semifinals

The ITA Women's Team Indoor Championships begins on Friday at the Boars Head Club in Charlottesville, Virginia, and for the first time in four years, I won't be covering it, due to the scoring change. I went last year when the format included a match tiebreaker in lieu of a third set and was dismayed by that experiment, and I'm not interested in repeating that experience this year with no-ad.  I'll still provide updates, but I'm the first to admit there's nothing like being there, and I won't have photos and quotes.

There is a new blog out there however, called College Tennis Today, which is a great source for all you need to know about the big matches in Division I college tennis.  Although it says it is about men's tennis, there has been coverage of some women's matches, and the page on the Women's Team Indoor has all the information you'll need, with links to the live scoring, live streaming and the lineups.  The schedule for the first round Friday:

9 am:
North Carolina(3) v Oklahoma State
Alabama(6) v Miami

noon:
Duke(4) v TCU
Cal(5) v Vanderbilt

3:30 pm:
UCLA(1) v Kentucky
Georgia(8) v Michigan

6:30 pm:
Virginia(7) v Southern Cal
Florida(2) v Clemson

While I was covering the Pro Circuit tournament in Midland, the Tennis Recruiting Network published its women's recruiting class winter rankings, and it was Stanford barely edging Duke for the No. 1 class. Following those two were Michigan, North Carolina and Southern Cal. The complete list is here.

I've returned from Midland after two days, but I'm obviously following the tournament closely, watching the live streaming whenever I can. Tonight, from the comfort of my den, I watched 17-year-old Naomi Osaka of Japan defeat top seed Nicole Gibbs 1-6, 6-2, 6-4.  Osaka could have gone away after the first set, or after losing her 2-0 lead in the third set, but she kept swinging, going for the lines and keeping Gibbs from dictating points. (It should be said that Gibbs appeared to be having wrist issues, which she mentioned in passing when I spoke to her about her first round win on Wednesday).  At 3-3 in the third set, Osaka was down a break point, but saved it with an ace, and held at love in her next service game to go up 5-4.  Gibbs made two unforced errors to fall behind 0-30 and Osaka took advantage of that situation, going for the line with a forehand on the next point and making it, giving her three match points. She only needed one, taking a big cut at a Gibbs second serve and watching as Gibbs attempt to get it back went wide.

Osaka will now play No. 8 seed Louisa Chirico, who had a routine 6-1, 6-2 win over qualifier Naomi Cavaday of Great Britain. No. 3 seed Jovana Jaksic of Serbia lost to Bernarda Pera 7-5, 6-0, and Pera will play unseeded Katerina Vankova of the Czech Republic in the quarterifnals. Vankova defeated No. 7 seed Sesil Karatantcheva of Bulgaria 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(7).  Czech qualifier Nicole Vaidisova won her fifth match in five days, ousting No. 5 seed Anna Tatishvili 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, and she will play Caitlin Whoriskey, who downed Quirine Lemoine of the Netherlands 7-6(5), 7-6(6). No. 6 seed Tatjana Maria of Germany beat Asia Muhammad 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(5) to advance to a quarterfinal contest with Sachia Vickery, who beat Jessica Pegula 4-6, 6-0, 6-2. Maria and Chirico are the only seeds remaining.

Friday's schedule and a link to the live stream is available at the tournament website.

At the $100,000 men's challenger in Dallas, world No. 1 junior Andrey Rublev, who qualified for the event and beat No. 3 seed Blaz Rola in the first round and Agustin Velotti in the second round, fell in the quarterfinals today to No. 7 seed Rajeev Ram 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.  The 17-year-old Russian has also advanced to the doubles semifinals.

The ITF Grade 2 Inka Bowl in Peru is down to the semifinals in singles and finals in doubles, with two US girls still alive.  No. 4 seed Alexandra Sanford defeated No. 5 seed Maria Paula Torres of Peru 6-2, 6-4 and wild card Sofia Sewing upset No. 2 seed Fernanda Astete of Chile 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.    Sanford and her partner Dominique Schaefer of Peru, who are unseeded,  reached the girls doubles final with a 4-6, 7-5, 10-8 win over No. 2 seed Julieta Estable of Argentina and Rafaela Gomez of Ecuador.

Top Seed Gibbs Survives Test; Dolehide Falls Just Short Against Third Seed at Dow Corning Tennis Classic

©Colette Lewis 2015--
Midland, MI--

Two young wild cards had impressive main draw debuts at the Dow Corning Tennis Classic Tuesday, while top seed Nicole Gibbs overcame a rough start to earn a tense three-set victory.

Although both 17-year-old Sara Daavettila and 16-year-old Courtney Dolehide ultimately fell to seeded players, neither looked in over their heads against players who competed at the Australian Open last month.

Daavettila, a junior at Williamston High School, lost 6-4, 6-2 to No. 5 seed Anna Tatishvili, who had qualified and won a round at the Australian Open before returning to compete in the Sunrise last week and Midland this week. Daavettila, a Michigan High School singles champion, never led, but she came back from two breaks down in the opening set, and she gave as good as she got in the pace department. Daavettila did have difficulty holding serve, however, managing that only twice in the match, and Tatishvili completed the 90-minute match with a blazing forehand winner.

At the same time on Stadium Court, Dolehide was mounting a comeback after losing the opening set to No. 3 seed Jovana Jaksic of Serbia. Jaksic, who lost in the first round of qualifying in Australia to Lucie Hradecka, who went on to defeat Ana Ivanovic in the main draw, was broken in the ninth game of the second set, with poor serving the primary cause. She got only a couple of first serves in during the two-deuce game, double faulted twice and made a forehand error after a fierce backhand to backhand rally to give Dolehide her first break of the match.

The 16-year-old sophomore needed to save a break point in serving out the set at 6-4, with Jaksic's forehand producing two winners to make it 30-40. As a busload of local high school students looked on, Dolehide stayed calm, hit a backhand winner to save it, a good first serve to get to set point, and a forehand winner to even the match against the 130th-ranked Serb.

The third set was well played and closely contested. Jaksic led 2-0, but Dolehide broke back immediately and both players held, often in tense deuce games, with errors infrequent and winners deciding most points, until Dolehide served at 4-5 in the third. At 15-30, Dolehide hit a backhand long, and Jaksic seized on that mistake, hitting a huge forehand to force an error and give herself two match points. She only needed one, cracking another big forehand to end the two-hour contest.

"Today I hit a little too many backhands down the line into the net," said Dolehide, who lost to Daavettila in the semifinals of the wild card tournament last month, but received a wild card from the USTA late last month. "I should have gone back cross court with a few of those. But my forehand was very good today.  I also thought I could make more first serves.  But I was right there, and she's a very good player."

Top seed Nicole Gibbs had beaten her first round opponent Mayo Hibi twice, both times in straight sets and outdoors.  Hibi has a game well suited to the fast hard courts in Midland however, with her willingness to volley adding an extra dimension to this first round encounter. Gibbs came through 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, but needed to play her best to do it.

Hibi played extremely well in the opening set, while Gibbs couldn't match Hibi's aggressive play.

"She definitely took it to me in the first set," said Gibbs, who reached the second round of the Australian Open last month. "I made a point of trying to dictate more points going into the second and third. For sure I wasn't feeling it in the first set. I had hit a return weird in my warmup today, so my wrist was bothering me going on to the court, so I was a little tentative in the first set. But it actually felt great the whole match and I gained more and more confidence as the match went deeper."

Hibi began to make more errors, while Gibbs eliminated them, giving the two-time NCAA champion a quick second set. And when Gibbs held and went up 15-40 in Hibi's first service game of the third set, it looked as if her confidence would carry her through.  But Hibi saved both break points, and held easily the rest of the set, until she was serving at 4-5.

Gibbs played some outstanding defense to win the first point and hit a good return to make it 0-30, but two errors by Gibbs got Hibi back in the game. On the next point, Hibi came in to take a floater out of the air, but she hit her volley right back to Gibbs, who sent a forehand whizzing by Hibi for a match point. After a short rally, Gibbs hit a forehand down the line that got Hibi off the court, then put away a forehand volley to take the match.

"I definitely felt good when I was up 0-30, but not so good when it came back to 30-all on a couple of my errors," said Gibbs. "So I just tried to keep swinging and eventually got the game."

Gibbs will play 17-year-old Naomi Osaka in the second round in Thursday's evening feature match.

Other winners today included Sachia Vickery, who defeated qualifier Alexandra Stevenson 7-6(8), 6-3, Bernada Pera, who beat Sanaz Marand 6-4, 6-4 and qualifier Naomi Cavaday of Great Britain, who blasted her way past wild card Lauren Embree 6-1, 6-0, and will face No. 8 seed Louisa Chirico next.

Former WTA Top 10 player Nicole Vaidisova, who qualified Tuesday, won her first round match against Nao Hibino of Japan 7-6(3), 7-5 Wednesday night.

Thursday's schedule and Wednesday's results are available at the tournament website.

Live streaming of stadium court matches is available here.

Vaidisova Through Qualifying, Whoriskey and Pegula Take Down Seeds at Dow Corning Tennis Classic

©Colette Lewis 2015--
Midland, MI--

Eight years ago, Nicole Vaidisova was in the WTA Top Ten. Now, after more than four years away from the game, she is back competing, and after a difficult start to the year, the 25-year-old from the Czech Republic has qualified for the $100,000 Dow Corning Tennis Classic.

In the first three tournaments Vaidisova competed in this year, all $25,000 Pro Circuit events in Florida on Har-Tru, she failed to make it out of qualifying, losing to teenagers Anna Bondar, Natalia Vikhlyantseva and Tena Lukas.  But on a wintery Tuesday morning, in front of a sparse crowd inside the Midland Community Tennis Center, as far removed from the atmosphere at in her Australian Open semifinal eight years ago as can be imagined, she looked every bit the top player she once was, defeating Nicole Melichar 6-0, 6-3.

But as well as she played, serving well, hitting big, making few errors, Vaidisova said it is way too early in her comeback to take any win for granted.

"I've been off the game for almost five years, and no match is an obvious win for me at this point," said Vaidisova, who began her comeback last fall and is playing in her eighth tournament since then. "Any match I win, for me is great. I had two shoulder surgeries, and it was a combination of a lot of factors, but a long time of it was because of my injuries."

As for what changed between last month in Florida and this week, when she won all three of her qualifying matches in straight sets, Vaidisova mentioned two possibilities.

"I think this surface suits me better, and just match play," she said.  "I obviously haven't played in a long time, and a lack of matches is a huge factor for me, so the more I play the better for me, obviously. Of course it feels good. That's why we're here, to win matches and get as far as possible."

As for getting back to the top of the game, Vaidisova is cautious about making any predictions.

"I've just played five or six tournaments, so we'll see how it goes each week, but so far I'm healthy, which is the biggest factor for me. How well I'll do, I don't know and I don't really set myself up for a goal at this point. For me, it's playing the best I can, performing and feeling good about my body, my matches, my performances and being patient.  I need to be patient."

Such is the interest in her comeback that she has been given the prime evening feature match for her second round Wednesday against unseeded Nao Hibino of Japan. Admission is free to the tournament during the day, but the evening session, played on the stadium court surrounded by corporate boxes, draws large crowds out for an evening of dinner and tennis, producing an atmosphere that Vaidisova surely remembers from her years on the WTA tour.

Tuesday night's crowd saw a major upset, with Jessica Pegula, who was out with an injury for almost all of 2014, defeating No. 2 seed Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-3, 6-3. The 20-year-old, who used a protected ranking to get in to the tournament, went 1-2 in the two Florida tournaments she played last month.

In addition to Vaidisova, Naomi Cavaday of Great Britain, Danielle Lao and Alexandra Stevenson also qualified.  Stevenson, who won this tournament back in 1998, defeated Kristie Ahn 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a match that went nearly three hours.  Cavaday, another player coming back from an early retirement, defeated Jacqueline Cako 6-4, 6-4, and Lao topped Oleksandra Korashvili of Ukraine 6-4, 6-1.

In main draw play Tuesday, Naomi Osaka of Japan defeated Emily Webley-Smith of Great Britain 6-1, 3-6, 7-5; No. 8 seed Louisa Chirico defeated Maria Sakkari of Greece 7-6(2), 6-1, Asia Muhammad beat Samantha Crawford 6-0, 6-2 and Katerina Vankova of the Czech Republic downed Julie Coin of France 7-5, 6-3.

Caitlin Whoriskey, the former Tennessee All-American, posted one of her best wins, defeating Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, the No. 4 seed 7-6(3), 6-2.  Whoriskey, who is at a career-high ranking of 316, had expected to play qualifying, but several late withdrawals moved her into the main draw.  After several years of not seeing her ranking improve much, Whoriskey moved up more than 200 spots last year, a rise she attributes to her return home to Cape Cod.

"Once I finished up school (2010), I thought I could do it on my own," said the 26-year-old. "It turned out I wasn't able to, so I ended up maturing a little bit, asking people for help, scheduling practices, having a coach work with me. I've also moved back to my home town, so I feel a little bit more at ease. My family's there, and it's not just travel, travel, travel. Since last year, I've been working really hard on fitness and my mental game."

Against the 127th-ranked Jabeur, the 2011 French Open girls champion, Whoriskey was prepared for a tight match.

"I felt it was indoor tennis, so it might come down to a third set tiebreaker," Whoriskey said. "I wanted to focus solely on my service games, and try to hold as much as I could, and if I did that, the pressure would be on her. The time I did get broken, it happens, but she played a good game. After the first set, I did relax a little bit more and maybe she was tight and going for a little too much on her shots. My game plan worked well."

Whoriskey slices well with her one-handed backhand, but the 20-year-old Jabeur is also effective with her slice, and many of their rallies saw that shot featured, including match point, which Whoriskey won with slices followed by a drive backhand that forced an error.

"I kind of thought maybe indoor doesn't suit her game," Whoriskey said. "But because I've been training up in Massachusetts, playing inside all the time, I feel right at home."

And that goes for all the snow piled up around the Tennis Center too.

"We've gotten like three feet," she said, as she zipped up her University of Tennessee down jacket.

Top seed Nicole Gibbs is in action on Stadium Court against Mayo Hibi on Wednesday, immediately after No. 3 seed Jovana Jaksic plays wild card Caroline Dolehide.  Sara Daavettila, the Williamston High School junior who won the wild card tournament for a place in the main draw, will play No. 5 seed Anna Tatishvili at 10 a.m. on Court 5.  Daavettila and her partner, 14-year-old Alyvia Jones of Midland, who received a wild card into the doubles draw, battled Sachia Vickery and Cako in a first round doubles match Tuesday afternoon on Stadium court, but eventually fell 7-6(3), 6-3.

The draws and order of play for Wednesday is available at the tournament website. A link to the live streaming of Stadium Court matches can also be found there.

Rublev, Norrie and Tchoutakian Qualify for Dallas Challenger; Gibbs Top Seed in Midland $100K; US Juniors Advance at Inka Bowl

Qualifying is complete and the opening round is underway at the $100,000 RBC Tennis Championships in Dallas, with World No. 1 junior Andrey Rublev among those reaching the main draw with victories today.  In addition to the 17-year-old Russian, who beat Greg Ouellette, Evan King and Sekou Bangoura in the qualifying, TCU freshman Cameron Norrie and Baylor sophomore Max Tchoutakian also qualified.  Norrie, 19, beat No. 2 seed Darian King 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 and Tchoutakian, 21, beat teammate Julian Lenz 4-6, 7-6(12), 6-3. For more on Tchoutakian's win, see the Baylor website.  Rublev and Tchoutakian had never advanced into a Challenger main draw through qualifying before today, Norrie had done it once.  The fourth qualifier is former Texas All-Amerian Dimitar Kutrovsky, who defeated Misha Zverev 7-6(5), 7-6(5).

Denis Kudla(5), who beat Liam Broady of Great Britain 6-2, 6-3, and Rajeev Ram(7), who beat wild card Thai Kwiatkowski 6-4, 6-3, were among the first round winners today in Dallas.  Live streaming is available here.

I arrived in Midland this afternoon, and will be on site Tuesday at the Midland Community Tennis Center for the final round of qualifying and the beginning of the main draw of the $100,000 Dow Corning Tennis Classic.  Two-time NCAA champion Nicole Gibbs is the top seed, with Sorana Cirstea of Romania the No. 2 seed. They also will have live streaming beginning Tuesday.

The second round of qualifying took place today, with three former Pac-12 players earning victories: Jacqueline Cako(Arizona State), Kristie Ahn(Stanford) and Danielle Lao(Southern Cal).  Former WTA Top 10 player Nicole Vaidisova has also reached the final round of qualifying; she has been unsuccessful in her three attempts to qualify for the $25,000 tournaments in Florida last month.

Tuesday's order of play can be found at the ITF Pro Circuit website.

The ITF juniors South American swing moves to Peru for the Grade 2 Inka Bowl, with another large group of Americans competing there. Patrick Kypson and Trent Bryde won their first round matches, while
Mwendwa Mbithi (14), Sam Riffice(11) and Liam Caruana(8) had first round byes.  Last week's semifinalists Gianni Ross and Vasil Kirkov lost in the final round of qualifying and the first round, respectively.  The top seed in the boys draw is Franco Capalbo of Argentina, who won last week's Grade 1 in Ecuador over Manuel Pena Lopez of Argentina, who is the No. 4 seed this week.

The girls draw is just 32 players, with six of those Americans: Stephanie Hazell, Alexandra Sanford(4), Alexa Bortles, qualifier Luciana Rabines, Meghan Kelley and wild card Sofia Sewing. Only Bortles lost her opening match, with Rabines yet to play. The top girls seed is Julieta Estable of Argentina, who was runnerup in last week's Grade 1 to Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia.

Potapova, Tseng Capture Les Petits As Championships; Vickery Wins Another Title in Florida; Donaldson Sweeps Singles and Doubles in Maui Challenger

Anastasia Potapova (photo courtesy Richard van Loon)

Top seed Anastasia Potapova defeated No. 4 seed Olga Danilovic of Serbia 6-4, 6-4 in the final of Les Petits As, adding the most prestigious of 14-and-under titles to an already glittering resume.  The 13-year-old Russian, who won the Eddie Herr and Junior Orange Bowl titles in December, has now won 30 matches in a row, and is the reigning European 14s champion.

In Sunday afternoon's final, which was streamed live with top notch production values, Potapova had a few anxious moments, but she was steadier when it counted against the emotional 14-year-old left-hander. Potapova failed to serve out the first set at 5-2, but she took her second chance, converting on her third set point.

Danilovic, who looks to be around six feet tall, ran out to a 4-1 lead in the second set, but gave the break back in the seventh game. Danilovic was broken in her next service game as well, with a costly double fault at 30-all giving Potapova a break point, and the opportunistic Russian immediately converted it for a 5-4 lead.  Playing nearly error-free tennis, while still looking for lines to hit, Potapova went up 30-0 in the final game.  At 40-30, she hit a forehand long, missing out on her first match point, but a good serve that Danilovic couldn't handle gave her a second, which she won with a deep forehand into the corner.

Potapova is the first girl to win the Eddie Herr, Junior Orange Bowl and Les Petits As titles back-to-back-to-back since Anna Orlik of Belarus did it in 2006-2007.

Chun Hsin Tseng (photo courtesy Richard van Loon)

In the boys final, No. 5 seed Chun Hsin Tseng of Taiwan defeated No. 2 seed Timofey Skatov of Russia 6-4, 6-1 to become the first player from his country to take a Les Petits As title in the tournament's 33-year history.

Tseng, who trains at the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Naples, Florida, ran out to a 5-0 lead in the first set, but Skatov cleaned up his game and got both breaks back, only to get broken on a netted backhand at 4-5, 30-40.

Skatov looked to have found his form however, but after the first three games, the errors started to return, while Tseng simply did not give Skatov any points with mistakes. Going up a second break to make it 5-1, Tseng stayed focused and avoided any repeat of the first set, closing it out on his first match point.

Two American teens captured titles Sunday in Pro Circuit events thousands of miles apart, with 19-year-old Sachia Vickery winning at the $25,000 Sunrise, Florida tournament, and 18-year-old Jared Donaldson sweeping the singles and doubles titles at the $50,000 Maui Challenger.

2013 USTA National 18s champion Vickery, who won her first career title two weeks ago at the $25,000 tournament in Plantation, defeated 18-year-old Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in the final. Vickery will be making a quick transition from clay to indoor hard for the $100,000 tournament in Midland, which I will be attending next week, if this current blizzard subsides.

2013 Kalamazoo 18s finalist Donaldson won his first Challenger title with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over qualifier Nick Meister this afternoon in Hawaii.  Donaldson, who was unseeded, didn't lose a set in the tournament, taking out four straight Americans from the second round on(Chase Buchanan(7), Dennis Novikov, Bradley Klahn(2) and Meister), and he will break into the ATP Top 180 with his win.

He then teamed with Stefan Kozlov, who turned 17 today, to win the doubles title, beating Chase Buchanan and Rhyne Williams 6-3, 6-4.

At the $10,000 Palm Coast Futures, Benjamin Balleret of Monaco won his second straight title, defeating Patricio Heras of Argentina 6-4, 6-4 in the final. Balleret and Romain Arneodo, also of Monaco, won yet another Futures doubles title, their fourth straight in these $10,000 Florida Futures tournaments that began the year.

In Guadeloupe, 16-year-old Nicole Frenkel fell short in the $10,000 ITF Women's Circuit final, losing to No. 2 seed Sherazad Reix of France 6-1, 6-3.

A new blog, College Tennis Today, is following the men's Division I college tennis scene and has accounts of several of the important dual matches that were played over the weekend.  It can be found here.