Showing posts with label This Week in American Tennis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label This Week in American Tennis. Show all posts

Monday, August 17, 2015

This Week in American Tennis: The Triumphant Return of Vicky Duval

1. The Triumphant Return of Vicky Duval. It was just 13 months ago that Victoria Duval got the earth-shattering news that she had developed Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of cancer that affects the immune system. After five rounds of chemotherapy, she announced that she was cancer free a couple of months later, and then has spent the last year recovering, training, and painting and crafting.  During her time away from the tour, Duval kept her fans in the loop thanks to a series of upbeat vlog posts (best being this one with fellow cancer survivor Madison Brengle) and a great Ted X talk.

It all led up to the moment this past week when she landed in Pennsylvania, ready to start her comeback at the $25K in Landisville, Penn.



Ultimately, getting back in competition is always a massive milestone for a player who's been out for any reason. Bryan Armen Graham covered Vicky's saga in great detail for the Guardian, including her first-round win over qualifier Sophie Chang (UVA incoming). She followed up that win with a massive come-from-behind effort against recent world #1 junior, Serbian Ivana Jorovic. Duval fell behind a set and 0-3* (two breaks) in that match. She then got a quick break back for 1*-3, and saved 5 break points in the next game but on her 6th, double faulted to give Jorovic a 4*-1 lead. Duval then won two straight games and Jorovic seemed to start to flag, but eked out a hold for 5-3*. At deuce in the ensuing game, Duval was dictating the point with big groundies, got a short ball, and hit a huge swinging backhand volley that was very close to the sideline. Jorovic got halfway through a celebratory "AJDE," thinking her defense had given her match point, until she realized the shot had been called in. Duval then held, forcing Jorovic to try to serve for the quarterfinals.

Jorovic did get to match point serving for it at 5*-4 but her serve and forehand couldn't handle the moment. She dumped the first groundstroke she had on match point into the net, then hit a few weak forehands in the next point to allow Duval to power to break point, and finally a meek double fault got Duval to 5-5. It was, as they say, one-way traffic after that (well, there were a few tough games in there but the final outcome didn't ever seem in doubt). Duval won 10 of the last 11 games.

You can watch it all here (starts at 3:47:30).



(Note a petulant Jorovic heading the opposite direction from the chair umpire after shaking Duval's hand at 6:12:40. Kids these days.)

Unfortunately, Duval was forced to withdraw from the tournament after that, as her body reacted with all sorts of cramping it seems. But by no means did that overshadow what she accomplished just by getting back on court.

1a. The Return of the (Vania) King. Less vaunted than Duval's return, Vania King also made her comeback to competition after nearly a year out due to a neck/back injury. Her last match was a drubbing by Venus Williams at the 2014 US Open at which Vania was clearly less than 100%. In her opening match, she beat France's Julie Coin in three sets - a match in which she needed **14** match points to win. She lost subsequently to Naomi Broady 4-6 6-7(9) - a match that, had she converted one of her set points, could have changed the entire tournament. In any case, we're thrilled to have the former world #50 player back in action.

1b. A great tournament for Robin Anderson.  After finishing a stellar career at UCLA featuring a 2013 2014 national championship, Robin Anderson came to Pennsylvania having already had an excellent summer. First, she qualified for and reached the semifinal of the $25K in El Paso, Texas, beating Cal's Maegan Mansse before losing a tight three-setter to fellow Bruin Jennifer Brady. Then, following a first-round qualifying loss to Baylor's Ema Burgic Bucko in Stockton (in three sets), she beat former Florida Gator Lauren Embree and then Brady before falling to Florida's Brooke Austin in the Sacramento quarters ... in three sets.

Honestly, with all these fellow-collegians out there, Anderson must have felt like she was playing back in the NCAA's. It's great to see so many college women succeeding at the pro level. I plan on looking more into that phenomenon this fall.

In Landisville, Anderson qualified and won four matches (two in third sets), including a huge win over world #101 An-Sophie Mestach, on her way to the final against Broady. There, both players played top-notch contrasting tennis, Broady with her offense-oriented game and Anderson with her defense. Each dropped serve just once on their way to a third-set tiebreak. Per the ITF stats, which aren't always the most accurately, Broady the Brit had 17 aces and only 1 double fault.

In the final game, Broady was incensed about what she saw as a bad out call on the sideline at 3-2. It was a floating defensive shot that Anderson was poised to hit a winner off of, but nonetheless Broady took well over a minute to reach the other side of the court, and perhaps the delay negatively affected an already exhausted Anderson, who won only won one point after that. (A 28-stroke match point was epic, though, well worth watching.)

This week should vault Anderson well inside the Top 500 once included in the rankings, up to a new career high (which is #463, set last spring). Here's hoping the USTA gives Anderson a US Open qualies wild card in recognition of her wonderful college career.

Broady, by the way, was an America-destroyer all week, beating three host-country women and being the beneficiary of the Duval walkover. Here's a fun local article about her final victory.

Bjorn Fratangelo (Twitter profile pic)
2. US Open Wild Card to Bjorn Fratangelo. A big congratulations to Bjorn Fratangelo, who edged Austin Krajicek to win the US Open Wild Card Challenge. Bjorn's results in three tournaments were terrific: a final in Binghamton followed by semifinals in Lexington and this past week in Aptos -- a total of 10 victories. However, due to the way the challenge was set up, a title by any American in Aptos would have been enough to overcome those results. Thus, when Krajicek fended off a game Fratangelo (including all seven break points) in Saturday's semifinal match, Bjorn could only sit and watch the final, and (in theory at least) root against his friend.

Fortunately for Fratangelo, Krajicek had to face John Millman, the Aussie Lexington champ with a seeming inability to miss. Although Austin played outstanding tennis in the second set to take it to a decider, he went down an early break in the third and couldn't convert on his 0-40 opportunity as Millman successfully served for the match at 5-4. The loss was a heartbreaker for Krajicek but he can be proud of his level all week, which started with an intense opening-round 6-7(4) 6-4 7-6(7) win over Dennis Novikov. (Novikov also refused to shake the chair umpires hand after his loss. Yeesh.)

So Fratangelo's 83 points from Aptos and Binghamton overcame Krajicek's 60 from Aptos alone. Fratangelo will play in his first-ever grand slam main draw in a few weeks, and while I tend to avoid saying anyone "deserves" a wild card, it's definitely great to see him get one. He's definitely one of the feel-good stories of American men's tennis this year, and is now at a career high ranking of #106. Fratangelo still has around 100 points to defend for the rest of the year - but a few more challenger semifinals should guarantee him that coveted Top 100 ranking to end 2015, meaning his first direct berth into a major next January in Melbourne.

3. Doubles mastery in Canada. Ho hum, the Bryan Brothers won their 109th title, 35th Masters 1000 title, and third consecutive title this summer ... and booked their place into London's World Tour Finals this fall.  If you (correctly) consider 2001 the first year of the millennium, the Bryan Brothers will have been in the World Tour Finals every year it's been offered for doubles (a total of 14 times in 15 years).

To win in Montreal, the Bryans had to survive three super tiebreaks, including a 10-8 second-round win over Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco and the 10-6 win over Daniel Nestor and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the final. Obviously, winning the US Open is by far the biggest goal of the Bryans this year, as it would tie them with John Newcombe for the most-ever grand slam doubles titles (17). But the Canada win will go far in helping Mike achieve another massive record: his 10th year-ending #1 ranking.

Meanwhile, speaking of excellent doubles in Canada, Bethanie Mattek-Sands again showed her doubles prowess by teaming with Lucie Safarova to win Toronto. It was the pair's 4th title this year, and first since the French Open. The team vaulted, for now, past Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza into the lead in the Road to Singapore with 6390 points to their rivals' 6236. Both teams have now qualified for the year-end event.

Mattek-Sands is now at a career-high #3 in the doubles rankings, despite continuing to focus on singles. The two won't be playing together this week in Cincinnati, as Mattek-Sands will be playing the $100K ITF in Vancouver. But they'll certainly pair again in New York and we can all only hope for a final featuring the top two teams in the world.

3a. Tough losses for several players. Serena Williams losing just her second match of the year was not a bad loss, even if it was to relatively unseasoned Belinda Bencic, who had a phenomenal run in Toronto. Still, she reached the semis.  But elsewhere it was tough sledding. CoCo Vandeweghe and Alison Riske fell to Carina Witthoeft - a great opportunity for both women as Lesia Tsurenko ended up getting into the quarterfinals in that section and Sara Errani reached the semis. DC champ Sloane Stephens fell in a first-round encounter against Dominika Cibulkova; defending champion Venus Williams was drubbed 0&3 by Sabine Lisicki, and Irina Falconi, Varvara Lepchenko, and Anna Tatishvili all failed to win more than 6 games in their matches.  Brengle did get a win over wildcard Carol Zhao but then lost to Errani in three sets.

Serena, in fact, was the only non-European among the 16 players to make the 3rd round (although Daria Gavrilova is in the process of changing her representation to Australia). I keep hearing it's a global tour but once again, one continent is just dominant. Absolutely dominant.

3b. A few huge wins for the men, though. In Montreal, it was a devastating loss for John Isner against Jeremy Chardy in the quarterfinals: 6-7(9) 7-6(13) 7-6(4). As you might imagine, Isner had several match points in the second set, including one on his serve at 6-4. HOWEVER! Donald Young upset #5 seed Tomas Berdych, Jack Sock overcame #14 seed Grigor Dimitrov, and in all, US men had 8 main draw wins up north, the most they've had at that event since 2004. We'll take it.

4. The King of Champaign. If Budweiser is the "King of Beers" and Miller High Life is the "Champagne of Beers," then let's call Kevin King the "King of Champaign." The former Georgia Techie did one better than his run last week in Decatur, Ill. by winning the final at the USA F25 Futures event in nearby Champaign. He beat Richard Gabb 6-3 6-1 in the final, the same guy he beat in the Decatur semifinal.


The only player who seemingly gave him trouble all week was Tommy Paul, one of three Kalamazoo quarterfinalists to reach the Champaign quarters (all three lost). Paul, however, was up 5*-2 in the third set and had several match points before falling 6-1 2-6 7-6(8). (Fortunately for Paul, it freed him up to play Cincinnati ATP qualies on Saturday.  Unfortunately for Paul, he lost a uniquely scorelined 6-2 0-6 6-0 match to Denis Kudla in said qualies match.)

It was the 3rd career singles title for the lefty King who, as Colette Lewis points out, is set to re-enter the Top 300 next week. King only has 16 points to defend until March, so don't be surprised to see him inch even further up the rankings if he can stay healthy for the rest of the year. His game is certainly good enough to be a fixture in the Top 200, in this blogger's humblest of opinions.

Gold Stars: Justin Shane (USA F25/Champaign doubles title and singles SF as Lucky Loser), Ryan Shane (Champaign doubles title), Alexandra Mueller (Landisville $25K QF & doubles SF), Shelby Rogers (Landisville SF), Nicole Frenkel (qualified & reached Landisville QF), Nadja Gilchrist and Brynn Boren (Landisville doubles final), and Nicholas Monroe (Aptos SF with Krajicek).

A look ahead:

Cincinnati ATP & WTA: Already underway - Denis Kudla qualified to join Sock, Isner, Querrey, and wildcards Rajeev Ram, Mardy Fish, Jared Donaldson, and Fratangelo in the main draw.  Kudla plays Vasek Pospisil while Isner and Querrey face each other, as do Fratangelo and Sock. Ram faces Montreal semifinalist Chardy and Donaldson drew qualifier Nicolas Mahut (who beat Steve Johnson and Frances Tiafoe in qualies).

On the women's side, Christina McHale and Lauren Davis qualified, joining wildcards Riske and Vandeweghe and 6 other American women in the main draw. Davis got the toughest assignment: she'll face Vika Azarenka in the first round.

Vancouver Challenger & ITF: This tournament is run by the USTA and so several of the wildcards went to Americans: Novikov and Alexander Sarkissian for the men and Vania King and US Open Wild Card Challenge winner Samantha Crawford for the women.

Rogers, Tatishvili, and #5 seed Mattek-Sands are the American direct entrants. Tatishvili plays King in the first round, Rogers gets a qualifier, and Mattek-Sands plays Nao Hibino, who is 13-1 on US hard courts since Wimbledon, all in the $50Ks that made up the US Open Wild Card Challenge. Lauren Embree is the in the final round of qualies with a Monday win over Maria Sanchez and Julia Boserup and Sanaz Marand are trying to join her there.

Sarkissian drew #2 seed Millman, who demolished him in Aptos, in the first round, while Novikov got Matteo Donati, with the winner to face either Jurgen Zopp or top seed Ricardas Berankis. The only American with direct entry was Krajicek, who will face Brydan Klein. Mackenzie McDonald is the sole American through to the final round of qualies - he'll face Maxime Hamou later today.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

This Week in American Tennis: Sloane in the Citi

A huge thanks to Parsa for taking a huge part of the load of this week's This Week in American Tennis while I (Jonathan) was covering the USTA Boys National Hardcourt Championships in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Parsa himself was just returning from an adventurous couple of weeks in Europe, so it was extra great that he took the time to write about the men's Citi Open, give out the gold stars, and look forward to next week which, considering this is being posted on Tuesday, we are already well into. Please follow Parsa on Twitter.

Without further ado.......

1. Sloane Stephens wins her first title. - Jonathan


Expect a full write-up later today, but in short, Sloane Stephens silenced a lot of critics by reaching her first WTA final at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. and then snatching her first title, beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1 6-2. It was a mature performance for Stephens all week. I was too busy at Kalamazoo to watch the full matches, but thankfully @ohitsabel compiled highlights of her wins over Louisa Chirico, Samantha Stosur, and Pavlyuchenkova that are worth just sitting back and enjoying. All three players hit the ball nice and hard for her, and Sloane showed great (free flowing) movement, balance, and offense throughout.

Stephens is the third American woman to win title, and the first who is not part of the incredible Williams clan.

It had been a pretty damn good year for Stephens even before this tournament. Yes, she started out slowly, going 2-3 in Australia with a perfunctory loss to Vika Azarenka in the first round of the Australian. Then she had the worst loss of her 2015 - a 3&2 first-round loss to Johanna Larsson in Acapulco (incidentally, a year after the event at which CoCo Vandeweghe realized she needed to get her rear in gear after losing in the first round of qualies to Riza Ozaki).

But since then, it's been pretty great: wins over Kerber and Kuznetsova in Indian Wells; a run to the Miami quarterfinals (beating Bencic, Larsson, and Madison Keys in straights); semis is Strasbourg and Eastbourne. She's 15-5 in her last 20 matches, with all 5 losses to former grand slam finalists - all but one in 3 sets, including her loss to Serena Williams at the French Open. It's been quite a good run.

Now she's back in the Top 30 and only has to win a couple of matches in Toronto and/or Cincinnati to secure a seed at the U.S. Open (it would be her first seed at a major since last year's Open). After that, she only has 70 points to defend until Indian Wells 2016. So if she can stay healthy, expect a big ranking jump over the next six months. She'll have earned it.

1a. Woah, Louisa Chirico. - Jonathan. A quick note of congratulations to Louisa Chirico for reaching her first WTA quarterfinal with with a surprising 3&0 win over Heather Watson and an apparently incredibly dramatic 7-5 4-6 7-6(4) upset of #5 seed Alize Cornet. And if you watch Abel's highlights, you also see she performed admirably in her 4&4 loss to Stephens. Chirico, who had been given a wild card into the tournament, is the 6th ranked teen in the WTA and has the weapons to rise well inside the Top 100 in the coming year. To do so, she'll need to manage her schedule well and deal with the expectations that will come with the spotlight - and also with the new target on her back.

She didn't get off to a great post-D.C. start, falling in the first round of qualies in Toronto to Lara Arruabarrena. I have to think she'll get a U.S. Open wild card, which could be a great opportunity or she could get Serena in the first round. It's the post-Open period I'll be most interested in watching. Will she go with the WTA to Asia (where her grandparents live) or will she stick with the North American ITFs and get points that eluded her last fall? I don't have an opinion as to what's best for her, just am very curious to track it.

2. The Big Fella. - Parsa. After winning his 10th career ATP title last week in Atlanta, John Isner was headed to Washington with great momentum as he also got to benefit from a first round bye. Isner was absolutely dominant on his serve in his first two matches against Victor Estrella Burgos and twelfth seed Vasek Pospisil, hitting a combined 27 aces and winning an incredible 73 of his 78 first service points without getting broken. Isner was bothered by his left knee a bit in Atlanta, and it was visibly affecting him in his D.C. quarterfinal match against Ricardas Berankis.  However, he battled his way to a three-set victory, setting up a showdown with fellow American Steve Johnson. In an all-American battle with very high stakes, the #1 American saved three match points in the third set tiebreak to squeak past the former USC Trojan in a highly thrilling conclusion.

The following day, it looked like Isner would win his first ATP title above the 250 level, however Kei Nishikori fought back to win 4-6 6-4 6-4, snapping Isner’s nine-match win streak.



Many tennis fans find John Isner’s style of play boring and contest that he only has a serve. While Isner does not display the most entertaining brand of tennis, it is hard to argue that he does not leave everything out on the court. Furthermore, there is a great amount of strategy in Isner’s game and anything less than perfection on his serves results in losses since his return game is not strong. Isner would still be a lethal server if he was not as tall, as his height does not give him more firepower on his serve, but rather his height helps him to go for more while still serving at a high percentage. In his career, Isner’s ace-to-double-fault ratio is about 7.3 to 1 and he gets his first serve in 68 percent of the time while the great Roger Federer has a 4-to-1 ratio and gets his first serve in 62 percent of the time. Isner is known for playing many long matches which generally include some tiebreaks, and this would not be possible without his great mental toughness as he is able to go the distance if need be and earn a tight victory as he demonstrated against Johnson.  The win, by the way, helped him move to number twelve in the new rankings.

2a. Stevie J rises to the occasion. - Parsa. Steve Johnson’s summer on American soil started out rough. He lost as a seed in the 2nd round at both Newport and Atlanta to players ranked outside the Top 75. However, Johnson turned things around big time this week in Washington as he returned to the tournament in which he upset Isner and Ivo Karlovic the previous year en route to reaching the quarterfinals.

Johnson opened his Citi Open campaign against Lukas Lacko in the first round for the third time in his last four tournaments. But whereas as he needed deciding sets to beat Lacko at both Wimbledon and Atlanta, Johnson decisively beat Lacko in straight sets in D.C.  Johnson dominated on his serve, hitting 19 aces vs. only 1 double fault while winning 91 percent of his first serve points. Johnson then faced #11 seed Bernard Tomic, who was coming off a title in Bogota, in an intriguing matchup in which Johnson lead the head-to-head 1-0. After blowing three set points in the first set tie-break, Johnson rebounded back to defeat the Australian in three sets as the Southern California native once again dominated on his serve hitting 20 aces and only 2 double faults.  Johnson then earned his fifth career top-20 victory by taking out the struggling sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov in three sets to reach the quarterfinals.

Johnson faced fellow American Jack Sock in the quarterfinal in a showdown between two of the top Americans. The first set lived up to the hype as neither player made any impact on their returns before Johnson won the tight set in a tie-breaker. The second set was a different story as Johnson demolished Sock and broke his serve three times to advance to his first career ATP 500 semifinal. Johnson served superb against Sock hitting 12 aces and only one double fault, while amazingly winning 79% of his second serve points. 

Johnson would next face one of his good friends, former University of Georgia standout Isner in what would be a battle of the Pac 12 against the SEC. As documented above, Johnson succumbed to Isner in a third set tiebreak in which he had three match points, including one on his serve. After the match, Johnson said he tips his hat to John and that he was very happy with his week in which he will look at the many positives rather than to dwell on his tough loss.

He'll also try not to dwell on this:




As illustrated in this Tennis Channel graphic, there is a big difference between Johnson’s low backhand slice which he hits most of the time compared to his topspin backhand which jumps up at a player. As Jim Courier pointed out, there is also a huge contrast in Johnson’s heavy topspin forehand and his low backhand slice as opponents have to constantly be on their heels since they are receiving two completely different balls when playing Johnson.




Johnson does not think too much about what he is going to do on the court since he only has one gear to execute and that is to dictate play with the big serve and forehand and try to win a few points on the opponent’s return games. Even though players such as Ernests Gulbis and Grigor Dimitrov are very talented, they struggle at times to play a consistent brand of tennis since they do not have a clear gameplan of how they will win at times when on court. Players like Isner and Johnson however know their games well and it is easier for them to execute their gameplans.

3. The Bros continue their excellence. - Parsa. The top seeded Bryan Brothers won their fifth title of the year and second title in as many weeks as they avenged their loss in the French Open final beating Dodig/Melo in straight sets to win their 108th career ATP title, which is beyond incredible. For the fourteenth year in a row, the all-American duo have won at least five ATP titles in a year and it looks like they will add at least a few more this year with the way they are currently playing.

At thirty-seven years of age, this duo still continues to remain at the top of the doubles game (with the title, they're in first place in the Race to London for the first time this year) and it is awesome to see not only as a fan of American tennis, but for the sport of tennis since these two are great role models both on and off the court inspiring players of all ages to look foolish as they try to emulate the legendary flying Bryan chest bump. Fans were treated to actually seeing the Bryan Brothers play this week as Tennis Channel did a great job of showing matches all week including doubles on both the men and women’s side.




(A note from Jonathan: the Citi Open received a ton of criticism on Twitter for their decision to move the Bryans onto center court instead of the women's semifinal featuring Pavlyuchenkova and #1 seed Ekaterina Makarova. Unfortunately, almost none of the criticism I read pointed out that it wasn't just any men's doubles team they put on center: it was the greatest ambassadors American tennis has. The Bryans have transcended "doubles" and earned every recognition and honor they get. That at least has to be part of the conversation when discussing the move.)

4. Tiafoe and Kozlov and Kenin and Black. Oh my. - Jonathan. Two amazing finals took place in the USTA 18s National Hardcourt Championships on Sunday. Frances Tiafoe and Stefan Kozlov of course had their five-set incredible historic epic - please read both Colette Lewis' and Joey Hanf's takes on the match if you haven't - while Sofia Kenin won a back-and-forth three-set thriller of her own against Tornado Black. The San Diego Union-Tribune has great coverage of that one.

With their wins, Tiafoe and Kenin will receive main draw wild cards to the U.S. Open, while Kozlov and Black will get qualifying wild cards. Additional main draw wild cards to go 18s doubles winners Taylor Fritz and Reilly Opelka and Black and Ingrid Neel; while U.S. Open Juniors main draw wild cards will go to 16s winners Patrick Kypson and Abigail Desiatnikov.

Oh and please read my 2015 Zoo Awards ... if you dare!

Gold stars: Jack Sock (Washington QF, coming back from set & break down to beat Richard Gasquet), Christina McHale (Washington QF), Irina Falconi (Washington doubles SF with Monica Niculescu), Varvara Lepchenko (beat world #5 Caroline Wozniacki en route to Stanford SF), Alison Riske (beat world #10 Carla Suarez Navarro en route to Stanford QF), Kevin King (USA F24 singles final, doubles title), Evan King (USA F24 doubles title), Dominic Cotrone (qualified and reached USA F24 QF), Josie Kuhlman (qualified & reached 10K Fort Worth QF, doubles title), Maegan Manasse (10K Forth Worth doubles title), Frances Altick (qualified & reached 10K Fort Worth final), Collin Altamirano (ITA F21 SF), Winston Lin (qualified + reached CHN F12 QF), Raquel Pedraza (Grade 3 title in Mexico), USA girls (silver medal at ITF 14U World Junior Tennis finals), USA boys (bronze medal at ITF 14U World Junior Tennis finals). Edited to add: And of course, Connor Smith, making a huge run at the Segovia Challenger, with wins over #2 seed Dustin Brown and #5 seed Mirza Basic en route to the semis.

A look ahead:

Montreal ATP: Top American men are in Montreal this week for the Rogers Cup, the first of two Masters 1000 of the American hard court summer swing. Isner, should he win his first two matches, would likely face #3 seed Stan Wawrinka or young Aussie Nick Kyrgios. Should he reach the quarters, Isner would most likely run into Milos Raonic at his home tournament. Sock faces Frenchman Adrian Mannarino (whom he faced last year on hard courts three times, winning two of their matchups) in the first round. Should Sock advance, he would have a tricky match against either Grigor Dimitrov or Alexandr Dolgopolov. After that would likely be world #1 Novak Djokovic in the round of 16. Coming off his semifinal showing in Washington, Johnson faces #13 seed David Goffin and should he advance, he would face fellow American Sam Querrey who already dispatched Martin Klizan in the first round. Denis Kudla and Donald Young both did well in qualifying to reach the main-draw but they ran into each other in the first round; Young advanced in straight sets. Young will take on #5 seed Tomas Berdych for the first time as he will look to win consecutive main-draw matches for the first time since earlier this year in Indian Wells.

The Bryan brothers, looking to carry the momentum from their titles in Atlanta and Washington, are the top seeds in the doubles draw and have a bye in the first round. As they have been almost every week in the past decade, the duo are the favorites to win this week’s tournament. Sock partnered with Tomas Berdych this week in doubles and not with his usual partner Vasek Pospisil since Pospisil has to play qualifying in Cincinnati, and would be unable to play qualifying if he had made a deep run in doubles with Sock in Montreal. Sock probably missed playing with his usual partner since he and Berdych lost in the first round to the Spanish team of Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco. Rajeev Ram is partnered with Raven Klassen this week as they look to win their second title this year after finding great success in Halle.

Toronto WTA: The American women are competing in the Rogers Cup as well, however they are in Toronto since the tournament switches locations from Toronto to Montreal for the men and women every year. Serena Williams pulled out of Stanford with a right elbow injury, but she should be ready to go in Toronto as she is benefited with a first round bye. Serena is an amazing 40-1 this year and she will look to win her fifth title of the year at the big premier event in Toronto.

Irina Falconi qualified and faces fellow qualifier Heather Watson in the first round, and should she advance she would most likely face sixteenth seed Andrea Petkovic.

As of the posting of this blog, Lepchenko lost in the first round to Barbora Strycova; defending champion Venus Williams fell to Sabine Lisicki; qualifier Anna Tatishvili missed a good opportunity against fourteenth seed Ekaterina Makarova (the Russian retired in her semifinal match this past week in Washington with a calf injury), losing in 2 sets. 

Vandeweghe today is completing a rain-delayed match against qualifier Carina Witthoeft in the first round (they're just entering a third set as I type this) and may face fellow American Riske in the second round as Riske takes on twelth seed Timea Bacsinszky in the first round. Madison Brengle takes on a wildcard in the first round with a possible matchup in the second round against fifteenth seed Sara Errani. Coming off her first WTA title, Stephens faces Dominika Cibulkova in the first round with a possible matchup with tenth seed Carla Suarez Navarro.

Aptos Challenger: The US Open wild card challenge for the men is coming to an end this week in Aptos, California. Bjorn Fratangelo is seeded fourth in Aptos, and he currently has a big lead in the wildcard standings. Mitchell Krueger was in second place, but fell in the first round to eighth seed Yoshihito Nishioka who will face 18-year-old American Jared Donaldson in the second round. Qualifier Tennys Sandgren faces Farrukh Dustov in the first round two years after the pair faced each other in the quarterfinals at Aptos. Qualifier Daniel Nguyen faces Jurgen Zopp in the first round and could face big hitting third seed Kyle Edmund in the second round. 17-year-old Taylor Fritz received a wildcard into the main-draw as he will play his first career challenger match against qualifier Mischa Zverev. Should Fritz advance, he would face Austin Krajicek in the second round as Krajicek beat fellow American Dennis Novikov in a third-set tiebreak. 2014 NCAA singles finalist Alexander Sarkissian faces top seed John Millman in the first round.

USA F25/Champaign: There are many Americans competing this week at the Champaign, Ill. 15K futures including some high-profile young guns as well as former and current college players. Some intriguing all-American first round matches are 18-year-old Alex Rybakov against Jared Hiltzik (Illinois rising senior), 17-year-old Reilly Opelka against Quentin Monaghan (Notre Dame rising senior), and 17-year-old Tommy Paul against Ryan Shane (NCAA champion) (Paul won that in straight sets). 18 of the 32 players in the singles draw are American so hopefully #merica can find some great success this week in Champaign, Illinois. Draws can be found here.

Last - but the opposite of least: The Return of Vicky. 19-year-old Victoria Duval returns to the court for the first time in over a year as she has continually inspired people in her fight against Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Duval will be in action this week at the 25K Koser Jewelers Tennis Challenge in Landisville, Pennsylvania. For more on her comeback and fight in the past year, check out New York Times reporter Ben Rothenberg’s recent piece on her.

 Edited to add: And welcome back to Vania King, also making her return to tour in Landisville, after nearly a year out due to injury. She'll play #5 seed Julie Coin in the first round on Wednesday afternoon.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Monday, August 3, 2015

This Week in American Tennis: Considering Isner's place in history

1. Isner reaches double digits titles. The Wet Hot American Summer (aka the US Open Series) is usually John Isner's time to shine and it looks like he's doing it again, with his first final and title of the year coming at the BB&T Atlanta Open. It wasn't his most impressive run in Atlanta (he only beat one player ranked in the top 90 - a hobbled Marcos Baghdatis in the final) but it had to be satisfying to capture his tenth ATP title. In doing so, he joined select company:

That stat provides an interesting perspective on Isner's career -- he's nearly reached James Blake's level of excellence. Sure he's only reached one major quarterfinal (Blake reached 3), hasn't won Davis Cup, has a lower career-high ranking (9 vs 4 for Blake), and hasn't make the World Tour Finals or an Olympic semifinal. But he's equalled Blake in tour titles (Blake has 9 250s and 1 500, Isner has 10 250s). He's reached 2 Masters Series finals, as did Blake. And he's a few months away from securing his 6th consecutive Top 20 year-end finish. Blake only had 3.

Isner has a game that can probably hold up - or even improve - over the next few years. The serve isn't going anywhere. It could be that when he finally retires, he'll have had the second-best career of any American born since 1972. Say what you will about the man: for someone who didn't ever expect to reach this level of excellence, he's done quite well.

1a. The Bryans get title #107. There's excellence and then there's the kind of excellence where only having 4 titles more than halfway through the year comes across as disappointing. The Bryan Brothers are still going strong, winning Atlanta in come-from-behind fashion in the final (4-6 7-6(2) 10-4 over Gilles Muller and Colin Fleming). In doing so, they combined with Isner to do something for the first time in over 5 years:

The title moves them to #2 in the Race to London behind Wimbledon champs Rojer and Tecau. Like Isner, they'll want to use this summer to gather as many points as possible to continue to build on their records: most consecutive weeks at #1 (Mike currently has 153, Bob has 129 - next best is Todd Woodbridge with 125); most total weeks at #1 (Mike with 444, Bob with 428 - third best is John McEnroe with 269); most doubles titles (Mike 109, Bob 107 - then Daniel Nestor 87). Of course, their main concern will be the US Open, where they're hoping to surpass Woodbridge and Roy Emerson and tie John Newcombe with 17 major titles.

1b. Kudla makes his first ATP semifinal. Last year at this time Denis Kudla was sidelined with mono and now look at him. In four tournaments since Roland Garros he's got a Challenger final, a Challenger title, the 4th round of a major, and now an ATP semifinal - as a qualifier - with wins over contemporaries Jack Sock and Ryan Harrison. Top 80 (and #6 American). And awfully close to an ATP final (he lost to Isner 5-7 in the third, and had 40-15 at 5*-6).  He's one of five Americans aged 23 and under in the Top 150 (Sock, Harrison, Bjorn Fratangelo, and Jared Donaldson are the others). And he's virtually assured of direct acceptance into the next 4 majors, starting with the US Open - a huge monetary boost and stepping stone for the future.

Kudla is still seeking his first Top 20 win but he's getting closer. Given his tennis smarts and the purity of his ball-striking, I think he'll be able to hang at the ATP level for some time.

2. Crawford wins the USTA Pro Circuit US Open Wild Card Challenge. Last year, US women dominated the three tournaments that combined to make up the US Open Wild Card Challenge. 5 of the 6 finalists and 5 of the 6 other semifinalists were American. This year, only 3 of the 12 semifinalists were American: Sanaz Marand in Stockton, Brooke Austin in Sacramento, and finally Samantha Crawford in Lexington - beating Jennifer Brady in a winner-take-all quarterfinal. Crawford being the highest ranked of the three secured the US Open wild card in what would have been an anticlimactic finish. But then she came from behind to beat Julie Coin in the semis, and made the wild card challenge a little more satisfying.

This will be the first main draw at a major since 2012, when she took a wild card into the US Open qualies and then won all three of her matches there. Of course, the following week she swept her way to the US Open Girls title (her last junior title) and set up huge hopes for her pro career. Fast forward 3 years later, and it's been something of an uneven ride for the 20-year-old. She's still seeking her first singles title (she's reached four finals) but her big game makes her a threat against plenty of higher-ranked players. With only 39 points to defend through the end of the year, there's every reason to think she can finally break into the Top 200.

3. Lexington proves a tough nut for the men to crack, again. Last year, only 4 US men won their first round matches at the Kentucky Bank Tennis Championships in Lexington, and the sole US semifinalist (Wayne Odesnik) lost to James Ward (who in turn lost to James Duckworth). In 2013, only 3 US men won their first round matches at the Fifth Third Bank Tennis Championships in Lexington, and the sole US semifinalist (Bradley Klahn) lost to James Duckworth (who in turn lost to James Ward).

And this year, only 4 US men won their first round matches at the Kentucky Bank Tennis Championships in Lexington. This year, though, there were TWO US semifinalists - Bjorn Fratangelo and Mitchell Krueger. But again, neither advanced to the final. Still the two friends are now in first and second place in the US Open Wild Card Challenge, and both as a result of their success are at a new career high ranking (Fratangelo #110, Krueger #241).

That leaves one tournament - Aptos, in another week from now - to decide the precious (and lucrative) wild card. Fratangelo is very much in the driver's seat, as he can only be beaten by a final or title, depending on who gets there.  Currently, only Austin Krajicek is set to join Fratangelo in the main draw, although 5 of the 9 top alternates are American. If for some reason Bjorn doesn't secure the automatic wild card, one would hope he receives one of the USTA's discretionary wild cards. He's had too good of a year not to.

4. US Open qualies cut-off is here (I think). My understanding is that August 3rd's rankings will be used for US Open qualifying. Last year, the men's cut-off was right around #250. If that is the same this year (it could certainly be higher or lower), then Fratangelo, Harrison, Krajicek, Donaldson, Dennis Novikov, Alexander Sarkissian, Daniel Nguyen, and Jarmere Jenkins (221) should definitely be in. Krueger (241) and Connor Smith (242) should also be in, while Tennys Sandgren (262) will be hoping for numerous withdrawals. Also in, I believe, is 2014 American Collegiate Invitational winner Marcos Giron and of course the eventual winner of the US Open National Playoffs, who may or may not be American.

For the women, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Shelby Rogers, Anna Tatishvili, Nicole Gibbs, Louisa Chirico, Sachia Vickery, Katerina Stewart, Alexa Glatch, Maria Sanchez, Jennifer Brady, Taylor Townsend, Grace Min, and Julia Boserup (221) should all be in, with Lauren Embree (241) and Bernarda Pera (242) also likely in. On the cusp: Jessica Pegula (255), Allie Kiick (256) and finally Marand (269). Jamie Loeb won the 2014 American Collegiate Invitational but as she also won the 2015 NCAA individual title, she's much more likely to receive a main draw wild card. See above regarding the US Open National Playoffs winner.

5. Titles for Glatch, King, and Di Lorenzo. At the $25K in Gatineau, Canada, Alexa Glatch had a comfortable run in which she failed to let her opponents get as many as 5 games in any set on her way to her third title of the year. Glatch will return to the Top 150 for the first time in a couple of years on August 10, and will be eyeing a possible career high by the end of the year - her previous career high was #102, set on August 3, 2009.

18-year-old Francesca Di Lorenzo, slated to start Ohio State this coming year, won a title in only her third pro tournament, the $10K in Austin, Texas. Impressively, she beat Alexa Graham (who had beaten her the first round last week in Evansville, Indiana) in the semis and then Evansville champion Lauren Herring in the final.

And in Edwardsville, Illinois (across the river from St. Louis, Missouri), Chicago native Evan King won his second career title (both this year) by taking out Clay Thompson in straight sets. Bobby Knight has a comprehensive overview of the final.

A couple more great results from Evan and he'll be getting back near his career high of #426 in no time.

6. Robby Ginepri sets retirement date. Alongside Mardy Fish and Michael Russell, Robby Ginepri will be playing his last tournament at the US Open. Fish will get in via his protected ranking, while I have to think Russell will get a qualies wild card. Since Ginepri is a former semifinalist, one would imagine he is a big candidate for one of the very few discretionary main draw wild cards available. We will see.

Either way, I have to say that Ginepri was a great follow for many years on tour. His run to the Open semis was as excited as I got for a several-year stretch in the mid-2000s, and his 2005 and 2009 title runs in Indianapolis were great for this Midwestern resident to be able to watch in person. It's been tough to see his decline in the past couple of years, but it does nothing to diminish the fine career he had as a pro.

Gold stars: Mattek-Sands (Florianopolis semifinal), John Lamble (first career title, USA F23 doubles with Alan Kohen (ARG)), Chris Eubanks and Donald Young (Atlanta doubles semifinal), Marcos Giron (CAN F6 doubles title with Farris Gosea (GBR) and singles semifinal), Sarah Dvorak (first career title, Austin $10K with Lynn Kiro (RSA)), Ryan Harrison (qualified Washington DC ATP 500), Nicole Gibbs (qualified Stanford), Sanaz Marand (qualified Washington DC), and Sam Querrey, Madison Brengle and the rest of the Washington Kastles (World Team Tennis champions ... again). OH! And welcome back to Christian Harrison, who had a cup of coffee for the WTT Boston Lobsters, his first competitive tennis in over 2 years.

A look ahead:

Stanford: Although Serena Williams pulled out, several Americans are still in this WTA Premier tournament, including #7 seed Madison Keys, Alison Riske, Varvara Lepchenko, wild card CiCi Bellis, and qualifier Gibbs.

Washington, DC: The men's event, a 500-leve tournament, features #8 seed Isner, #13 seed Querrey, #15 seed Sock, plus Young, Steve Johnson, Tim Smyczek, wild card Kudla and qualifier Harrison.  The women's event has #7 seed CoCo Vandeweghe, Brengle, Sloane Stephens, Lauren Davis, Irina Falconi, Christina McHale, wild cards Taylor Townsend and Louisa Chirico and qualifier Marand.

Segovia Challenger: Smith is in the main draw.

Plzen $25K: Pera is set to be in the main draw (likely as a seed)

Fort Worth $10K: Herring and Nicole Frenkel lead a group of a dozen American players

Vienna $10K: Tina Tehrani plays #3 seed Skamlova.

Sharm El Sheikh $10K: Alexandra Riley is in the main draw, joined by Eva Siskova (qualified without playing a match). Shelby Talcott is in the first/final round of qualifying.

Tunis $10K: Karyn Gottormsen is in the main draw.

CHN F12/Fuzhou: Winston Lin and Shawn Hadavi are in the final round of qualies

ITA F21/Bolzano: Collin Altamirano and Morgan Mays (qualifier) are in the main draw

LAT F1/Jurmala: Hunter Reese (VOLS) qualified, dropping just 5 games in 3 matches

USA F24/Decatur: Kings Evan and Kevin, Hiltziks Aron and Jared, fellow Illini Tim Kopinski, and Giron are the only Americans in the main draw (to be joined by at least 5 Americans qualifiers).

Zoo & San Diego: Finally, the USTA Boys and Girls 18s and 16s have already started in Kalamazoo, Michigan and San Diego, California, respectively. I'll be headed to the Zoo later this week, but regardless the best source of news will be Colette Lewis at her blog and on Twitter. The main tournament website is here. A great follow for information on the Girls is J. Fred Sidhu. The main tournament website is here.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Monday, July 27, 2015

This Week in American Tennis: Echoes of the Worst. Week. Ever.™

1. Not quite the worst week ever. But eerily similar. Last year I wrote a four-part megapost about how the week of July 14, 2014 - which included, like this past week, an ATP tournament in Bogota; a WTA tournament in Istanbul; ATP Challenger events in Granby, P.Q., and Binghamton, NY.; and ITF events in Evansville, IN (women's $10K) and Vancouver, B.C. (men's $15Ks) - was the Worst. Week. Ever.™as a tennis fan. Much of that was based on the loads of really tough third-set losses which abounded for American players, particularly for the men.

The fact that American players didn't perform quite as well as hoped was surely insignificant in the face of that week's shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine and the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Yet there I was, a tennis fan, seemingly more emotionally invested in these strangers playing a game than in tragedies of global impact. All very surreal. But writing about it proved comforting, even cathartic.

This past week, many events were the same, except the $50K women's tournament was in Sacramento, rather than Carson, California; the USA Futures event was in Godfrey, Ill., rather than Tulsa, Okla.; and a few ATP/WTA tournaments not involving Americans were shifted in the calendar. And I'm sorry to report that American players didn't perform much better than last year. To wit:

Istanbul: In 2014, the sole American in the draw, Anna Tatishvili, lost 2&2 to #2 seed Roberta Vinci. In 2015, Venus Williams was the top seed but lost in straight sets to Kateryna Bondarenko. And more devastatingly, Tatishvili was up a set at 5*-2 with match point on her racquet, but lost to Turkish wildcard Ipek Soylu 7-5 5-7 0-2 (ret.). Verdict: 2015 was marginally worse.

Bogota: In 2014, Kevin King qualified but lost his first round match in 3 sets to Thiemo De Bakker (having had match point); while Alex Kuznetsov beat Adrian Mannarino in the first round only to lose in straight sets to Vasek Pospisil. In 2015, Alexander Sarkissian qualified and won his first-ever ATP match, 3&3 over John Millman, but lost to Malek Jaziri in 3 sets; while Rajeev Ram beat Alejandro Falla in 3 sets but lost to Mannarino in straights. Verdict: 2015 was marginally better.

Binghamton: In 2014, USA had 10 players in the 2nd round, but went 1-5 against non-Americans in that round (with 4 third set losses), plus both Denis Kudla and Bradley Klahn had to give walkovers. USA did have one finalist: Wayne Odesnik, who lost in straight sets to Sergiy Stakhovsky. In 2015, USA had 10 players in the 2nd round, but went 1-1 against non-Americans in that round (with 4 all-USA encounters). With 5 Americans in the quarters, only 1 faced a non-American (Mitchell Krueger, who lost to Kyle Edmund). USA did have one finalist: Bjorn Fratangelo, who lost in straight sets to Edmund. In all, Edmund played 5 matches, all against rising Americans, and won all five. Verdict: 2015 was barely better - and the finalists were much more likable.

Granby: In 2014, USA had 4 players in the 2nd round, but went 1-3 against non-Americans in that round. In the quarters, Chase Buchanan lost to a huge Frenchman, eventual finalist Fabrice Martin. Americans went 0-2 in the $25K women's tournament. In 2015, USA had 3 players in the 2nd round, and went 2-1 against non-Americans in that round. In the quarters, Eric Quigley lost to a tiny Frenchman, eventual champion Vincent Millot; Jean-Yves Aubone lost in 3 sets to eventual finalist Philip Bester. In the now-$50K women's tournament, three Americans lost first round but Ellie Halbauer did upset Laura Robson in the 2nd round ... only to cough up a 5*-0 lead in the third set against Jessica Moore and lose 6-7(5) in the BUSTER. Verdict: 2015 was a touch better.

Carson/Sacramento: In 2014 (Carson), USA had 6 of 8 quarterfinalists, and all 4 semifinalists - Sanaz Marand, Melanie Oudin, Louisa Chirico, and champion Nicole Gibbs. In 2015 (Sacramento), USA had 3 of 8 quarterfinalists, and only 1 semifinalist - Brooke Austin, who lost in straight sets to eventual champion Anhelina Kalinina. Verdict: 2015 was much worse.

Futures/$10Ks: In 2014, USA took titles in Evansville (Tornado Alicia Black), Vancouver (Alexa Guarachi and Sarkissian), and Tulsa (Mitchell Frank). In 2015, USA took titles in Evansville (Lauren Herring), Vancouver (Andre Dome), Godfrey (Michael Mmoh), and Sharm El Sheikh (Julia Jones). No women's event took place in Vancouver - and Guarachi no longer represents USA. Verdict: 2015 was barely worse.

In sum: the world geopolitical stage was a bit quieter this year, while the USA tennis stage was just a bit better. Yes, last year USA had 5 titles to 4 this year (keep in mind, several weeks this year there have been zero USA singles titles). But the losses felt less devastating this year, and there was the one additional win at a tour-level event. So no, not the Worst. Week. Ever.™ But surprisingly not too far off.

2. The Wild Card Challenges -- imperfect tools. The USTA's decision to incorporate its challenger-level tournaments into the process of determining wild cards for the Australian, French, and US Opens has worked out very well for the most part.  For the players, they save wear and tear by not asking them to play another mini-tournament on top of their schedules. For the USTA, it makes for a more fair playing ground and removes allegations of favoritism from the process. For the fans, they bring yet another competition-within-a-competotion to track and prognosticate about (us fans like to track and prognosticate); and for the tournaments, they bring increased attention and excitement.

For the most part it's worked out quite well.  But there are a few kinks in the system worth mentioning. I'm not sure what, if anything, can be done to fix any problems the Wild Card Challenges present, but here are what I see as concerns:

1) Non-American players can have an outsized impact on the process. Three Japanese women - Mayo Hibi, Nao Hibino, and Kimiko Date-Krumm - have had a huge impact on this summer's US Open Wild Card race. Add Sacramento champion Anhelina Kalenina and Stockton & Sacramento finalist An-Sophie Mestach, and those five non-American players went 19-0 against competitors for the US Open Wild Card Challenge. Clearly, a lot depended on whether and where an American may have faced any of those players in her draw.

A more striking example was this spring's French Open Wild Card Challenge. Through 2 events and 2 rounds into Tallahassee, 5 players were still alive: Frances Tiafoe, Fratangelo, Tennys Sandgren, Krueger, and Jared Donaldson. Fratangelo fell to Sandgren, who in turn lost to Tiafoe. However, the other 3 players all lost to the tournament champion, Facundo Arguello: Krueger in the quarters, Donaldson in the semis, and Tiafoe in the final. I'm certainly not saying Frances didn't deserve that wild card - he played brilliantly for three weeks in a row. But imagine if he, instead of Krueger, had drawn Arguello in the Tallahassee quarters. Very possibly we would have had a different French Open wild card.

2) No provision is made for wild cards to those who are still in the running. It was disappointing on Saturday to learn that Brooke Austin had drawn Jamie Loeb in the first round of qualies for Lexington, the final leg of the women's US Open Wild Card Challenge. It was particularly frustrating for Austin, as she played her semifinal the night before in Sacramento; meanwhile, Loeb already had effectively guaranteed herself a wild card by winning the NCAA singles championship. Robin Anderson, who also was in the running for the wild card, had to make a similarly quick turn around after losing to Austin in the quarterfinals -- she then lost her first-round qualifying match in Lexington in three sets to #3 seed Chanel Simmonds. (Both Anderson and Austin had terrible luck with their draws, as a number of players in qualies are unknown to nearly all tennis fans.)

For Lexington, the wild cards went to Kristie Ahn, Danielle Lao, and CiCi Bellis - all fine choices. But why not save a wild card for a player, like Austin, who put herself in a position to make the final leg of the Wild Card Challenge that much more interesting, but who didn't even get a chance to see what she could do there? Particularly considering Austin's and Anderson's rankings don't reflect their true level, as both forewent a full WTA schedule in favor of college.

3) No mechanism for excluding bad actors. This is a tough one, and I don't have enough inside knowledge to pass full judgment on it. And I know I'm wading into tricky waters here. But the case of Wayne Odesnik does give one pause. There's little chance that, after his drug-related suspension, the USTA would have given Odesnik a wild card to the US Open last year of their own volition. It's hard to imagine them even inviting him to a separate wild card tournament, like they used to hold. But there he was, thanks to a final in Binghamton and a semifinal in Lexington: into the main draw of the 2014 U.S. Open. A few months later, and Odesnik would get an effective life ban based on a drug test.

Would there have been any fair way for the USTA to exclude someone like Odesnik, who had seemingly paid his debt and from one perspective should have had the same right to compete as anyone else? I don't know. But you have to admit, last year's men's wild card challenge didn't lead to the result anyone, other than Wayne, was hoping for.

3. SEC women continue to kick ass, take names. On the heels of Vanderbilt winning the NCAA team championship, it's been quite the summer for a few players from other SEC schools. This week, Julia Jones (OLE MISS) won the Sharm El Sheikh $10K title; Lauren Herring (UGA) won the singles and doubles crowns at the Evansville $10K (the latter [ed. to add: and reached the doubles final] with fellow Bulldog Kennedy Shaffer); Andie Daniell (ALABAMA incoming) reached the Evansville final; Austin (FLORIDA) reached the Sacramento semis; and Caitlin Whoriskey (TENNESSEE) won the Sacramento doubles title (with Ashley Weinhold).

Interestingly, Herring had to qualify while Jones received a Special Exempt main draw entry due to her final the week before. Which raises a question: should there be some provision made, other than wild cards, to provide college players with tournament entries commensurate with their abilities? I'm sure those involved with college tennis have had this discussion for decades without me, but I still think it's a question worth posing to the ITF, WTA, and ATP. To be honest, it's something that could go beyond just the USA, in order to encourage education generally: why not give players enrolled full time in an undergraduate program of study some special boost to help get them into tournaments during their off-season or after they graduate?

Consider this: Austin's July 27 ranking of #443 is based on just 4 tournaments. Loeb is at #394 based on 7. Herring doesn't even have a ranking, with only 2 tournaments played prior to Evansville in the past 12 months. Anderson is at #531 after 4 tournaments.

Bottom line to me is this: Both tours provide support to injured players. Why not do the same to those whose playing is limited by something we all should champion: education?

4. Dome and Mmoh: nearly among the 500. Just a quick note to honor Andre Dome, who won his third singles title of the year in Vancouver (along with his second doubles title), and Michael Mmoh, who won his first of the year - second career - in Godfrey. Both players are set to make their Top 500 debuts next week, and both won dramatic three-set finals, Mmoh 7-5 in the third over Jared Hiltzik and Dome 6-4 in the third over former Top 200 player Matt Reid.

Mmoh's post-win celebration was particularly dramatic...
... whereas for Dome, this has become old hat


Gold stars: I already mentioned a bunch of players, but among those not mentioned above, congrats to Sekou Bangoura (Binghamton singles & doubles SF), Daniel Nguyen & Dennis Novikov (Binghamton doubles final), Nicholas Monroe (ATP Bastad SF with Artem Sitak), Natalie Suk (Bad Waltersdorf $10K doubles title with Anna Vrbenska), and Dominic Cotrone (USA F22/Godfrey doubles title with Jordi Arconada).

Win of the week: A new feature, we'll see how it goes, but worth giving a shout-out to Nicolas Meister, who beat Dimitar Kutrovsky 7-6(6) 3-6 7-6(3) to advance to the Binghamton quarterfinals. Full match here:




A Look Ahead: Lots of tennis in North America this week.

ATP Atlanta: 5 of the top 6 American men are in the main draw, with Sam Querrey the only exception. Ryan Harrison and Tiafoe received wild cards, as did Georgia Tech's Christopher Eubanks. Mardy Fish is using his protected ranking. Kudla, Donaldson, and Austin Krajicek are all in Monday's final round of qualies.

WTA Florianopolis: Bethanie Mattek-Sands is the #5 seed and Louisa Chirico is #6.

Sobota/Rokietnica, Poland $75K: Katerina Stewart got direct entry and Suk got a wild card.
Noah Rubin, (c) Rustam Tahir

Lexington Challenger: Fratangelo is the only USA seed at #4, and unfortunately will face Bangoura in the first round. Quigley and Krueger received wild cards; Ryan Sweeting is using his protected ranking; and Nguyen, Novikov, and Sarkissian are also in the draw. Kuznetsov and Noah Rubin are in Monday's final round of qualies.

Lexington $50K: Sachia Vickery, Maria Sanchez, and Julia Boserup are among those who could still grab that US Open wild card with a final (or, for Sanchez and Boserup, a semifinal).  Oudin, Jennifer Brady, Lauren Embree, Asia Muhammad, Samantha Crawford and others are also in the draw, and thus still in the wild card race.

 Astana Challenger: Connor Smith is the #7 seed.

Astana $25K: Alexandra Riley is in the main draw.

Gatineau $25K: Alexa Glatch is the top seed; Halbauer, Alexandra Mueller, and Lauren Albanese received direct entry; and Malika Rose and Anne-Liz Jeukeng qualified.

Rome $25K: Tina Tehrani is a Lucky Loser.

USA F23/Edwardsville: None of the top 8 seeds are American, and only a few received direct entry (including Clay Thompson, Mico Santiago, and Evan King) while Jared Hiltzik should get an SE, and 6, 7, or all 8 of the qualifiers will be American.

Canada F6/Saskatoon: Dennis Nevolo and Dome are among several American men in the main draw, while several more are in qualies (including Marcos Giron, who should be seeded if he wins his lone qualies match).

France F16/Ajaccio: 31-year-old Gregory Levy is into his first main draw since 2009 and is seeking his first-ever ATP point.

Italy F20/Pontedera: Collin Altamirano is in the main draw.

Hong Kong $15K: Yuki Kristina Chiang qualified.

Austin $10K: At least half of the players are American, including Lauren Herring.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Sunday, July 19, 2015

This Week in American Tennis: Rampras Goes Electric

1. They call him Rampras. Each man possess a sweet one-handed backhand, some of the best volleys going, notably similar service motions, hairy forearms, and one (grass court) tournament at which he reigns supreme. Pete Sampras had Wimbledon; Rajeev Ram has Newport. Today, the man known as Rampras collected his second Newport title by playing basic, old-school, grass tennis and by out-clutching Ivo Karlovic in their two tiebreaks to win 7-6(5) 5-7 7-6(2).

Ram set the tone for the week early, by upsetting top seed John Isner 6-7(5) 6-3 7-6(8), saving a match point along the way. (That first set was the only tiebreak he lost in the 7 he played during the week.) Two rounds later, in the quarterfinals, he saved 2 more match points to beat #5 seed Adrian Mannarino 2-6 7-6(8) 7-6(2).

In the final, he was unable to break Karlovic, while getting broken once in the second set thanks to a netcord passing shot that he couldn't control. But at 4-4* in the first set tiebreak, he had the one Samprasian moment he needed:
Going into the third set tiebreak (his third third-set tiebreak of the week), it looked rough, as he'd only won 2 points off the Croat's serve in the third set. However, a somewhat lucky floating return winner at 1-1* and a tricky bouncing return to the net-rushing Karlovic's feet at 4-1* made the tiebreak a bit anti-climactic. Ram won 7-2.

His ability to remain calm in the pressure situations all tournament had huge Ram-ifications for the 31-year-old's career. The $84,250 winner's check is 65% of what he'd made all year (thanks mostly to his doubles success). And the 250 rankings points will launch him from #161 to #86, giving him direct entry into the US Open (ka-ching) and with only 99 points to defend for the rest of the year, a very good shot at direct entry into the 2016 Australian Open (ka-ching).

It also means, surprisingly, that Ram has matched Sampras in one category:


Tough not to be thrilled for the guy.

P.S. Get this: Ram has made the semifinals of four ATP tournaments: 2009 Newport, 2012 Newport, 2012 Los Angeles, and 2015 Newport. Each time he was ranked outside the Top 100.

2. Bernarda Pera - The Under-known American: Her first tournament in 2013 she played under the Croatian flag. Two months later, in her second tournament of the year, she played as an American. But for the next year and a half, she made only two appearances in tournaments on US soil. She was an unknown - or under-known - American.

But then Bernarda Pera was given a qualifying wildcard to the US Open - her first chance at a major - and then after giving the Quebec City qualies a try, played her last 5 tournaments (all ITF-level) in the States, reaching a $25K semifinal in Florence, S.C.  She opened 2015 with 9 US tournaments, and her best pro-result: a quarterfinal at the $100K Midland, Mich., tournament in which she beat Sanaz Marand and then-#130 Jovana Jaksic before falling 7-5 in the third to Katerina Vankova.

Those 3rd set tight losses have been far too common for Pera: 18 of her 30 losses since the beginning of 2014 have come in 3 sets. 5 of her last 13 tournaments have ended either 7-5 in the third set or in a third-set tiebreaker - with only 1 win by either score in that time. (Her loss in the US Open qualies was to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, whom she led 4-2 in the third set before losing the last 4 games.)

So when she beat top seed Oceane Dodin (#131) in the quarters of this week's $25K Imola, Italy tournament - and did it 7-6(5) in the third - it was probably the most important win of the 20-year-old's career. She followed it up with straight-set wins over Nadiia Kichenok and Sherezad Reix to claim her first title above the $15K level.

Having spent most of the past 2 seasons hovering in the 300s, she'll now vault (in a week, once the Imola points are added) into the Top 250 and within spitting distance of a direct entry into US Open qualies (although she may not be able to quite make it, as I don't see her in any acceptance lists over the next couple of weeks).

She's got the aggressive, big hitting game. This title should go far toward solidifying the mental strength she'll need as she continues to climb the rankings ladder ... and perhaps help her become a little less under-known among American tennis fans.

3. Marand takes the USOWCC lead in Stockton. With a US Open main draw wild card at stake, the first of three consecutive USTA Pro Circuit $50K tournaments took place in Stockton, California. The player with the most points in two of the three events will get a main draw wild card to the US Open. Getting an early lead on the field was something of a surprise candidate: Sanaz Marand, the Texan and UNC alum who has yet to play even in the qualies of a major. (Speaking of Marand, I just found this nice article about her from April.) Marand reached the semis with wins over fellow college standouts Jennifer Brady and Brooke Austin, and then in the quarters over recently-returned-to-competition Melanie Oudin who, along with Danielle Lao, sits in 2nd place in the wild card challenge.

Marand's good form continued in doubles, where she picked up her 11th (and biggest) doubles title, with help from fellow UNCer Jamie Loeb. This was also Loeb's biggest title, and her 5th in doubles.

The winner of the singles tournament was 5th seed Nao Hibino (JPN), who beat Marand in 2 tiebreaks and then top seed An-Sophie Mestach (BEL) in the final.  The center court matches were streamed and if you haven't seen her before, take a chance to watch some of Marand's lefty, backhand-slice-heavy game. You will likely join me in wishing her the best as she tries to reach her dream of playing in a major.

Gold Stars:  Jack Sock (Newport SF), Anna Tatishvili (WTA Bucharest singles QF and doubles SF), Julia Jones (Sharm El Sheikh $10K final as qualifier), Karyn Guttormsen (Sharm El Sheikh SF as qualifier), Nicholas Monroe (Newport doubles final), Matt Seeberger (Poznan Challenger doubles final), Austin Krajicek (Newport doubles SF with Ram), Kaitlyn Christian (Stockton $50K doubles final with Lao) and Dennis Novikov (bronze medal, men's singles, Pan Am Games). Also the winners of the USTA Clay Court championships - in particular Sam Riffice, who secured a wild card into the US Open junior championships.

A look forward:

Istanbul: Top seed is Venus Williams. Anna Tatishvili beat Grace Min to reach the final round of qualies, where she will face Zhu Lin.

Bad Gastein: Katerina Stewart will look to qualify against Ana Bogdan on Monday.

 Bogota: Rajeev Ram will have his work cut out for him against local favorite Alejandro Falla in the first round of this ATP 250 (and would take on Mannarino in the second). Austin Krajicek is also in the main draw, while Kevin King will play Facundo Mena in the final round of qualies of the hard court event.

Binghamton Challenger: 14 or 15 American men will be in the main draw in this, the first leg of the three-tournament men's US Open Wild Card Challenge. Included among them are recent junior slam champions Tommy Paul and Reilly Opelka, both of whom received wild cards.

Granby Challenger: Up in Canada, Adam El Mihdawy and Dennis Nevolo are in the main draw, as are qualifiers Nikita Kryvonos and Raymond Sarmiento. Jean-Yves Aubone will be looking to join them as he completes his rain-delayed match against 14-year-old Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime, who is up a break in the first set.

Recanati Challenger: Connor Smith is in the main draw [edited to add: as is Jesse Witten, who qualified on Monday morning].

Sacramento $50K: Most of the women who played Stockton will be playing this, the second leg of the women's US Open Wild Card Challenge.

Granby $50K: One exception to the Stockton/Sacramento double will be Danielle Lao,  who along with Lauren Albanese and Alexandra Mueller are in the main draw in this Canadian event. Additionally, Keri Wong will play Ellie Halbauer in the final round of qualies.

Futures: In Godfrey, IL, top seed Deiton Baughman (WC) drew Clay Thompson (ARE YOU KIDDING ME??) at the $15K. Also playing are Illinoisians Evan King and the Hiltzik Brothers. Also juniors Michael Mmoh and Alex Rybakov. In Vancouver, B.C., 8 Americans are in the main draw (plus at least one will qualify), led by #2 seed Andre Dome.

In Dublin, Ireland, Peter Kobelt looks to be the #3 seed; in Denia, Spain, Eduardo Nava is in the main draw; and in Ankara, Turkey, Vikram Hundal qualified.

At the Hong Kong $15K, Yuki Kristina Chiang qualified. At the Bad Waltersdorf $10K in Austria, Natalie Suk looks to be last in to the main draw. $10K Maaseik: Tina Tehrani will play the #1 seed. Julia Jones and Karyn Guttormsen should get Special Exempt entry into Sharm El Sheikh $10K in Egypt.  Sabrina Santamaria is into the final round of qualies at the Tampere, Finland $10K. Rasheeda McAdoo qualfied for the $10K in Viserba, Italy.

Finally, in Evansville, Indiana, nearly all the seeds look to be non-American, but at least 10 Americans, plus some guaranteed qualifiers, will be in the main draw led by Alexa Graham.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Monday, June 22, 2015

These Weeks in American Tennis: Double your pleasure

We are pleased to present a supersized version of This Week in American Tennis!  Parsa has combed through the best and the even better of the last two weeks to bring you all that the USA had to offer on the grass (and some other surfaces) since June 8.

1) DK comes alive. Throughout his career, 22-year-old Denis Kudla hasn’t received as many wildcards into ATP tournaments as other Americans such as Donald Young or Jack Sock.  However his hard work and resiliency are second to none. Prior to this month, Kudla had received 12 wildcards in his career into the main draw of ATP tournaments and successfully qualified to the main draw of an ATP tourney 13 times. Sock, by contrast, has received 22 wildcards in his career into the main draw of ATP tournaments and has successfully qualified to the main draw of an ATP tourney only 4 times. I am not saying that Sock did not deserve those wildcards -- he will be seeded for Wimbledon after all -- but I am saying that a guy like Kudla has had to work a lot harder himself to be successful since he has to grind it out in qualifying much more often.

After the French Open, Kudla separated with coach Tom “Gully” Gullikson and started working with Billy Heiser, who also coaches fellow Americans Tim Smyczek and Rhyne Williams. Before heading back to Europe for the grass-court season, Kudla trained with Heiser for a week at the Saddlebrook Resort in Tampa, Florida -- a common training place for many pros including John Isner, Sock, and the Bryan Brothers.

Kudla had been having a sub-par season up until a couple weeks ago. He was 2-6 in tour-level matches this year, and had only reached one challenger quarterfinal in that time. But then the grass court season arrived. Kudla was seeded fourth at the Surbiton Challenger (screw all the Aegons, I am going with the city) and was playing remarkably well.  He did not drop a set en route to the final where he faced Aussie Matthew Ebden, who had already defeated 3 Americans in the tournament. Kudla took a tight first set in a tie-break before dropping the second set 4-6, and thus the final was taken to a third set. Both players were playing at a pretty high level, but it was Kudla who broke first in the set to go up 4-2. Each player held serve in their next service games which gave Kudla the opportunity to serve out the match and take the title. 5-3 40-15. Two championship points for Kudla. However, two unforced errors and four points later Ebden got the break back. After two holds, the match went to a deciding tiebreak in which Ebden raced out to a 5-2* lead. Denis stayed composed and won the next three points to even it up at 5-5. However, Ebden took the next two points, giving him the title and handing Kudla an extremely heartbreaking loss.


Now fast-forward to this past week in the Ilkley Challenger where Kudla was unseeded and facing Guido Andreozzi in the first round. Kudla found himself trailing 4-6 2-2 *0-30 and also faced two break points at 30-40 & 40-ad. Kudla could easily have decided to sulk and still be upset about how he let the title just slip through his fingertips the prior week in Surbiton. But no no no. This is Denis Kudla we’re talking about. Kudla stayed resilient to win his first round match in three sets and then took out the number one seed in straight sets in the second round. With a three-set victory in the quarterfinals and a solid straight-sets performance in the semifinals, Kudla found himself in the final of a grass-court challenger once again against none other than Matthew Ebden. Kudla was a man on a mission all week and what better way to avenge his crushing defeat the previous week than to defeat the same opponent a week later. Kudla played very solid and stayed focused on his way to a 6-3 6-4 victory to win his fifth career challenger title and first of the year.

Kudla’s solid all-around court game has enabled him to have good results on grass -- he reached the Junior Wimbledon QF as well as ATP QFs at Queens and Newport. In addition, in both 2013 and 2014, Kudla won three qualifying matches at Wimbledon to reach the main draw and then advanced to the second round each time. With his title in Ilkley, Kudla received a main draw wildcard into Wimbledon enabling him to get some rest this week and not have to worry about qualifying. In addition, Kudla brought his ranking all the way up to 105 and is just a few points outside the top 100.

Kudla is part of a competition between four young players sponsored by Tecnifibre who are fighting for their future on the ATP tour. The winner is awarded $50,000. Read here to learn more and make sure when tweeting about Kudla to use #YoungGunsOTR to help him win!

2) An American champion returns. Only for one tournament though. At next month’s BB&T Atlanta Open, Andy Roddick will come out of retirement and receive a wildcard to play doubles with good friend and fellow American Mardy Fish, who has been dealing with an anxiety disorder hindering him from fully returning to competition. Fish will use his protected ranking to also play singles, his first tournament since he played in Indian Wells earlier this year. In addition to playing doubles with Fish, Roddick will participate in a singles exhibition with 17-year-old fellow American Frances Tiafoe, who received a main draw wildcard for singles. On the prospect of facing Tiafoe in the exhibition, Roddick said it “literally scared the shit out of me.” American tennis fans, as well as all other fans of these two beloved players, will be thrilled to see both of these guys back on court, even if it may be only for one tournament.

 3) Young studs turn pro. The two most recent American junior slam champions both announced they would turn pro within a couple weeks of each other. 18-year-old Tommy Paul, coming off a title at Roland Garros, has signed with Nike and decided to forego playing collegiate tennis for the University of Georgia. Paul currently has an ATP ranking of 445 and won two ITF singles titles before Roland Garros on European clay.

19-year-old Noah Rubin took a different route than Paul. He won the Wimbledon boys title last year and the 18s National titles at Kalamazoo in both singles and doubles, but still decided to play collegiate tennis at Wake Forest. The decision seemed to play off for the Wake Forest freshman as he was named both ACC Freshman and Player of the Year, and reached the final of the NCAA Singles Championship, helping him finish the season ranked number 5 in singles.

Rubin will play his first tournament as a professional in Tulsa, Oklahoma this week at the USA F19 Futures and then head over to Wichita, Kansas next week for the USA F21 Futures. Paul is entered in both the Nike Junior International Roehampton Grade 1 next week as well as the Wimbledon Junior championships the following week.
4) Former college stars win their 1st pro titles. This past week in Manzanillo, Mexico, Clay Thompson dropped only 8 games in 3 qualifying matches to reach the main draw, and then the 2014 UCLA graduate won his 5 matches in straight sets to clinch his 1st pro title. Even more impressively, Thompson overcame lobsters and puking before his quarterfinal match and immediately went to the hospital after his win (in which he dropped only 3 games).
Winning all 16 of your sets to take a title, it does not get better than that. Or does it? Thompson celebrated afterwards with his trophy under the beautiful Mexico weather in a pool with two special ladies per his tweet.

One week ago, recent University of Caroline graduate Caroline Price played in her 1st pro tournament since 2011 as she received a wildcard into the $10K women's Pro Circuit event in Charlotte, North Carolina. Price, the daughter of former NBA star Mark Price, battled all week in the brutal sun as she took out recent University of Georgia graduate Lauren Herring in a three-set final.  Price not only won her first title, but she also earned her first  WTA ranking -- she is now ranked #893.
This past week, former University of Michigan star Evan King was playing in only his 3rd tournament of the year in Harare where the Zimbabwe F1 Futures were taking place. King has won 11 doubles titles, but had never managed to capture a singles title before this tournament. King turned that around as he dropped only two sets en route to his first pro singles title, ending with a straight-sets win over fellow American Tyler Hochwalt in the final. The week before, King won the doubles title at the Mozambique F2 Futures with fellow American Anderson Reed (King's 11th and Reed’s 2nd career doubles title).

5) Rapid rankings climbers. Two weeks ago, two Americans steadily climbing the rankings each won an ITF Futures title. 19-year-old Deiton Baughman won the Bosnia and Herzegovina F5 Futures, his ssecond singles title of 2015, as he took out top-250 player Nils Langer in the semifinal and the eighth seed in the final in three sets. Baughman had a 2014 year-end ranking of 799, but with some solid performances this year, he has steadily climbed the rankings and this week broke into the top 500 for the first time, moving up 84 spots to #425. Baughman has a few nicknames, but Slim has really stuck with him since he looks a bit like Eminem (Slim Shady). So when you tweet about the 19-year-old, make sure to use his favorite hashtag #SlimRising!


Another American who has quickly ascended the rankings this year is former top-200 player Tennys Sandgren. The former Tennessee Volunteer had hip surgery last year that caused him to be out from February to September. Sandgren saw his ranking plummet all the way down to the 700s after he had been in the 180s. A week ago, Sandgren captured his second futures title of the year -- the USA F16B Futures in Charlottesville, Virginia -- beating 18-year-old fellow American Ernesto Escobedo in the final. Sandgren has been coached recently by former world #52 Brian Baker, who is targeting to return from injury at the 2016 Australian Open. Sandgren has reached the final at his last three tournaments which has helped him move back into the top-300; he currently stands at #280. #ReturnOfTennys

21-year-old Bjorn Fratangelo also recently has mounted the rankings swiftly. In July 2014, Fratangelo was ranked as low as 535, but then he came alive winning two straight futures tournaments in July and then winning two more in September. These four titles helped him enter the top 300, giving him the opportunity to play more challenger events and also enabling him to also earn more points. Fratangelo won his first career challenger title earlier this year in Launceston, helping him ascend into the top 200 for the first time.

Fast forward to last week where Fratangelo slid his way on the red clay to reach the final of the Caltanissetta Challenger. Fratangelo had to battle extremely hard in each and every match as he had a tough path to the final. He won his first round match in two tight tie-breaks, then came back from a set down in each of his next three matches with wins over fellow American Dennis Novikov and top-150 players Alejandro Gonzalez and Marco Cecchinato. In the final, Fratangelo ran into 19-year-old Swede Elias Ymer, who played extremely solid tennis and beat Fratangelo in straight sets. Fratangelo’s solid week in Italy pushed him into the top 125 for the first time as he is now ranked almost 500 spots higher than he was just a year ago.



5) Remarkable Return. Playing at the $10K in Victoria, Canada this past week -- her first pro tournament since 2012 -- 24-year-old qualifier Gail Brodsky came back from a set down in three of her matches, including the final, to win her 4th career singles title and first since 2011. The new mom took out four seeds on her way to the title including the 8th seed in the second round, the 4th seed in the quarterfinals, the 2nd seed in the semifinals, and finally the top seed in the final. About a month before her title this week, Brodsky kicked off her comeback by winning the Intermountain section of the US Open Sectional Qualifying in both singles and mixed doubles. Great job by Brodsky to come back from a three-year layoff and win the first pro tournament she played!
Brodsky is on the right in white

6) Doubles champs. This past week, Rajeev Ram along with partner South African Raven Klassen won the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, an ATP 500 tournament, taking out the #4 seeds in the quarterfinals, the top seeds in the semifinals, and the #2 seeds in the final. This was Ram’s 8th career ATP doubles title and 1st since 2012 as his ranking moved up to #33, tying his career-high from 2010.

A week ago, the all-American duo of Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears took the title as the top seeds in Nottingham, a WTA International event. It was the duo’s 18th title together and their second of the year. They are currently ranked 9th in the WTA Championship Race to Singapore.

While an all-American team won the doubles event at Nottingham, that same week another American took a doubles title as Asia Muhammad won the TopShelf Open at s-Hertogenbosch, a WTA International event, with partner Laura Siegemund. This was Muhammad’s 1st career WTA doubles title.

Gold stars: Hunter Nicholas (USA 16B doubles title with Finn Tearney), Gonzales Austin & Max Jacob Schnur (USA 16B doubles final), Collin Altamirano and Ryan Haviland (USA F16B semis), Adam El-Mihdawy and Andre Dome (Mexico F6 semis), Jean-Yves Aubone & Dome (Mexico F6 doubles final), Cameron Silverman & Raleigh Smith (Israel F8 doubles title), Patrick Davidson (Israel F9 doubles final), Winston Lin (USA F17 semis), Nathan Pasha & Sekou Bangoura (USA F17 doubles title), Greg Ouellette (Netherlands F1 semis), Alexander Sarkissian (Hong Kong F1 finalist), Zoe Scandalis ($10K Manzanillo doubles title with Renata Zarazua), Sabrina Santamaria (qualified & reached semis of $10K Alkmaar), Kourtney Keegan & Alexandra Mueller ($10K Charlotte semis & won doubles title at $25K Sumter with Ashley Weinhold), Jaeda Daniel ($10K Antananarivo finalist), Lauren Embree ($25K Sumter finalist), Jennifer Brady ($25K Sumter semis), Danielle Lao & Jacqueline Cako ($25K Sumter doubles finalists), Sachia Vickery (qualified for Nottingham & reached quarters), Alison Riske (Nottingham semis), Zoe Spence (won ITF juniors title at the Grade 4 in Guatemala).

A look ahead: Other than Kudla’s performances, it has been a rough grass-court season thus far for the American men. There are 7 American men playing in Wimbledon qualifying this week and through Monday we are 0-4 with losses from Chase Buchanan, Jared Donaldson, Jarmere Jenkins, and Dennis Novikov. All 3 seeded players are left in the draw as Fratangelo and Austin Krajicek have yet to play and Ryan Harrison split sets before having to stop play because of darkness.

17-year-old Taylor Fritz, recent finalist at the Roland Garros Junior championships, will make his ATP debut in Nottingham where he has received a main draw wildcard. Fritz has stated that grass is his favorite surface and that with his game style, it is a fun surface to play on. Steve Johnson and Donald Young suffered first round losses in Nottingham, Sam Querrey had a bye first round, and Tim Smyczek and Fritz have yet to complete their matches because of rain.

Jack Sock has not played any grass-court warm-up events, but he will participate once again at the Boodles, an exhibition tournament that will also feature other players such as Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and fellow American John Isner.

On the women's side, there are 11 American woman playing in Wimbledon qualifying this week and they are: Louisa Chirico, Allie Kiick, Vickery, Jessica Pegula, Grace Min, Maria Sanchez, Alexa Glatch, Anna Tatishvili, Melanie Oudin, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, and Katerina Stewart.

In the WTA Premier Event at Nottingham this week, Christina McHale, Irina Falconi, and Lauren Davis all qualified to the main draw. Falconi earned a first-round win, but McHale and Davis both lost, as did Madison Brengle and Varvara Lepchenko. In the main-draw, Sloane Stephens came from a set down to win advance to the second round where she will face 5th seed, Carla Suárez Navarro. Riske had a dominant straight sets win over Alize Cornet to reach the second round where she will face struggling 7th seed Eugenie Bouchard. The winner of that match will take on the winner of 12th seed Madison Keys and 18-year-old Belinda Bencic. Coco Vandeweghe had a nice win after being a set down to reach the second round where she will face 6th seed Angelique Kerber, who is coming off a title last week in Birmingham.
Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)