I was hoping to post a quick link to my SMASH column, which I wrote on Monday, as usual, but it hasn't been put up on the magazine's website as of late Wednesday.
But I just saw this feature by Charlie Bricker of the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel on Lauren Albanese, so I'll post that instead.
Tuesday was a big day for men's Big Ten NLI announcements. Michigan announced the signing of blue chip Chris Madden and five star recruit David Streeter. Purdue released an announcement that it had commitments from Californians DJ Johnson and Eric Ramos, and Northwestern announced that Peter Rispoli and Andrew McCarthy would be joining the Wildcats.
On the professional front, IMG has signed Ryan Sweeting to a representation contract, which would seem to indicate that he's more likely to be seen at training at Bollettieri's than Saddlebrook as previously reported by Charlie Bricker last week, but I'll check on that when I get to Bradenton.
On Tuesday we start our long drive south, and by the weekend we'll be at the IMG/Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton for the Eddie Herr. After that, it's even farther south, to Miami, for the Orange Bowl and the Junior Orange Bowl, wrapping up just two days before Christmas.
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday and various unknown accommodations for the remainder of the week, updates to the site may not be daily, but expect lots of on the scene reporting once the Eddie Herr begins.
There are two interesting articles today. This one from the LA Times is about Alison Ramos, and as reporter Lauren Peterson makes clear, for Ramos, high school tennis is a very high priority.
New Zealand is hoping for big things from two of their junior girls, Marina Erakovic, who is 18 and ranked 161 by the WTA, and 16-year-old Sacha Jones, who is 13th in the ITF junior rankings. Whether this constitutes "a golden age of women's tennis" as this New Zealand article says, remains to be seen.
Finally, Virginia has officially announced the signings of Houston Barrick, Jason Jung and Douglas Perrin.
Matt Knoll at Baylor has hired an assistant to replace Sam Winterbotham, who left Waco after just a few months to take the Tennessee head coaching job. This article by Kim Gorum, who does a great job on the Baylor tennis beat, gives the details of Kyle Spencer's hiring.
There's also a story in today's Waco Tribune about Baylor alum Benjamin Becker, who lost in the final of the Challenger in the Ukraine to Dmitry Tursunov. The last paragragh contains the interesting tidbit that Becker is tied with Misha Zverev for the second most wins in men's tennis behind (way behind) Roger Federer.
There's was a small item in Charlie Bricker's column Friday about Sweeting turning pro and training at Saddlebrook part time. There hasn't been anything official from Florida's SID about Sweeting, and there may not be at this point.
Due to illness I wasn't able to get to Mark Bey's National Junior Tennis conference this weekend as I had planned. But Marcia Frost from collegeandjuniortennis.com is there, and she'll be writing about it on that site next week.
The most recent edition of Inside Junior Tennis podcast is now available.
And keep those Florida signing comments coming while I recuperate. I'm learning a lot about scholarships.
Andy Jackson didn't waste any time worrying about the loss of Ryan Sweeting to the pro ranks. Today he announced the signing of five players, and in Levine he has landed one of the most sought-after recruits in the nation. Hochwalt and Corace had made their verbals some time ago, but, at least as far as I know, Levine, Mirzadeh and Dadamo only recently decided on Florida. It's an undeniably impressive recruiting class. There's no mention in the release when the older two will be starting. Levine turned 19 last month and Mirzadeh turns 20 next month.
Bill Ozaki, the USTA's Director of Junior and Collegiate Competition, has resigned from that position and will return to his previous one, that of Director of Player Development for the Southern Section. I saw Bill briefly at the ITA Indoor in Columbus, and I had no inkling that this was coming. I believe the position was created less than two years ago, as part of the USTA's commitment to integrate junior and college tennis as part of the player development structure. With Eliot Teltscher's resignation a few months ago, and the changes made recently in High Performance coaching, no personnel move can really be described as unexpected, but it wasn't as if anyone was waiting for another shoe to drop. Will there be more? For news on the tennis court, the University of Illinois can always be relied on, especially when three players with Illinois ties are in the quarterfinals of the Challenger going on there. Kevin Anderson, a junior at Illinois, had his biggest win last night, when he took out Kevin Kim, who is ranked just outside the ATP Top 100. Details are available here.
My SMASH column mentioned the great website at that Challenger--see for yourself, here.
My SMASH online column is up, and there were some impressive performances by teenagers in pro events. My apologies to Stacey Tan for not having a photograph of her to display here. Her win in a Manila $10K Women's event caught me by surprise.
I've just spoken to Mark Bey, and he has finalized the lineup for his 10th annual National Junior Tennis Conference and Training Camp this weekend in suburban Chicago. Here are the speakers expected:
Dick Gould Former Stanford University Men’s Head Coach
Luke Jensen ESPN Analyst and Syracuse Women’s Head Coach
Craig O’Shannessy Junior developer and National clinician
Jorge Capestany Master professional and Junior developer
Bill Clark Bill Clark Tennis Academy - Junior developer
Bobby Bayliss/Ryan Sachire Notre Dame Men’s Tennis
Charles Granville Certified Referee & Father of WTA professional Laura Granville
I'll be in Libertyville again this year, so look for a post about the day's activities on Saturday evening. If you'd like more information about the schedule, please contact Mark Bey at the Libertyville Tennis & Fitness Club (847) 362-5553.
Gastao Elias of Portugal has signed with IMG and will train at the IMG/Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton Florida. The announcement was released Monday by IMG; no terms were disclosed.
I've seen Elias play, primarily in Carson this spring, where he defeated Dennis Lajola and Wil Spencer before losing to Clint Bowles in the quarterfinals. (I missed him at this year's U.S. Open Juniors, where he lost to eventual winner Dusan Lojda in the second round). I was impressed with the great variety in his game, but not surprised that someone on the level of Dmitry Tursunov would overwhelm him, as The Blog King did in Estoril, Portugal just a few weeks later. Elias was given a wild card into qualifying and made the main draw as a lucky loser, falling to Tursunov 6-2, 6-1.
Here's Tursunov's account of that match, one his first wins on clay:
IT HAPPENED!!! They told me, “Just keep pluggin’ alone and you will win a match!!!” and it happened! Of course the kid was 15 but c’mon! I’m blond! We all have our excuses… I don’t care what anyone says. I matched my best clay court season record so from now on it can only get better! The match wasn’t too long and I tried to work on some things as it progressed. It was a bit tough, though, because the crowd reacted to every mistake by me as if the guy hit the shot of his life, so you don’t want to lose a single point because they are eating you alive. I guess that kinda goes with the territory when you play a local kid and they want to show him that they are backing him up!
Elias is scheduled to play both the Eddie Herr and the Orange Bowl, so I'll get a chance to see him play again soon.
My synopsis of the ITA Indoor was posted today at The Tennis Recruiting Network's website. The photos are obviously not from Columbus, but from the NCAAs at Stanford last May.
Most college tennis teams are now on break until January. Monday was the final day of the Big Ten individual championships in Ann Arbor, and Matko Maravic of the University of Michigan earned the title, defeating Indiana's David Bubenicek 6-3, 6-2. For more details, see this article on mgoblue.com.
I discovered Greg Moran's writing a few months ago via his monthly column on TheTennisServer.com. I checked out some of his past columns (here's one of my favorites), and was impressed with both his passion for the game and his writing prowess, a combination you don't often encounter in a teaching pro. (I believe any successful teaching pro with a several decades in the business could probably write a useful book based on their experiences, but it's rare when someone actually does it.) I was eager to read his book, Tennis Beyond Big Shots, and it didn't disappoint.
I think the "Big Shots" Moran refers to has a dual meaning. The primary one is big shots such as Andy Roddick's serve or Roger Federer's forehand. Moran makes the case throughout the book that consistency is more important than power, that one running forehand down-the-line winner doesn't make up for the six unforced errors on either side of it. Percentage tennis is what he preaches, and he makes a very convincing case for it. Roddick and Federer may be and have "Big Shots," but Moran isn't much interested in them. He's interested in the game as it is played for recreational players, not professionals.
The true heart of the book is, well, it's heart. The first half--Small Changes To Win Big, Retro Shots That Will Raise Your Game--is focused on playing better, and the advice is directed at the club-level player. The second half--Good Thinking Tops Great Strokes and Lighten Up, Be Happy--is about the mental, emotional, even spiritual, component of playing tennis. Moran uses anecdotes to maximum effect here, and his account of serving as a fourth for a Super Seniors doubles match and his story about what became of his tennis-playing high school buddies are two of the best.
There is plenty of solid advice on such topics as starting your child in tennis, what to look for in a pro, how to move to another pro without embarrassment, how to deal with cheaters, and how to avoid tennis snobs.
But most of all, Moran's love of the game makes you want to pick up your racquet and play. There isn't a much higher recommendation than that.
While the college NLI signing news continues to trickle in (here's a release for Texas A & M's women), I'm already starting to look ahead to the Eddie Herr in a couple of weeks. It's one of my few chances to see the 12s, and I hope to get a peek at the subject this story, Victoria Duval. To go from the twenty-somethings of college to the 10 and 11-year-olds takes a bit of adjustment, but it's always rejuvenating to see tennis through those very young eyes.
The latest podcast of Inside Junior Tennis is available now at TheTennisPodcast. Kevin McClure quizzes me on just what it is I do and look for when I'm at a tennis tournament ten or twelve hours a day.
A recent check of the USTA High Performance website, shows that they've officially shuffled many of the coaches. David DiLucia is back with the 1990 birth year boys, while David Nainkin and Mike Sell have essentially switched places, with Nainkin taking the 1989 birth year boys and Sell one group of the male touring pros.
Finally, the University of Texas is one of the few schools that have done official releases on their National Letter of Intent signees. The women's team has a commitment from Maggie Mello, who also revealed her decision today on The Tennis Recruiting Network. Kellen Damico, who verbally committed to Texas this summer, signed his NLI on this week, according to texassportsonline.
This story, from last week's Daily Illini is a much more extensive look at the new career of former University of Michigan assistant Michael Kosta than the short one I wrote for SMASH (publication expected to be first quarter of 2007). Illinois is fortunate to have such excellent young journalists covering tennis for them; Amber Greviskes left and Eric Chima steps right in without missing a beat.
For those of you not inclined to scroll to the bottom of the site everyday, I do want to mention that I've added an Amazon store for books I've reviewed, including Kosta's book, 101 Tips for Winning More Tennis Matches. If you are considering purchasing any holiday gifts from Amazon, doing it through these links will help in my efforts to make ZooTennis a viable enterprise.
My SMASH online column went up today, and as usual when I'm actually "On The Road," it's a long one. Those of you in the Southern section should also check out the SMASH home page for a link to details about the tournament the magazine is sponsoring in February.
In keeping with the college theme, I'll pass along two stories, one from UCLA about Ben Kohlloeffel and his Indoor title, the second from William and Mary about their women's Indoor doubles champions Megan Moulton-Levy and Katarina Zoricic.
The Tennis Recruiting Network has been a beehive of activity the past couple of weeks, keeping up with all the verbal commitments that surface when seniors return from their official visits. On Monday, Julie Wrege updated the latest on the Blue Chip boys; Tuesday, it was the the girls' turn.
Wednesday is the first day that recruits can sign a National Letter of Intent; before that University Sports Information Departments are unable to comment on incoming recruits, regardless of how widely known the decision is. This leads to some creative attribution. In this article published Tuesday by The Red and Black, Georgia's student newspaper, the prospect of Georgia's return to the NCAA Team finals is discussed. Two players who are widely known to be joining the Bulldogs in January--Nate Schnugg and Christian Vitulli--are referred to this way:
The Web site [tennisrecruiting.net] suggested that Hunt’s partner at the U.S. Open, Nathaniel Schnugg, will be arriving in January, along with Christian Vitulli of Kenya.
During the next two weeks, press releases will begin to trickle out, but short of checking every top D-I's website, I recommend daily visits to tennisrecruiting.net.
When I first heard about the USTA's Okechi Womeodu Scholar Athlete Grant early this year, I made a note to remind juniors and their families when applications would be available for the 2007 award. According to the usta.com website, applications for the $5000 grants, awarded to one male and one female player each year, have been available since November 1st. The deadline to submit the application to your section is late December. It will be two years on Friday that junior tennis lost one of its shining lights; this award is an ideal way of honoring Okechi Womeodu's memory. For more information, please contact Iris Rivera, Coordinator, Special Projects, at (914) 697-2281 or email her at irivera-at-usta.com.
Recently I was asked to pass along news about the Champions for Charity event scheduled for Saturday, November 25th in Wichita Kansas. In addition to Andy Roddick, Luke and Murphy Jensen, Brenda Schultz-McCarthy, and Natasha Zvereva, Sam Querrey will be a part of the benefit for the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation and the Genesis Foundation for Fitness & Tennis. For more details, see this release in Tennis Week.
I also wanted to mention that, after some daunting technical difficulties, Kevin McClure has managed to reconstruct our October 31st edition of Inside Junior Tennis and it is available here. Due to the delay in making this one available, the next one will come out later this week.
Defending champion Ben Kohlloeffel of UCLA produced his best tennis of the week Sunday afternoon, reeling off ten straight games on his way to defeating Ohio State's Steven Moneke 6-0, 6-4 at the ITA Indoor Championships at The Racquet Club of Columbus.
Audra Cohen of Miami had a tougher road, dropping the first set, but she rebounded to take her second national singles title with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Jelena Pandzic of Fresno Pacific.
Kohlloeffel couldn't miss in the first set, serving and volleying and drilling ground stroke winners at every chance. The hundred or so Buckeye fans supporting Moneke, who hadn't lost a set in the tournament, never had a chance to supply any energy to the sophomore from Germany.
"He didn't give me any time to attack," said Moneke, a friend of net-rushing lefthander from their days playing tennis in Germany. "He took every ball so early."
"I surprised myself," said Kohlloeffel, the 2006 NCAA champion who is 58-5 over the last two seasons. "Every so often you have those times when you don't miss, but you see how fast it can go."
Down 4-0 in the second set, Moneke allowed himself a smile when he held serve for the first time in the match, and when he broke the UCLA senior in his next two service games to even the set, the crowd began to voice hope for a third set.
"He returned better, and put pressure on my serve," said Kohlloeffel of the Moneke comeback.
But it was a short-lived glimmer of hope. Moneke was broken at 4-4, and Kohlloeffel slammed the door.
The two friends embraced at the net, and while waiting for photographs, exchanged notes on the match, their first encounter outside of practice.
"I thought it would be fun," said Moneke, who admitted that he had hoped Kohlloeffel would be his opponent in the final. "But it was more fun for him than for me."
In the first set of the women's final, played an adjacent court at the same time as the men's, Cohen, the second seed, fought back from an early break in the first set, but was unable to hold off the NAIA champion. Serving at 5-6, Cohen saved two set points with serve winners, but Pandzic countered those with ground stroke winners of her own and took the first set.
But Cohen, the ITA Player of the year in 2006, didn't panic, and made a strategic change that turned the match in her favor.
"She hit the ball better on the run than when she was standing still," said Cohen, who had never faced Pandzic before. "If you get her on the run and she's out wide, she can scream a winner down the line or scream a winner cross court. So a lot of points I was just slicing cross court, a very neutral ball, and she was having more trouble with that, getting a little impatient and going for big shots."
At 3-3 in the second set, Cohen got the break she needed, and although she faced a break point in the next game, she held and used a forehand winner and an ace in her next service game to square the match.
For the sixth seeded Pandzic, who had won 49 straight matches, it was the first set she had lost in that span, but another would soon follow. Cohen jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead, and Pandzic sensed that her streak was about to end.
"It's hard to break her," said Pandzic, who reached the 2004 final at the NCAAs while a freshman at Fresno State. "She has a big serve and big forehand and she's more aggressive with those shots. She played well today, all credit to her."
Cohen did have a slight hiccup when she was broken serving at 4-1 in the third, but Pandzic immediately gave it back, giving Cohen the chance to serve out the match. An ace, a Pandzic error and a service winner later, Cohen stood on the threshold of her second national singles title to go with the All-American championship in 2004, and she earned it when, after a long rally, Pandzic hit a volley long.
Cohen let out a loud "c'mon," and trotted to the net to accept congratulations from Pandzic, who was the first Small College Champion to reach the final using the ITA wild card.
In doubles, the fourth-seeded team of Megan Moulton-Levy and Katarina Zoricic of William and Mary captured the first national doubles title for the school when they defeated the unseeded TCU team of Ana Cetnik and Anna Sydorska 8-3. Zoricic and Moulton-Levy have been playing together since their junior days, and the teamwork they displayed looked like second nature to them. Zoricic was the only player who did not drop her serve, and her net play was also flawless. She and Moulton-Levy are now setting their sights on May.
"Our goals are to keep improving day to day and then to win the NCAAs in the spring," said Zoricic.
"She got that exactly right," said Moulton-Levy. "Two good goals."
For Isner and Flores, the operative number isn't two but three. The University of Georgia pair will be seeking the college triple crown when the NCAAs come to Athens next spring after their tense 9-8 (4) win over Middle Tennessee State's Marco Born and Andreas Siljestrom.
Isner, Born and Siljestrom are all 6-foot-9, so it was not unexpected that serves would dominate the match. Isner and Flores never faced a break point, and Born and Siljestrom only one in the sixteen games played and they brushed that aside.
In the tiebreak, it was Flores who blinked first. Serving at 3-3, Flores couldn't handle a second serve returned at his feet, and Born and Siljestrom had the opportunity to serve it out. But Born netted his first volley on the ensuing point to make it 4-4 and when Flores cracked a return winner on Born's next serve, it was the Georgia team in the driver's seat, with Isner serving next.
The senior righthander, who won the 2005 NCAA doubles title with Antonio Ruiz, didn't get either of his first serves in, but won both points, the last one on his sizzling forehand winner.
Isner and Flores won the All-American championships in Tulsa last month, garnering the top seed at the Indoor, and are beginning to hit their stride as a team.
"At the All-American, we were pretty shaky in the first round," said Isner, "but we got better every match. We came in here with a lot of confidence, knowing that if we played our game we'd be tough to beat."
Born and Siljestrom, finalists at last year's Indoor Championships, were also tough to beat.
"That doubles team," said Georgia coach Manny Diaz, pointing at the towering pair posing for photographs, "is one of the best teams we've seen. We were fortunate to beat such a great team."
Three consolation titles were decided Sunday morning. In doubles, Suzi Babos and Zsuzsanna Fodor of California defeated Catrina and Christian Thompson of Notre Dame 8-6. The women's singles consolation winner was Stanford's Celia Durkin, who outlasted Fodor 6-2, 6-7 (1), 7-5. The men's consolation winner was Ken Skupski of LSU, who downed Arnau Brugues of Tulsa 6-3, 6-3. The men's consolation doubles winners were Notre Dame's Ryan Keckley and Sheeva Parbhu, who defeated Alex Cojanu and Colin O'Brien of William and Mary 8-5 Saturday afternoon.
Top seed Ben Kohlloeffel of UCLA survived a scare in Saturday afternoon's semifinal, saving two match points in the third set tiebreak to defeat unseeded Ivan Puchkarov of Oklahoma State, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7). The defending ITA Indoor champion will face surprise finalist Steven Moneke, the unseeded Ohio State sophomore who has stormed through his draw without dropping a set. On Saturday it was Notre Dame's Stephen Bass that was on the short end of a 7-5, 6-3 score.
In women's action, sixth seed Jelena Pandzic of Fresno Pacific earned the first finals berth for a Small College Champion wild card when she rolled over eighth seed Megan Moulton-Levy 6-2, 6-1. Across the net on Sunday she will find 2006 ITA College Player of the Year Audra Cohen, a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Fresno State's Melanie Gloria.
Kohlloeffel had no difficulty in his first three victories, but Puchkarov had the 2006 NCAA champion doubting himself.
"Indoor tennis, the match turns so quickly," said Kohlloeffel. "You play a couple of bad games and you start wondering. You don't hit as hard, don't make your shots,"
Puchkarov, a 21-year-old from the Ukraine often pinned Kohlloeffel behind the baseline in the late stages of the match, negating the German's devastating volleys.
"He played the first ball well," said Kohlloeffel. "So deep, it was hard to get in."
In the tiebreak, Kohlloeffel double faulted at 5-5, giving Puchkarov his first match point, but an unforced error by Puchkarov got the UCLA senior off the hook. Puchkarov earned his second match point when Kohlloeffel caught the tape on his return; that one was brushed aside when Kohlloeffel served an ace. At 7-7, Kohloeffel missed his first serve, but rather than kick one in, he blasted an ace, a decision that had spectators gasping at its audacity.
"There's not much thinking involved," said Kohlloeffel, when asked about that decision after the match. "If it works out, you look smart, but if it doesn't you look stupid. I was lucky it worked out today."
On his first match point, Kohlloeffel got the serve back and Puchkarov netted a backhand, leaving Kohlloeffel with another berth in the finals, and a sense of deja vu.
Last year, on the same court, he saved three match points in defeating Georgia's John Isner 7-6 in the third.
"I can't explain it, same court, same everything," said Kohlloeffel. "It is just luck really to win that point when you need to."
Kohlloeffel and Moneke, both from Germany, were teammates in club tennis but, because of the four year age difference, have never played. Kohlloeffel has kept his eye on his compatriot this week, however.
"I'm really impressed with the way he's playing. It should be an interesting match."
Moneke had beaten Bass in the Midwest regional quarterfinals two weeks ago, and that contest was a marathon--6-4 in the third. But the toll of two grueling matches on Friday was evident when Bass failed to convert two sets points serving at 5-4.
"He's very consistent," said Moneke. "If he wins the first set, he's going to be tough to beat."
But Moneke fits that same description, and with the support of his teammates and the fans crowding the court at the Racquet Club of Columbus, he has displayed a lethal combination of defense and offense.
"I have to be aggressive, and yet patient," said Moneke. "And I've served very well this week. When I'm serving well, I'm tough to beat."
Moneke will attempt to become the fourth straight champion for the Buckeyes at the ITA Indoor. Jeremy Wurtzman captured the singles title in 2003, and Scott Green and Ross Wilson won back-to-back championships in doubles the next two years.
The women's semifinals produced some excellent tennis, but there wasn't much drama. In Cohen's victory over Gloria, it was sweet revenge for the Miami junior, who lost to the sophomore from Fresno State 6-3, 6-2 at last month's ITA All-American.
"I wasn't in that match mentally," Cohen said. "Today, I didn't have a meltdown. I focused, I stayed composed, and the results took care of themselves."
Pandzic, an NCAA finalist in 2004 while at Fresno State, rolled over Megan Moulton-Levy of William and Mary.
"She has an uncomfortable slice," said the junior from Croatia, who has now won 49 straight matches--all in straight sets. "I had to make sure she didn't run me all around with it." Pandzic credited her heavy topspin for negating the Moulton-Levy speed, and admitted that she was playing her best.
"From the first game to the last, I stayed focused and relaxed," she said. "I think I played very well."
In doubles semifinal action, top seeds John Isner and Luis Flores of Georgia defeated the unseeded team of James Cluskey and Ken Skupski of LSU 8-4. The Georgia tandem will face third seeds and 2005 ITA Indoor finalists Marco Born and Andreas Siljestrom of Middle Tennessee State. Born and Siljestrom overpowered the second seeded team of Brian Hung and Matko Maravic of Michigan 8-5.
The women's doubles championship features the unseeded team from TCU--Ana Cetnik and Anna Sydorska and William and Mary's Moulton-Levy and Katarina Zoricic, the fourth seeds. Cetnik and Sykorska downed Kentucky's Kim Coventry and Joelle Schwenk 8-3, while Moulton-Levy and Zorcic defeated Notre Dame's unseeded team of Brook Buck and Kelcy Tefft 8-6.
Over twelve hours of tennis was played Friday at the Racquet Club of Columbus, host of the ITA National Indoor Championships, and similar to Thursday, try as I might, it wasn't possible to watch it all. I did find time to post an update on the second round matches (see below), because the quarterfinals have a way of upstaging even the most exciting or unexpected results early in the day.
In the late evening, there were only two winners that could be considered surprises, one each in the men's and women's draws. But given the way Fresno Pacific's Jelena Pandzic and Ohio State's Steven Moneke have been playing, their victories were just more of the same.
After upsetting fourth seed Lars Poerschke of Baylor in the second round, Moneke didn't miss a beat, taking out eighth seed Erling Tveit of Mississippi 6-4, 6-2. Moneke won the Midwest Regional to earn his spot in elite field, and the Buckeye sophomore from Germany is now 15-2 on the season.
Jelena Pandzic of Fresno Pacific can top that. The NAIA champion, who reached the NCAA finals in 2004 while at Fresno State, is now 48-0 over the past two years, winning every match in straight sets. Seed sixth, she overwhelmed third seed Kristi Miller from Georgia Tech 6-0, 6-3. In the semifinals, Pandzic will face eighth seed Megan Moulton-Levy of William and Mary, who battled back from a 3-1 third set deficit to defeat Jenna Long of North Carolina 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.
The other women's semifinal is a rematch of the semifinal at last month's All-American tournament, when Melanie Gloria of Fresno State defeated Audra Cohen of Miami in straight sets. Gloria, seeded fourth, put an end to unseeded Columbus native Kirsten Flower's run with a 6-4, 6-3 decision over the Georgia Tech freshman, while Cohen, the second seed, prevailed over 2005 ITA Indoor champion Diane Srebrovic 6-4, 6-2.
The men's defending champion, UCLA's Ben Kohlloeffel, continued his excellent form with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Old Dominion's Harel Srugo. He meets unseed Ivan Puchkarov of Oklahoma State, who battled back to defeat Wake Forest's Todd Paul 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.
The most riveting match of the evening featured two unseeded players--Luke Shields of Boise State and Stephen Bass of Notre Dame, with Bass emerging with a 1-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5) victory. After the first set, there was not a sliver of advantage to be had between the two rivals, and in the third set, Shields battled back from a break down to serve for the match at 5-4. Bass saved two match points in that game to even the third set, and earned one of his own with Shields serving at 5-6, but Shields held on to force the tiebreak.
Bass took a 6-3 lead in the tiebreak and had Shields diving in desperation on two occasions, but the Boise State junior saved two match points on his two serves, the second with an ace. Bass took his time on his serve, and although Shields made an incredible get, falling to the court after digging out a shot, Bass was ready for it. He put away the volley while Shields could only watch helplessly from his seat on the court.
It was only a few weeks ago that Moneke and Bass played in the Midwest regional quarterfinals, with Moneke taking a three-set victory. Bass has certainly spent more time on court in his three victories, with four sets ending in tiebreaks, all in his favor. Moneke has yet to lose a set in the tournament and has not even needed a tiebreak in his three wins.
Saturday begins with the doubles semifinals for both men and women, followed by the singles semifinals.
Only two seeds remain in the men's draw after the second round of men's singles at the ITA Individual Indoor on Friday afternoon, and no. 2 John Isner and no. 4 Lars Poerschke aren't among them.
Notre Dame's Stephen Bass and Ohio State's Steven Moneke scored the upsets, and neither needed three sets. Bass defeated the 6-foot-9 senior from Georgia 6-4, 7-6 (6), while Moneke took out Baylor's lone representative in the men's draw 6-2, 7-5.
Isner had an opportunity to send the match to a third set; actually he had six opportunities, as that was the number of set points he had in the second set. With Bass serving at 5-6, Isner was one point away from evening the match. In the tiebreak, Isner built a 6-3 lead using one mini-break, two aces and three service winners, but doublefaulted at 6-5 and didn't win another point. Never one to keep his frustrations hidden, Isner was berating himself throughout the match and after it was over, a full water bottle became the object of his ire. It wasn't a good tournament for Georgia, with no. 6 seed Luis Flores falling in the first round and no. 7 Travis Helgeson losing to Harel Srugo of Old Dominion 6-3, 6-2 in the second round.
Moneke, a sophomore from Germany, had 30 or 40 Buckeye supporters cheering him on and he needed them; After a relatively easy first set for Moneke, Poerschke dug in, and every game was a battle from the first point. Next for Moneke on Friday evening will be 8th seed Erling Tveit of Ole Miss, who defeated Andre Begemann of Pepperdine 6-4, 7-6 (8). Bass will face Boise State's Luke Shields, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Bojan Szumanski of Texas Tech.
No. 1 seed Ben Kohlloeffel of UCLA, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Ohio State freshman Justin Kronauge, will meet Srugo. In the other quarterfinal Friday afternoon, Todd Paul of Wake Forest, who defeated Illinois' Ryan Rowe 6-4, 6-4, meets Ivan Puchkarov of Oklahoma State. Puchkarov eliminated small college champion Mislav Hizak of Embry-Riddle 6-4, 6-3.
There were no upsets in the women's division in Friday morning's second round, as the six remaining seeds advanced. The two giant killers of Thursday, Kirsten Flower of Georgia Tech and University of North Carolina's Jeanna Long, both continued their excellent play. Flower beat University of South Florida's Shadisha Robinson 6-3, 6-1 and Long outlasted LSU's Megan Falcon 7-6 (1), 2-1 ret.
The only seeded women's doubles team remaining after Friday's quarterfinals is no. 4 William & Mary's Megan Moulton-Levy and Katarina Zoric. On the men's side, the only unseeded team still alive is LSU's James Cluskey and Ken Skupski, who defeated the fourth seeds Markus Dickhardt and Christian Groh of San Diego State 9-7.
I didn't see all the matches in today's opening round at the ITA Individual Indoor. With eight courts going from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m., it's just not possible. But I did see nearly every point of Jenna Long's 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 upset of top seed Suzi Babos of California. I didn't see more than a couple of points of the other big surprise in the women's draw, but plenty of hometown fans were at The Racquet Club of Columbus to witness Georgia Tech freshman and Columbus native Kirsten Flower's 6-4, 6-4 win over fifth seed and 2005 Individual Indoor finalist Theresa Logar of Stanford.
Babos, on a fifteen match win streak dating back to last season, started off spraying balls wildly, while North Carolina's Long used consistency and pace to pressure the lefthanded NCAA champion. In the second set, Babos began to locate her backhand and her depth, giving Long fewer unearned points. But when it looked as if Babos would assert herself, she suddenly fell into a 3-0 hole in the third set, only to pull even three games later. The roller coaster was far from over however, as Long broke Babos to take a 5-3 lead. Long's struggle to serve out the match was a long one. She held two match points in the five-deuce game, but Babos hit winners when she needed them to again even the match. Both players held their next service games, but at 5-6, 30-40, Babos made her last unforced error, giving Long the victory. Despite the sustained tension of the match, Long displayed little emotion or volatility while Babos' frustrations were on full display throughout the contest. In the end, she couldn't summon her edge in big-match experience, and Long remained composed enough to finish the upset.
Babos and Logar were the only two women's seeds to fall in first round singles action Thursday. Second seed Audra Cohen of Miami cruised past Anna Lubinsky of Texas A & M 6-1, 6-2 and third seed Kristi Miller of Georgia Tech also won handily, 6-3, 6-1, over Cismina Ciobanu of Notre Dame.
On the men's side, ITA All-American champion Arnau Brugues of Tulsa, the no. 3 seed, was beaten by Wake Forest's Todd Paul 7-6 (6), 6-0, but he was down 3-0 before he even took the court. A match time misunderstanding led to his late arrival, and overcoming that deficit was all that he could manage. The consistency he showed at last month's All-American was nowhere to be found in the few points I watched and second set was over in what seemed to be minutes.
Top seed Ben Kohlloeffel of UCLA had no trouble, defeating Clancy Shields of Boise State 6-2, 6-3, but second seed John Isner had to hold on for dear life in the night's final match. The Georgia senior eked out a win over Alex Skrypko of SMU 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6).
Two other men's seeds lost Thursday. No. 5 Somdev Devvarman of Virginia dropped a 6-3, 7-5 decision to Bojan Zsumanski of Texas Tech. A pulled muscle kept the 2006 NCAA finalist from moving with his usual speed, and forced him to withdraw from the consolation tournament. No. 6 seed Luis Flores of Georgia was defeated by Ivan Puchkarov of Okalahoma State 6-3, 6-4.
The doubles went according to plan for the men, with all four seeded teams advancing. The women, however, lost their top two seeds. The top seeded team of Catrina and Christian Thompson of Notre Dame lost to TCU's Ana Cetnik and Anna Sydorska 8-3, while Cal's Babos and Zsuzsanna Fodor, the second seeds, fell 8-6 to Florida State's Lauren Macfarlane and Nicola Slater.
Friday begins with the doubles quarterfinals, followed by two rounds of singles, so it will be another long day of tennis.
My SMASH online column was posted today, and Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia gets her due there for winning a $75,000 event in her hometown of Bratislava. Plenty of other juniors won "minor league" titles--I hope I didn't miss anyone.
I've got packing to do, for tomorrow morning's drive to Columbus, but those of you who are interested in other upset predictions (seems to be just for the men, so far) for the ITA Indoor, should check out this post on Underground Tennis. West Nott, who just revealed himself as the man behind the site a few days ago, gives his predictions and not all of those commenting agree with him. Nott also can be found on The Tennis Recruiting Network today, profiling junior Christina McHale.
The draws for the ITA Indoor in Columbus, which begins on Thursday, came out on Monday, and I was happy to see Suzi Babos of Cal as the top seed for the women. She has won the past two women's national titles, unseeded in both, and it's time she was given credit for her performances. The men's top seed is defending champion Ben Kohlloeffel of UCLA, who didn't play the All-American in Tulsa, but is also, like Babos, the current NCAA champion.
Georgia's John Isner is seeded second, and last year he and Kohlloffel had a classic semifinal battle in Columbus, which I recounted here.
Audra Cohen of Miami is the women's second seed. Sally Milano of usta.com just posted an in-depth profile about Cohen that definitively answers the questions of why she left Northwestern, why she went to college and what exactly was wrong with her back. I hope these "college profiles" become a regular feature, similar to the "Junior Spotlights."
And finally, The Lantern, the student daily of The Ohio State University, published this article on Steven Moneke of Germany, a sophomore on the Buckeye team, who qualified for the ITA Indoor by winning the Midwest Regional in Minneapolis.
Tampa's Clint Bowles, one of the top seniors in the country, has decided to head north to Tallahassee to play tennis for the Seminoles of Florida State.
Bowles, who turns 18 next month, took his official visit to the FSU campus two weekends ago, when the feature attraction was the football game against Boston College.
"It was my first college football game," said Bowles, who was accompanied by his parents, "and the atmosphere was amazing; everything was just awesome."
Bowles took an unofficial visit to the University of Florida and an official visit to the University of Georgia, but Florida State won out for a number of reasons.
"I've got a lot of buddies there," he said, naming Bradley Mixson, a frequent doubles partner in the juniors and Michael O'Shea, another Florida sectional rival. "I felt comfortable there. I know Nick (Crowell, assistant coach) and Dwayne (Hultquist, head coach) will do everything they can to help my game. And the academic support they have is great."
Bowles expects to sign his National Letter of Intent next week, and may begin taking classes this summer, in preparation for reaching his goals.
"I want to keep my GPA at 3.0, keep improving in tennis, and get in the best shape I can physically," he said. "I think Florida State's the best place for me."
Marcia Frost of collegeandjuniortennis.com passes along this account of the annual fundraiser in New York for Tennis Against Breast Cancer, held last weekend in New York. U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe has been a longtime supporter of the event, and is shown in this photo with Easter Bowl tournament director Seena Hamilton. Donations are still welcome; for further details on how you can help with time, product or money, please visit Tennis Against Breast Cancer's website.
Play, The New York Times Sports Magazine, today featured a first person account entitled "Vic Braden's Mental Mojo Experience," about attending a tennis camp at the Vic Braden Tennis College.
Those of you who have been reading ZooTennis from the start know I'm a huge Braden fan, and I have featured him in two previous posts--one a reprint of a column from Florida Tennis called "Inside Look at the Brain of a Champion" (link here), and the other when Braden was one of the stars of Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller blink. This article isn't as theoretical, or rather is theory applied specifically to one 3.5 player, since there is no way to get the Braden treatment without the background. But as I learned when I met him in 2004, and camper Paige Williams relates here, no matter how difficult the concepts, Braden's personality trumps it all.
Braden may be approaching 80, but he doesn’t look it. Past reports have described him physically as beaverish, and while Braden refers to himself as a “little fat coach,” we find him endearing — and hilarious, a natural raconteur. Which is a good thing, since Braden, also a licensed psychologist, is about to drop so much tennis-centric psychology, physics and geometry on us that we’d probably get a migraine if not for the laughing.
The Underground Tennis website has posted an interview and game style analysis with top Canadian junior Sharon Fichman, who won two junior Grand Slam Doubles titles this year with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia--the Australian and the French. They were finalists at the U.S. Open in New York, when Pavlyuchenkova was going for the Grand Slam (having won Wimbledon with Alisa Kleybanova). Fichman is now ranked 8th by the ITF, and has two more years of junior competition eligibility if she wants to use it. UGT also posted an article about another top Canadian, whom I'll be seeing in Columbus at the ITA Indoor--Melanie Gloria. The Fresno State sophomore was runnerup in the ITA All-American earlier this month in California. So if Fichman is looking to Gloria as a role model, she may still be considering college herself, although Gloria never reached the heights Fichman has in the juniors.
For those of you following the Futures event in Baton Rouge, there has been a noticeable breakdown on results reporting on usta.com, but the local paper had an update Saturday. The Augusta women's event had a washout on Friday, so both quarterfinals and semifinals were scheduled for Saturday.
Miami's Audra Cohen is the top-ranked women's college player in the country. After asensational 2004-05 freshman season at Northwestern when she was a NCAA finalist, Cohen transferred closer to her home in South Florida, underwent back surgery and didn't play last fall. Although she lost in the round of 16 at the NCAA Individual Championships this year, she helped lead Miami to the finals of the team event, and finished her sophomore year at No. 1.
This summer she played $10,000 Futures in the U.S., winning one and reaching the semifinals in two others. The 20-year-old got her first win over a WTA Top 100 player when she defeated Olga Savchuk in New Haven qualifying, but for some reason, she wasn't given a qualifying wild card for the U.S. Open. This week, she's playing in a $25,000 tournament in Augusta, Georgia and she notched another victory over a WTA Top 100 on Thursday, when she defeated no. 1 seed and 93rd ranked Varvara Lepchenko of Uzbekistan, 6-0 in the third. A sports columnist from the Augusta Chronicle took notice--the story is here (registration required.) Jennifer Magley, who graduated from Florida early and began playing professionally last winter, is also interviewed and she has some very interesting things to say about the difference between college tennis and pro tennis.
"College is a game of consistency; this is a game of weapons."
For Cohen there is another difference too.
"College has five times as much pressure per match because everyone is counting on you and you hold everybody's destiny," Cohen said. "Out here it's only you."
I'm just happy there was a reporter there interested in asking such questions.
In other news today, Vania King has her own website now, vaniaking.net, and the question of who is representing her interests is answered. It's not one of the Big Three, but StarGames in Massachusetts.
Also, the link to this week's Inside Junior Tennis is here.
The November/December issue of Tennis magazine is a special report on the state of the American game. Heavyweight freelancers Doug Robson and Christopher Clarey contribute, and two of the magazine's staff, Christopher Chung and Steve Tignor, also pen articles on the theme. Chung's about "straightening out the collegiate game," and Tignor's about where U.S. dominance went. I just received my issue today, but I've read everything, and there's not much to argue with from my perspective. In addition to the print articles, which are not available online, is a "web extra" roundtable discussion with Eliot Teltscher, Pam Shriver and Jim Courier. The link is here. I disagree with Pam Shriver on college tennis and agree with Jim Courier on the flat world. There's lots of other ideas to chew over and they touch on the "hunger" issue that always rears its head in this conversation.
But for a really strong statement on the issue, you've got this Dale Robertson story in today's Houston Chronicle, that quotes legendary coach John Wilkerson as saying:
Our kids get the money and the fame, and they stop trying to improve," he said. "We don't excel nowhere anymore because we get too much too soon. We're developing a bunch of wussies."
The article is full of that kind of straight talk, which I've found is a prominent characteristic of the best junior development coaches. And if you want to hear Wilkerson's theory on why there are no more serve-and-volley players in tennis, that's there too.
My online column for SMASH was posted today, and I thought I'd provide a photo here of the top "ace" this week, Teliana Pereira of Brazil. Many of the juniors who had disappointing results at the U.S. Open Junior Championships last month have rebounded nicely in the past six weeks on the ITF Pro Circuits. It's the theme of the column.
The participants have been named for the ITA Indoor in Columbus next week, and I'm looking forward to seeing tennis again after three weeks away from the courts. The list from the ITA can be found here. With a draw of only 32, it's an exclusive group. And speaking of the ITA, Casey Angle, its Director of Communications, makes Bonnie DeSimone's column for ESPN.COM this week (scroll to the heading Tennis U).
Rather a surprise here, with today's announcement that former University of Colorado tennis coach Sam Winterbotham had been named to replace Chris Mahony at the University of Tennessee. Mahony had announced last month that he was returning to his native country, Australia, taking the position of National High Performance Academy Head Coach for Tennis Australia. Winterbotham had taken an assistant's position at Baylor after Colorado cut its men's tennis program at the end of the 2005-06 season.
The Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, one of the best public tennis facilities anywhere, always has something going on, and the past few days it has served as the site of the ITA West Regionals for women. The regionals, nine each for men and women, serve as qualifying tournaments for the ITA Indoors in Columbus next month; some do not finish until Tuesday, some were completed on Sunday.
Jerry Magee wrote this story about the two California freshman finalists, Sara Fansler of USC and Yasmin Schnack of UCLA before their match on Sunday. Fansler won--details (and a photo, which I don't have) are here.
Another player who had an impressive weekend was Pepperdine's Andre Begemann, one of the heroes of the Waves NCAA team championship last May. Seeded eighth, he upset top seed and NCAA champion Ben Kohlloeffel of UCLA in the quarterfinals, and second seed Chris Surapol of UCLA in the finals. He played no. 4 for Pepperdine last year, but I'm guessing he'll be moving up this season. A brief story on his run is here.
It was shaping up to be a slow news weekend until Alex Clayton called me this evening to tell me he had verbally committed to Stanford.
I had run into him at the U.S. Open last month, and the 18-year-old from Ft. Lauderdale told me he was going to visit Harvard, where his older brother Chris is on the tennis team. (His younger sister Missy just won the ITF event in Tulsa, and Mary, the youngest, plays too). There didn't seem to be many other contenders, so I was fully expecting he'd tell me he was following Chris to Cambridge.
But he decided to take a visit to Palo Alto, and he told me he just loved the campus, the school, the area, everything about it. He also said that he felt the competition in the Pac-10 would be better for his tennis. Stanford's academic requirements are notoriously stringent, but Alex had no trouble in that regard, saying it was only days between application and acceptance for him.
He admitted that Chris was a bit annoyed with his choice, and it was a difficult decision because of that, but he (and his father) felt Stanford was the right fit for him. He also considered and visited the University of Florida.
Because Alex can't sign a National Letter of Intent until November 8, nothing is official until then, but Stanford coach John Whitlinger and his assistant Dave Hodge must be very excited about landing one of nation's prize recruits.
Blogger has been down all evening, so I'm quickly going to post this link to a contrarian story about the state of Australian tennis. Fascinating to read whom Craig Tiley tips (as they say in England) for Top Twenty potential.
Friday is multimedia day at zootennis. In addition to this new, lengthy slide show, there is a also a new Inside Junior Tennis podcast available through this link.
I met Michael Kosta in Mobile in 2005 where he was recruiting as the University of Michigan men's assistant coach at the USTA 18s Spring Championships. He was midway through his first season there, and we had a long conversation that included stories from his college years at the University of Illinois and his years traveling on the circuit. He also mentioned he was writing a book, and it has recently been published by coacheschoice.com. It is available for purchase at winmoretennismatches.com, which also features a sample tip from the book.
He sent me a copy a few weeks ago and I've been reading it, ten or twenty tips at a time. Although perhaps most valuable for players competing at a high level, it isn't a book devoted to tennis technique or strategy, although some of the entries are certainly in those categories. Most are observations or hard-won lessons learned from his years playing competitive tennis and, more recently, while coaching others.
The book is divided into seven chapters: Pre-Match, Match Play:Singles, Match Play:Doubles, Post-match, Practices, Tournament Environment and Mental/Physical Preparation. Some tips, like no. 11-- Wear two pairs of socks, and 12-- Accept the weather, are pretty straightforward. Others, like no. 29-- Learn when to go for an ace and no. 37-- Accept code violations, need more elaboration. But none are complicated or difficult to understand. Many of the tips, especially in the final chapter, are especially appropriate for juniors, who often work much harder on the physical part of the game than the mental one. Kosta makes his points clearly, often with anecdotes about his own experiences, and makes use of his sense of humor too.
Kosta is no longer the assistant at Michigan. This summer he left to pursue a career in standup comedy, and I've written a story about that unlikely job change, one I hope will be published soon, for either Tennis or Smash magazine. A person with the courage to take on that kind of challenge isn't going to write a timid book, and he hasn't. You may not adopt all of the tips, or even ten of them, but just two or three may help you not just win more tennis matches, but have a more positive outlook off the court too.
Earlier this month the Detroit Free Press published an article about Kosta and the book, which is available here.
In addition to his roll as TheTennisPodcast host, Kevin McClure also is something of a techie, and he suggested I try slideroll to give some more exposure to the photos that I've amassed. These are ones that have already appeared on the site previously (to minimize the time I needed to experiment), but it looks like it's going to work well. I may try to add a U.S. Open Junior slideshow in the next few days.
