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.
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