Friday, July 10, 2009

WIMBLEDON OVER BUT TENNIS MUST GO ON!

Although Wimbledon was just completed this past week, you can still look forward to following some great tennis action. In fact a couple of my favortie players on the women's side are playing on clay in Europe.

Caroline Wozniacki and Gisela Dulko are both still in the $220k clay tournament being held in Sweden. Patty Schnyder received a wild card and is seeded number one in this week's $220k clay tournament in Hungary. Schnyder is having a difficult year but is into this week's Quarterfinals.

USA TAKES ON CROATIA IN THE DAVIS CUP

U.S. Davis Cup action starts today. James Blake and Marty Fish as well as the Bryan Brothers will be defending the Davis Cup versus Croatia. You can catch the action on The Tennis Channel starting at 10 AM Eastern time today.


ATP TENNIS HALL OF FAME TOURNAMENT

Yes folks it's that time of the year again when the Tennis Hall Of Fame in
Newport, Rhode Island inducts another tennis star. This year one of the most beloved women's tennis players, Monica Seles, will be inducted. Congrats Monica!

There is some action going on the Hall Of Fame grass courts of the original U.S. Open which was orignaly held in Newport. Several Americans are into the Quarterfinals, including Taylor Dent who takes on former champ Fabrice Santoro of France . Other Americans advancing to the Quarters are.....

Sam Querrey
Jesse Levine
Kevin Kim
Robby Ginepri
Brendan Evans
Alex Bogomolov Jr.

TENNIS ON INTERNET RADIO

Hey, did you know that you can listen to live tennis on the radio? That's right. If you're interested in tuning in, go to http://www.radiotennis.com/ and listen to today's Quarterfinal of the $50K Women's USTA Challenger being held in Grapevine, Texas. Ken Thomas has been running this site for several years now and does a great job.

MidWeek Report 8/7/08

Cream Of The Crop Remain In USTA's Girl's 18's Tourny

Alexa Gurachi
They are now down to 16 players in this week's USTA Girl's tournament. The prestigious junior tournament is being played in Berkeley, California.

Considering the enormous field at this tournament, there have only been a few upsets. The round of 64 produced these when Connecticut's Rachel Kahan took Allie Will to three sets and won 6-4,3-6, 6-4. Florida's Alexa Guarachi pictured above easily upset Mallory Burdette 6-3,6-2 and New York's Manuela Velasquez took care of Beatrice Capra 2-6,6-3,6-2 in the round of 64.
Unfortunately, Kahan and Velasquez would be defeated the following round but Alexa Guarachi, ranked as the 8th American in the ITF Junior rankings continued her winning ways. She will compete against fellow Floridian, Irina Falconi in the round of 16. Here are the other round of 16 matchups.......

Gail Brodsky Vs. Sloane Stephens
Krista Damico Vs. Kristie Ahn
Christina McHale Vs. Nicole Gibbs
Laura McHale Vs. Mallory Cecil
Brooke Bolender Vs. Coco Vandeweghe
Julia Boserup Vs. Jamie Hampton
Olivia Janowicz Vs. Asia Muhammad

The winner of this tournament gets a Wild Card into the main draw of the U.S. Open. Remember that you can listen to this weekend's semifinals and finals by going to http://www.radiotennis.com/.
Above picture provided by http://www.collegeandjuniortennis.com/

Jill Craybas Added To U.S. Olympic Team

Jill Craybas
Veteran, Jill Craybas has been added to this upcoming week's Olympic singles tournament. The 34-year-old was added to the draw after Austria's Tamira Paszek dropped out. Craybas must be thrilled considering her age. This was likely her last chance to make the Olympic squad.

The other Americans involved in the women's singles and doubles draw will be Serena Williams and her sister Venus. Liezel Huber and Lindsay Davenport round out the U.S. Women's team. Huber will partner with Davenport in doubles. Venus and Serena will also team up in doubles.

Singles....

Jill Craybas Vs. Patty Schnyder
Serna Williams Vs. Olga Govortsova
Venus Williams Vs. Timea Bacsinszky
Lindsay Davenport Vs. Alicia Molik

Doubles.....

Williams Sisters Vs. Iveta Benesova/Nicole Vaidisova
Davenport/Huber Vs. Jans/Rosolska Poland

You can watch the olympic tennis matches on your computer by going to http://www.nbcolympics.com/

This Week's Challenger Circuit

Audra Cohen
There are still four Americans remaining in this week's $100,000 Monterrey,Mexico Challenger. Ninth ranked American, Ahsha Rolle was the only U.S. player knocked out of the tournament after she suffered an injury and retired in the 2nd set.

Former college standouts, Anne Yelsey and Audra Cohen advanced to the 2nd round as well as Vania King and Angela Haynes.

USTA Buys Majority Stake In Cincinnati Tournament And Indian Wells Loses Sponsor



The USTA has decided to buy a majority stake in the 2nd highest attended summer tournament, The Western and Southern Financial Group Masters. The USTA is also discussing with Tennis Cincinnati, the addition of a top women's tournament that will see a combined women's and men's to be played by 2011. The WTA has already planned to make the current Tier III tournament played in Cincy into a Tier I tournament as part of it's new Road Map plan.

Midwest fans can expect the 2009 WTA tournament to significantly increase it's prize money.

In other tournament news, Indian Wells has lost it's main sponsor, Pacific Life. This comes at a critical time due to the fact the total prize money for next year's tournament will be increased to $9 Million.

Pacific Life had been title sponsor since 2002. It doesn't seem that the tournament organizers are worried about picking up a new sponsor. The tournament has broken attendance records for the past 2 years. This year's tournament drew 331,860 fans. An average of 16,564 per day.

Weekly Report 8/5/08

USTA Girl's 18 Juniors This Week

Most of the top junior American girls will be in Berkeley, California this week. They will be participating in the 256 main draw tournament looking to receive an automatic wild card into the main draw of this year's U.S. Open. Of course the winner of this week's tournament will pick up that wild card.

Unfortunately, the number one American junior, Melanie Oudin will not be playing this week but the rest of the field looks very strong. Here are some of the players who are in Berkeley this week......

Gail Brodsky
Sloane Stephens
Allie Will
Kristie Ahn
Irina Falconi
Lauren Embree
Mallory Burdette
Christina McHale
Nicole Gibbs
Mallory Cecil
Coco Vandeweghe
Julia Boserup
Jamie Hampton
Beatrice Capra
Asia Muhammad

For those of you who are die hard tennis fans, you can listen to some of the matches this upcoming Saturday and Sunday starting at 1pm Eastern time by going to
http://www.radiotennis.com/.

Melanie Oudin Still Number 1 American Junior

Not much movement in terms of the top 10 American juniors on the ITF Tennis List this week.....

1) Melanie Oudin
2) Mallory Burdette
3) Lauren McHale
4) Nicole Bartnik
5) Ester Goldfield
6) Mallory Cecil
7) Sloane Stephens
8) Alexa Guarachi
9) Brooke Bolender
10) Lauren Embree


Americans Continue To Struggle On The WTA Tour

Six Americans were in the main draw of this past week's Roger's Tournament and by the end of the 2nd round there were none.

Veteran Jill Craybas was the only American who won a main draw match after she overtook wild card entrant Sharon Fichman 6-4,6-3 in the first round. The 34-year-old former Rhode Islander was then ousted by the sixth seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze in the 2nd round, 6-2,7-5.

The top three Americans, Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport did not play in the event due to the fact that they were nursing injuries and are preparing for next week's Olympics in China.

Williams Sisters Dominating U.S. Women's Tennis

Although they don't play very much but when they do, they make it happen. The Williams sisters continue to sit atop the rankings for American women's tennis. Here are this week's top 10....

1) Serena Williams
2) Venus Williams
3) Lindsay Davenport
4) Bethanie Mattek
5) Jill Craybas
6) Ashley Harkeleroad
7) Vania King
8) Julie Ditty
9) Ahsha Rolle
10) Varvara Lepchenko

Top 10 American Women's Tennis Money Makers

Yes, you guessed it. The Williams sisters sit atop this list as well. Might as well call U.S. Women's Tennis....Williams Tennis Nation.....

1) Serena Williams 2,165,612
2) Venus Williams 2,114,697
3) Liezel Huber 423,438
4) Bethanie Mattek 309,808
5) Lindsay Davenport 235,551
6) Jill Craybas 178,784
7) Lisa Raymond 175,080
8) Ashley Harkleroad 160,818
9) Vania King 147,567
10) Julie Ditty 120,199


Americans In Mexican Challenger This Week

Due to the upcoming Olympics, there are no WTA tournaments this week but there is still professional tennis being played all over the world on the ITF tennis circuit. Thank God! There is one down in Monterrey, Mexico that is worth $100,0000. Americans in the tournament include......

Vania King
Ahsha Rolle
Angela Haynes
Audra Cohen

MidWeek Report 3/8/07

Craybas,Tu And Perry Advance To Second Round Of Pacific Life Open

Veteran Jill Craybas was the first American to advance into the second round of the Pacific Life Open as she took out Maria Elena Camerin 6-1, 7-5. Craybas will next take on the number 15 seed in the tournament, Russia's Vera Zvonareva.

Meilen Tu continued to have a good year. She too advanced into the 2nd round as she easily defeated qualifier Tatiana Poutchek 6-3,6-2. Meilen will be facing the 28th seed in the tournament, Martin Mueller of Germany.

Shenay Perry also faced a qualifier in her first round match. Perry advanced into the 2nd round with a 6-3,6-2 victory over Galina Voskoboeva. Perry has her work cut out for her in the 2nd round when she faces the number 7 seed, Jelena Jankovic

The only American ousted in the first round of the main draw was USC's, Lindsey Nelson. The Junior was the only American who advanced through the qualifying rounds. Lindsey Nelson battled it out with Croatia's Marijana Lucic. Yes, that Marijana Lucic! Lucic came away with the win 6-4,7-6.

Here are today's Americans in action.......

Ashley Harkleroad vs. Vasilisa Bardina
Vania King vs. Katerya Bondarenko
Laura Granville vs. Camille Pin
Bethanie Mattek vs. Brenda Schultz-McCarthy
Ahsha Rolle vs. Anastasiya Yakimova
Lilia Osterloh vs. Romina Oprandi

Remember that those of you who are lucky enough to have The Tennis Channel, you can see this tournament starting on Saturday. The Tennis Channel will have at least 12 hours of coverage each day over the weekend. Enjoy!

Dramatic Changes At The Top Of Women's College Tennis

There was some dramatic changes in this week's Fila Collegiate Rankings. The University of Florida Gators have become the number 1 ranked team in the nation. The Gators are undefeated and have been the most consistent team in the top 10 this spring. This is the first time that they have been ranked number 1 since 2004.

In a sport that is usually dominated by the Stanford Cardinal, women's college tennis has already seen three different number one teams this spring.

The University of Georgia made the most dramatic jump in this week's rankings as they climbed 11 spots and are now the number 3 ranked team in the nation. The Clemson Tigers are also a new team in the top 10. After defeating both UNC and Georgia Tech, they deserve to be in the top 10.

Teams that were demoted from the top 10 were USC and the University of Miami. The 9 and 1 Stanford Cardinal dropped from number 1 to the number 4 spot in the nation. Here are this week's top 10........

1) Florida
2) Notre Dame
3) Georgia
4) Stanford
5) Northwestern
6) Cal
7) Georgia Tech
8) Clemson
9) William&Mary
10) UNC

Here are a couple of key matches this weekend...

Florida vs. Tennessee
Florida vs. Georgia

Miami's Cohen Still Number One

Although here school has dropped from the top 10 rankings, Audra Cohen continues to be the number 1 ranked player in the nation. The senior Hurricane has yet to drop a set this spring.

Freshman, Megan Falcon continues to do well at LSU and is now ranked number 2 in the nation. Americans hold 8 of the top 10 spots in the nation. Here is this week's top 10.....

1) Audra Cohen Miami
2) Megan Falcon LSU
3) Melanie Gloria Fresno State
4) Susie Babos Cal
5) Megan Moulton-Levy William&Mary
6) Jenna Long UNC
7) Kristi Miller Georgia Tech
8) Celia Durkin Stanford
9) Jessica Nguyen Stanford
10) Natalie Frazier Georgia

William&Mary's Coach Shares View Of American Women's Tennis

I had a chance this week to speak to one of the more successful college coaches in the nation, Kevin Epley of William&Mary.

Epley's squad are undefeated this year and cracked the top 10 after shocking Georgia Tech several week's ago.

One of the reasons why I decided to create this blog was due to the fact that I was concerned about the state of American women's tennis.

Coach Epley had been the assistant coach to legendary Billie Jean King during the 2000 Summer Olympics and was an assistant coach for the U.S. Fed cup from 1996-2002.

Epley suggested that since the 70's the state of American tennis has been diminishing. "During the 1970's American tennis was peaking. Tennis is just not as popular as it was back in the 70's. There is too much competition from other women's sports and kids are just less active."

Coach Epley also does not agree with the big academy coaching which became more popular duing the 80's.

"I don't think academy coaching is the best thing for the individual player. Academy coaching is great for the business of tennis but not for the individual player."

When I asked Epley about the new USTA strategy of putting the top American juniors in one academy, Epley was not too thrilled about the idea.

"I'm not too happy with taking the best 10 or so juniors and putting them all in one academy. We should have more local roots. Local coaches have to do more and they should be compensated for it."

Since I'm a big college fan, I asked him if college tennis could ever become like college basketball, where it would become a feeding ground to the pros.

"I don't think that can happen right now. The level of competition between pro tennis and college tennis is too far off. I found that out when I was working at the 2000 Olympics."

According to Epley, one of the main reasons why college women players are not successful when they head into the pro tour is the fact that at 17 or 18 a woman is at her peak physical condition. When they come out of college they have already gone through that key period of time and find themselves trying to catch up.

One area where college players can and have accelerated in is doubles. This could very well be due to the fact that in college you have to play doubles.

I later learned that Epley at one time had been a personal coach for Lindsay Davenport and Patty Schnyder. I had to ask him if he would consider going back on tour.

"There is no way that I would go back. I love team sports and I'm enjoying myself here at William&Mary."

U.S. Women's TennisVibes Weekly Report 3/5

$2.1 Million Dollar Pacific Life Open Preview

Today marks the beginning of the qualifying rounds of one of the biggest tournaments on the WTA schedule. The Pacific Life Open is played in the hot Palm Desert sun of southern California. The women have been involved in this tournament since the mid 1990's.

This tournament has a similar format to the Sony Ericsson Open played in Miami, Florida. There is 96 player main draw and qualifying rounds consist of 48 players.

American players in this year's qualifying rounds include....

Jessica Kirkland
Lindsey Nelson of USC
Kimberly Couts who is the number 5 American junior
Anne Yelsey of Stanford
Coco Vandeweighe

Other Americans in the qualifying rounds of this two week tournament are Abigail Spears and Lindsay Lee-Waters.

The main draw of the Pacific Life Open begins on Wednesday. All of the American players ranked in the top 100 will be participating with the exception of the Williams sisters and of course Lindsay Davenport. Americans receiving wildcards into the main draw were....

Bethanie Matek
Lilia Osterloh
Ahsha Rolle
Lauren Albanese

Pacific Life Open On TV This Week

For those of you lucky enough to have The Tennis Channel....here is when you can catch this week's Pacific Life Open....

Saturday, March 10th 1pm-Midnight Eastern
Sunday, March 11th 2pm-1:30 AM Eastern

Qatar Receives Tier I Tournament From WTA

It seems that the country of Qatar has unlimited funds for their professional tennis tournaments. This past week the Total Qatar Open was played and the purse for the women was a cool $1.34 Million. That figure is a 100 percent increase from last year's purse and guaranteed them several of the top women players in the world but Qatar is not content.

Next year's Qatar Telegram German Open will no longer take place in Germany. The Qatar Telegram Open will now move to Qatar and will become a $2.5 Million dollar event.

That purse will make The Qatar Telegram Open the third largest tournament behind only the WTA Tour Championships and The Sony Ericsson Open. Yes, it will put them ahead of this week's Pacific Life Open.

The Middle East has become a tennis hotbed. The Dubai Open already offers well over a million dollars in prize money and is attracting several of the top players in the world.

Americans Disappointed At Las Vegas Challenger

For the first time in five weeks, no Americans were able to advance past the round of 16 in a challenger event.

The $75,000 Las Vegas Challenger had seven Americans in the main draw and by the time the 2nd round was finished, no Americans remained standing.

In the 2nd round Akiko Morigami easily defeated Angela Haynes 6-4,6-1. American Ahsha Rolle had a difficult time with Jarmila Gajdosova during the 2nd round. Gajdosova came away with a 6-0,6-2 victory.

American Lilia Osterloh was unable to compete in the 2nd round which gave Vavara Lepchenko a walkover victory into the Quarterfinals.

No USTA challenger tournaments are scheduled for this week.

UNC AND Georgia Tech Faced Upsets This Weekend

The University of North Carolina women's tennis team had a very difficult weekend. The Tar Heels lost both of their scheduled matches.

Wake Forest squeaked past UNC 4-3. The upset minded Sun Devils of Arizona State had an easier time with the top 10 Tar Heels, winning 5-2.

Georgia Tech also had another difficult weekend. The Yellow Jackets were upset by the number 12 team in the country, the University of Georgia 5-2. The Yellow Jackets woes continued the following day when the 13th ranked Clemson Tigers also defeated Georgia Tech 4-3. The Yellow Jackets have now lost four matches since upsetting the Stanford Cardinal earlier this year.

Speaking of Stanford, this past weekend proved to be the first time that they looked like the number one school in the nation. The Cardinal easily defeated both the number 18 team in the country, Pepperdine and top 10 Cal, 6 matches to 1.

It will be interesting to see what the top 10 list will look like this upcoming week.

*Junior Player Spotlight*

American, Nicole Bartnik was the surprising winner of The Copa HSBC El Salvador Junior Open. The tournament is a Grade 4 international junior event.

The 15-year-old Bartnik struggled through her Quarterfinal and Semifinal matches en route to the championship round. In the Quarterfinal round she came back to defeat the number 4 seed Francesca Segarelli 6-7,6-3,6-3. She struggled again in the Semifinals before overtaking Columbia's Andrea Yacaman 6-3,5-7,6-1.

Nicole, who was only ranked 754 in the junior world rankings, had an easier time in the Finals. She easily defeated Emi Mataguchi and took the championship 6-0,6-4. Nicole Bartnik is a student from the Nick Bollettieri Academy.

MidWeek Report 3/1/07

Americans Struggle This Week On WTA Tour

Not many Americans were scheduled to play this week on the WTA Tour due to the fact that they are resting for the upcoming Pacific Life Open and The Sony Ericsson Open being played in the United States.

The third ranked American, Meghann Shaughnessy did enter into this week's $1.34 Million Qatar Open. Shaughnessy was unable to get past the first round as she was upset by Spain's Annabel Medina Garrigues 3-6,6-3,6-2.

Jill Craybas and Ashley Harkleroad decided to go south to Acapulco,Mexico to compete in a $180,000 Clay court tournament. It looks like they will be able to enjoy the beautiful beaches due to the fact that both of them proved that Americans are not ready to be successful on clay.

Harkleroad was ousted by Roberta Vinci 6-3,6-3 in the first round and Craybas was taken to cleaners by the tournament's number three seeded player, Martina Muller 6-4,6-3.

Mixed Results For Americans In Vegas Challenger

Americans are having mixed results in this week's $75,000 Las Vegas challenger. After the first round of the main draw, it looks as if Angela Haynes is having the most success at this tournament. Haynes made it through three rounds in the qualies and after losing the first set in her first round, she came back strongly to defeat fellow American Alexandra Stevenson
6-7,6-1,6-1.

Vegas has not been very good to America's number 1 ranked junior player, Julia Cohen. She was crushed by Bettina Jozami 6-0,6-1 in the 2nd round of the qualies.

American veteran Lindsay Lee-Waters continues to have a difficult time coming back on the tennis circuit. She only managed to win two games in her first round match against Viktoria Azarenka, losing 6-0,6-2.

Abigail Spears was trying to continue her stretch to hit the top 100 players in the world and it looked as if she was well on her way during her first round match. She had taken the first set
6-3 but collapsed during the rest of the match against Edina Gallovits. Gallovits took the match 3-6,6-1,6-1.

American Ahsha Rolle struggled in her first round match but managed to eek out win
3-6,6-1,7-5 over Antonella Seeera Zanetti.

Veteran Lilia Osterloh easily moved into the 2nd round of the main draw topping France's Stephanie Foretz 6-3,6-1.

Georgia Tech Slips To Number 6 In The Nation

The Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech are feeling the pressure of formerly being the number one team in the country. They have slipped an additional three notches this week after being upset for the second week in a row. This past week they were victimized by Vanderbilt.

University of Florida continues to inch their way to the number one spot in the nation as they are now the number three ranked team in the nation.

Some very competitive matches will be played this upcoming weekend. Yours truly will be enjoying my pick of the weekend, William&Mary versus NorthWestern. This is the last time that the Tribe will be facing a top 10 school this year. They were the first school to upset the then number 1 team in the country, Georgia Tech. The Tribe look to upset NorthWestern this weekend.

Stanford will be battling it out with the much improved Cal team. Stanford for the first time in a long time, looks vulnerable this Spring. Georgia Tech have their hands full this weekend as they take on Clemson.

Lastly, Arizona State is looking to continue to improve. They came close to upsetting Stanford and Cal last weekend. This weekend they battle it out with USC. Look for an upset there. Here are this week's top 10.......

1) Stanford
2) Notre Dame
3) Florida
4) UNC
5) NorthWestern
6) Georgia Tech
7) Cal
8) USC
9) Miami
10) William&Mary

*JUNIOR PLAYER SPOTLIGHT*

Alexa Guarachi, who is currently the 18th ranked American Junior performed well in this past week's Argentina Cup. The event is played on clay and a Grade 2 ITF event.

The 16-year-old Floridian upset the sixth seed in the round of 16 on her way to the semifinals. Her run was stopped in the semifinals by Japan's Nara Kurumi 6-3,7-5. With this performance, Guarachi has reached her career high junior ranking of 206 in the world.