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Thursday, September 18, 2008

Kandath Profile, Tennis Australia Hires Mantilla; Report from San Diego on SES Tennis Center Pro Am

During the U.S. Open, I had an opportunity to sit down with New York's Matt Kandath to talk about his college options. As you'll see from reading this profile at The Tennis Recruiting Network, he has some impressive ones.

Tennis Australia announced that they have hired Spain's Felix Mantilla, a former ATP Top 10 player, to run a new training site they have established in Spain. The Age has the details here, and quite a bit seems to be made of the fact that this is a "full-time" position. Is this in response or a reference to other high-profile coaches who wouldn't or couldn't commit to full-time positions with TA or other federations?

Marc Lucero, a former assistant coach of the women's team at Princeton, is now back in San Diego, and he sent me an email about a Pro-Am he played in that area last weekend that supports a very good cause.

In its fourth year at the Rancho Valencia Resort, the SES Tennis Center Pro Am supports the programs and facility in Tecate Mexico, the hometown of Rancho Valencia's pro Eduardo Sanchez.

"Eduardo always had this dream of building some public tennis courts in Tecate, Mexico (where he is from and where there are no public courts)," Lucero writes. "He started this charity, raised money, built some courts and named the facility after his late son. It has grown from a two-court facility now to a four-court facility, I believe, with great programming for the local kids. Also a beneficiary of this pro-am is a group called Empty Cradle which is a support system for families who have tragedies like this happen. It's something that I have really been happy to be a part of since I moved back to San Diego. Some awesome players played this year, guys like former ATP #1s Jared Palmer and Rick Leach, former Mexico Davis Cup #1 and ATP player Alejandro Hernandez, ATP doubles guys Tim Leonard and Devin Bowen. Plus local pros, former college players, etc. I want to bring some attention to it because I think its an awesome event and a great cause."

For more information about the Pro-Am and the SES Tennis Center, please go to their very impressive website.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Colette,

Tennis Australia have board elections in October. As a result, any announcements or hirings should be viewed in the light of the fact that the entire board could lose their positions.

The 'full-time' and 'not a hobby' remarks are directed, I am led to believe, specifically at Pat Rafter and, to a lesser extent, Paul McNamee.

I realise you're busy but here's three on-line newspaper articles that should make the whole, sorry situation out here a little bit clearer

http://www.theage.com.au/news/tennis/draw-on-experience-says-rafter/2008/08/15/1218307240795.html

http://www.theage.com.au/news/tennis/at-your-service-mcnamee-flags-return-to-the-ranks/2008/08/16/1218307319658.html

http://www.theage.com.au/news/tennis/tennis-australia-takes-magazine-off-shelves/2008/08/23/1219262619930.html