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Monday, September 28, 2009

Pan-American Acceptances; Junior Davis Cup Begins Tuesday; Golding Profile; More on Illinois ITF

Qualifying for the ITF Grade B1 in Tulsa, which I'll be covering for the third consecutive year, begins a week from Saturday. The acceptances were just released, and the fields are quite good, with eight Top 100 ranked boys and nine Top 100 ranked girls scheduled to compete. In contrast, last year there were only three Top 100 girls and five Top 100 boys. Although Beatrice Capra, the defending girls champion, is listed, I suspect she may not play, depending on how she performs in Las Vegas this week and Williamsburg next week in those Pro Circuit tournaments. Alex Domijan, the boys champion from 2008 is not defending. Finalists Pamela Montez and Ryan Lipman are in college now, at UCLA and Vanderbilt respectively. For the acceptances and the tournament's fact sheet, see the USTA ITF page.

All three of the boys on the Junior Davis Cup team--Bjorn Fratangelo, Marcos Giron and Hunter Harrington--are entered in Tulsa, although only Fratangelo doesn't need a wild card for the main draw as of now. Their defense of the world championship won in 2008 by Denis Kudla, Evan King and Raymond Sarmiento begins on Tuesday. Although the draws/seedings and players participating have not been posted, the ITF junior website does have this preview. If the Russian girls do have Daria Gavrilova, Yulia Putintseva and Irina Khromacheva, all ranked in the Top 30, as their team, they are heavy favorites, although the Slovak Republic could challenge them.

Fratangelo has been blogging the past three days for usta.com, and from the sounds of it, there has been a lot of practice rescheduling necessary due to rain in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. For the blog, which will be turned over to Marcos Giron next, click here.

For a story on the unusual childhood of one of Great Britain's Junior Davis Cup members, Oliver Golding, who wasn't choosing between golf or soccer and tennis, but rather between acting and tennis, see this from the Telegraph.

And Neil Harman follows up on his previous week's Net Post column on collegiate tennis in Europe with this encouraging information.

Marcia Frost was at the Illinois ITF over the weekend, filing this report for collegeandjuniortennis.com.

9 comments:

so cal fan said...

This doesn't pertain to this post, but can you find out information please on Sam Querrey? He had a serious injury in Thailand and needed surgery to his playing arm. Was surgery to stop bleeding, tendon repair or for some other reason? Is he home now?
We hope for a speedy recovery and that the worst is behind him.

Colette Lewis said...

Re: Querrey, there was this from James LaRosa on Twitter:
"JamesLaRosa--Querrey rep: No major damage to Sam's forearm, ligaments fine. He's lucky. But his season is likely over."

Sam's tweet says he's returning to Santa Monica this morning. ATP site is reporting he will see a specialist when he returns.

All of us are hoping he heals quickly and continues his climb in the ATP rankings.

Austin said...

I think in a weird way this may be a blessing in disguise(albeit a terrible one). He has played so much the past couple months Ive kinda been afraid by him playing so much this fall he might be a little drained early next season. Now he gets a chance to be fully rested for Melbourne. I expect him to make a deep run Down Under. Hope he makes a speedy recovery.

Norcalfan said...

Sorry to hear about this latest injury on Sam . I hope all is well.We look forward to see him at the Australian Open .

Observer said...

Why isn't Shane Vinsant playing in Mexico? Is he injured?

Colette Lewis said...

Yes, according to the USTA press release last week.

wi tennis said...

on tennisnews it says that Querrey was sitting on a glass table in the players lounge and it broke. He sliced his arm, I think. Freak accident. I'm not so sure sliced tendons and massive bleeding is ever a blessing, though.

Observer said...

Why isnt Novikov playing? is he injured to?

Observer said...

Does anyone know why Novikov did not play in Junior Davis Cup? He is the best out of all three people who went to play. What about Sean Berman? He should also be on the team.