USTA Announces Australian Wild Card Fields; More on Bobby Curtis Retirement Celebration

The USTA announced the eight-player fields for both the men's and women's tournaments for the main draw Australian Open wild cards.

The women who will complete at the Racquet Club of the South December 4-7 are: Christina McHale, who won the 2009 AO women's wild card, Madison Brengle, Julia Cohen, Ester Goldfeld, Asia Muhammad, Alison Riske and CoCo Vandeweghe, with one woman still to be determined. Alexa Glatch, who was previously announced as a participant, is not in the field. Sloane Stephens, who might have been included, is out with an injury, according to this story from the Birmingham News, which says University of Alabama player Courtney McLane will replace her in an upcoming exhibition featuring Melanie Oudin.

The men competing for the main draw wild card are: Ryan Harrison, Jesse Levine, Donald Young and Wayne Odesnik, all of whom were previously announced. Rajeev Ram, who was invited initially, no longer needs a wild card after his recent Aachen challenger win. The four others are: Alex Kuznetsov, Michael McClune, Jack Sock and Ryan Sweeting.

USTA Florida plans to honor retiring junior competition coordinator Bobby Curtis on Sunday morning, December 6th, during the annual meeting of the section. For more on that, and on Curtis's contributions to Florida tennis, click here.

Tags: junior tennis, USTA, Bobby Curtis, Colette Lewis

Coaches Q and A: What Grips Do You Teach?

Today Harold Solomon of the Harold Solomon Tennis Institute in Fort Lauderdale, Florida discusses his views on the grips that will enhance a player's long term development.

At the Harold Solomon Tennis Institute. we think it is really important to work with students from an early age to master the grips that will help them become successful tennis players in the future. Let me say that there have obviously been many successful players who have not used conventional grips on all of their shots but these players are the exception rather then the rule.

We prefer to teach the semi-western grip on the forehand. This grip allows the player to either hit with top spin or flatten out the shot for more penetration. This grip promotes more of an attacking style of play. You will see many clay court players use more of a Western grip, which helps on a slower surface and allows the player to have increased spin and margin of error on their shots. A downside of the Western grip is that it is more difficult to hit sliced balls and balls on surfaces such as grass.

On the two-handed backhand, we teach a Continental grip with the right hand and a semi-Western to Eastern grip with the left hand. This allows the player the ability to drop the racket head under the ball and get the necessary spin and penetration on the shot. It's important to remember that women tend to hit the ball flatter than the guys so their left hand would probably be closer to the eastern grip. On the one-handed backhand, we prefer our students hit with a full Eastern backhand grip which allows the student to get their hand and wrist behind the ball. This grip needs to be shifted to a Continental grip for slices.

On serves, volleys, and overheads we teach the Continental grip. Young students may have trouble at first serving with this grip, so we will at times allow them to start with a Eastern forehand grip and gradually move it over as they get stronger. On the forehand volley the grip remains the same but players will shift the racket a bit so that they get the palm of their hand more behind the racket.

We think that the grips we teach here will allow the students to maximize their potential. Bad grips or incorrect grips on shots have the potential of severely retarding the growth of students and should be discouraged.

Do you have a question for Andy Brandi or Harold Solomon? If so, please send it to clewis[at]zootennis[dot]com with the phrase Coaches Q and A in the subject line.

Tags: junior tennis, Harold Solomon Institute, player development, grips, Colette Lewis

Yucatan Cup Underway; Rome Tennis Complex; Sock Plans to Play Orange Bowl

With the Thanksgiving holiday this week, there are no tournaments in the U.S. either on the Pro Circuit or the ITF junior circuit. Instead the action shifts to Mexico, where the ITF Grade 1 Yucatan World Cup and the Puebla Challenger are being played this week. Americans Taylor Dent and Jesse Levine are the top two seeds in Puebla. For the complete draws, see the ATP website.

At the Yucatan Cup, which used to be after the Orange Bowl, but has been moved to the week before the Eddie Herr, there are the usual large contingent of American juniors in the draw. Kevin Krawietz of Germany is the top boys seed; he is followed by the Junior Tennis Champions Center trio of Denis Kudla (2), Mitchell Frank (3) and Junior Ore (4). Two British players who will not be in Mexico are Jack Carpenter and George Morgan, who were sent home from a Spanish training trip for misbehavior, according to this Daily Mail story.

Silvia Njiric of Croatia is the girls No. 1 seed, with American Ester Goldfeld, the winner of the South Carolina Grade 2 earlier this month, the second seed. Noel Scott and Annie Mulholland are the other U.S. girls seeded, at No. 6 and No. 14 respectively. Ohio's Lauren Davis, the US Open Junior quarterfinalist, is also in the field.

For complete draws, see the tournament website.

I can't recall if I posted an article about this proposed tennis complex in Rome Georgia before, but a 74-court facility is worth a second mention/update regardless. See this story about it from the Rome News-Tribune.

Thanks to Texas College Tennis blog's Granger Huntress for alerting me to this story in the Lincoln, Neb. Journal-Star about Jack Sock's Pro Circuit win yesterday in Amelia Island. He is retaining his amateur status to play high school tennis next year and college tennis the year after, the article says. It also says his next tournament is the Orange Bowl, so he must have received one of the wild cards, which have not yet been released.

A reader kindly informed me that I had the wrong link for the story on USTA coach Sarah Taylor. The correct link (which is fixed in yesterday's post now) can be found here.

Tags: Yucatan World Cup, Puebla Challenger, Rome Georgia, Jack Sock, Texas college tennis blog, Colette Lewis

Sock Wins Futures Title in Amelia Island; Giorgi Wins Toronto Challenger; Sarah Taylor Feature; Upcoming Holiday

Wild card Jack Sock lost a set for the first time at the $10,000 Amelia Island Futures tournament this week, but it didn't cost him the match. The 17-year-old from Nebraska, who trains in Kansas City with Mike Wolf, defeated No. 2 seed Artem Sitak of Russia 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-3 to claim his first pro title. As I mentioned yesterday, it is only the fifth pro event he's competed in.

The USTA has already posted a story on the final match here. From the account, which was obviously from someone who was there, it sounds as if the final set was full of drama, but Sock was able to serve it out. Sock is currently listed as an alternate at the Orange Bowl. I assume that if he wants a wild card to play there, his request will be granted.

Another unseeded 17-year-old, Camila Giorgi of Italy, won the $50,000 Tevlin Challenger in Toronto, defeating Aniko Kapros of Hungary 4-6 6-4 6-0. I'm not familiar with Giorgi's game; she has not played a junior slam nor has she played at all outside of Europe until this event. The last junior tournament she played was the 2008 Italian Open, where as a wild card, she lost in the second round. Already ranked 285, this is her second challenger win since September. Definitely one to watch. For a brief story on her win, click here.

Sixteen-year-old Marianne Jodoin of Canada teamed with veteran Maureen Drake to take the doubles, when Sharon Fichman was forced to retire due to a rolled ankle. Fichman and Mashona Washington were the top seeds, while Jodoin and Drake were unseeded. For more on the doubles, see the Tennis Canada website story.

I wasn't familiar with the tennis career of new USTA National Coach Sarah Taylor, so I was happy to read this feature by Mic Huber of the Sarasota Herald Tribune. (There is a typo in it; Taylor reached 68 in the WTA rankings, not 6). It's good to hear of players who turn pro prior to attending college then return to school for a degree.

I've been working on Eddie Herr previews for the Tennis Recruiting Network for publication later this week, but posts for the next few days are likely to be brief, as we head south for Thanksgiving with family in North Carolina, and then on to the big Eddie Herr, Orange Bowl, Junior Orange Bowl trifecta.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Jack Sock, Camila Giorgi, Marianne Jodoin, Sarah Taylor, USTA, Colette Lewis

Sock in Final; Patrick McEnroe Book in the Works; O'Neill to Georgia Tech; Tiley Responds

Jack Sock has reached the finals of the Amelia Island Futures tournament after defeating Michael Venus today 7-6(5), 6-4. The 17-year-old from Nebraska will face No. 2 seed Artem Sitak, a 23-year-old Russian, in Sunday afternoon's final. For a trip down memory lane, check out this post of mine from 2005, when Sock had swept the USTA 12s Nationals.

At the Illinois Challenger, the unseeded Battistone brothers collected their first title at that level today, defeating No. 2 seeds Harsh Mankad and Treat Huey 7-5, 7-6(5). Two former Kalamazoo 16s champions Taylor Dent (96) and Michael Russell (94) met for the singles title, with Russell winning 7-5, 6-4. Here's how Taylor Dent, who is new to Twitter, but getting the hang of it quickly, just described it.

taylordent81
Well "@&$!! Went down today to Russel. He played as well as Murray did against me at the open. I'm excited!! Just a matter of time I believe

A full account of the two finals can be found at fightingillini.com.

Peter Bodo announced today on his TennisWorld blog that he and USTA Davis Cup Captain and Player Development head Patrick McEnroe will be collaborating on a book. Bodo writes:

"It won't be an autobiography, a la A Champion's Mind (the book I wrote a few years ago with Pete Sampras). Rather, it will consist of war stories, opinions, and hard-core tennis analysis. It will draw on Pat's experiences on the pro tour, as an ESPN and CBS commentator, head of the USTA player development and - of course! - his Davis Cup captaincy."

Yesterday I wrote about D-II champion Sona Novakova going to Baylor, today I discovered that Jillian O'Neill, the two-time junior college champion from Hillsborough (Fla.) Community College, has signed a National Letter of Intent to join Georgia Tech. For more on the 20-year-old from Nova Scotia, see the Georgia Tech website.

Craig Tiley of Tennis Australia may have asked for equal time from the Perth newspaper's Sunday Times, which last week headlined their article on Player Development there "changes needed." There are two stories featuring Tiley: one about the not employing The Big Five (not the five you would come up with, I'm pretty sure), and the second about why the move to more clay courts has taken so long. Short answer: ongoing maintenance costs.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, Jack Sock, Taylor Dent, Michael Russell, Patrick McEnroe, Jillian O'Neill, Georgia Tech, Craig Tiley, Colette Lewis