GODFREY
We first need to catch up on the happenings in Godfrey. Both Austin Krajicek and Luis Diaz-Barriga advanced to the quarterfinals. Krajicek had a great win over Michael McClune (63 64) before dropping a strange on to Adam El Mihdawy (76 63). I don’t mean this in a bad way, but I just figured Austin would win that one. El Mihdawy was actually the first player Steve Denton and Bob McKinley tried to recruit when they started at A&M. He’s a good player, but hasn’t fared well in Futures here in the States. The last few months he has been getting a few points here and there in India and Egypt.
Diaz-Barriga beat Conor Pollock (36 63 63) before falling to Matt Reid (63 64). Luigi also reached the semis in doubles before falling to eventual champions Todd Paul and Cory Parr, 10-5, in the third set breaker. Paul and Parr needed a tiebreaker in every match prior to the finals, then crushed Colt Gaton and Michael Venus 61 64 in the championship.
Jeff Dadamo fell in the second round to Holden Seguso.
ST. JOSPEH
Friend of the site, Ashley Weinhold, captured the doubles at The Heartland Clinic $10k in St. Joseph, MO over the weekend, teaming with Irina Falconi. Congrats to Ash.
DECATUR
Lots of Texans (or collegiate Texans) are in the draw at the USTA/Ursala Beck $10k in Decatur.
Ashwin Kumar (Round Rock and Harvard) plays top-seeded Phillip Simmonds in the first round. Somehow I missed this, but Ashwin won the doubles at the Ireland F2 last month on carpet outdoors in Fitzwilliam, Ireland. He has been playing mostly in Mexico, Ireland and recently in Indianapolis.
Conor Pollock got a wild card into the main draw and is playing Juan-Manuel Elizondo. It is a first match on tomorrow. Should he win, he would likely face Arnau Brueges. They didn’t get to play earlier in the college season when Brueges suffered from back spasms in College Station that day.
The interesting match of the day is a likely preview of a #1 showdown in the spring when Austin Krajicek takes on Denes Lukacs. It is also a first match on tomorrow.
Jeff Dadamo gets #2-seed Michael McClune in the first round and Luis Diaz-Barriga plays Roy Kalmanovich.
Diaz-Barriga and Elizondo are again the top-seeds this week, while Krajicek and Pollock are seeded third.
MIDWEST THUMPS TEXAS
The Midwest section put the beat down on the Texas section today at the USTA Boys 18s National Team Championship, 8-1. The Midwest team is stacked with Chase Buchanan and Evan King at the top of the lineup. Harry Fowler gave Buchanan a run in a 46 76 63 loss, while Ben Chen fell to King, 76 75. The lone bright spot for Texas was Daniel Whitehead’s 75 36 61 win over Billy Bertha.
Texas is 2-1 in the team competition, having defeated Northern, 9-0, and Mo Valley, 7-2 (Sock won both matches).
ZOO NEWS
The draws are out for Kalamazoo and there are some great early match-ups. I haven’t studied them too hard, but the ones I did see right off the bat were a potential third round match between Ben Chan and Harry Fowler. Colette Lewis at Zootennis.com mentioned the David Holiner and Ryan Noble first rounder. I will dig through those more.
STUFF I AM READING TODAY
Recruiting 101 by Marcia Frost – How do I let a coach know I want to play college tennis?
http://www.examiner.com/x-6611-College-Tennis-Examiner~y2009m8d3-Recruiting-101-How-do-I-let-a-coach-know-I-want-to-play-college-tennis?cid=exrss-College-Tennis-Examiner
Andrea Jaeger story on her troubles these days with her charity
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/us/03aspen.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=jaeger&st=cse