USTA News

The USTA Boys 18 & 16 National Championships has been held in Kalamazoo for 63 consecutive years.

If you are interested in becoming a ballrunner, please contact Megan Fink at (269) 806-9356 or the Tournament Office at (269) 337-7343
THE DEADLINE TO REGISTER IS JUNE 7, 2005
There is a mandatory meeting and practice for all NEW ballrunners on Tuesday, June 14th. Training dates for all ballrunners will be every Tuesday and Wednesday in June beginning on the 14th, from 7-8:30 p.m.

The 2005 ballrunner sign up form will soon be available on the website under the Volunteers section. You may print and mail completed form to:
Megan Fink
Kalamazoo College
Hicks Center Box #332
Kalamazoo MI 49006

This is a REcertification school designed to recertifiy and upgrade currently certified officials. It will cover three areas of certification: USTA umpire, ITA & USTA Referee, in that order. A separate opportunity will be provided for officials seeking initial (Provisional) certification.

YOU MUST RESERVE YOUR SPOT NO LATER THAN MAY 22 BY CALLING OR EMAILING DARRELL DAVIES. HE MUST KNOW EXACTLY WHICH AREAS YOU PLAN TO BE CERTIFIED IN.

This advance reservation is needed so that you can received appropriate mailed materials relative to your requested certification by May 29. You must recertify annually.

Cookies and juice will be available all day and lunch will be catered by Ample Pantry at noon.

Agenda:
9-noon-------- USTA and ITA
noon-12:45---- lunch
12:45-5------- odds and ends of morning and USTA referee

Please bring the following items with you:
1. 2005 Friend at Court booklet
2. Current Data Card (work record card)
3. Materials mailed to you ahead of time
4. Writing devices for taking notes and test
For directions or more information, please contact:
Darrell Davies
269-488-4355 (office)
269-598-4765 (cell--for last minute issues)
email ddavies "at" kvcc.edu (please use appropriate symbol for email "at"--it is written this way here to avoid being picked up by spammers.

But it was a phone call that Neilly made three weeks earlier, after his first round loss at the Eddie Herr tournament in Bradenton that led him to the biggest victory of his junior tennis career.

?After that loss I was thinking totally negative, and I just decided I needed a new direction, so I gave Tarik (Benhabiles) a call,? said the 17 year old, originally from the Bahamas and now living in Miami.

?He said, ?buddy, come on down and let?s start working together, get some direction going in your game.?

Benhabiles, who coached Andy Roddick during his transition from juniors to the top of the men?s game, found in Neilly a willing student.

?He listens, which is important. Not all juniors are willing to take advice, ? said Benhabiles, who is now coaching in the Miami Beach area. ?He needed direction, some confidence, a way to use his weapons.?

In addition to his new partnership with Benhabiles, Neilly also recently became acquainted with Courier in conjunction with a documentary the four-time grand slam singles champion is producing about the US junior boys and their road to the National Championships in Kalamazoo.

Filming began this week, and Neilly and his family were frequently seen with microphones and cameras following them around the Crandon Park Tennis Center.

?It hasn?t been a problem, ? said Neilly of the film crew. ?I know what I have to do, how to focus on my tennis and to concentrate. And any kind of advice or affiliation you can have with Jim is just amazing.?

Neilly?s opponent, Donald Young, the 2003 16s Orange Bowl champion, also had his own connection with Courier in Sunday?s final. The 15-year-old prodigy, seeded fifth, was attempting to become the first player since Courier in 1986 and 1987 to win consecutive 16s and 18s Orange Bowl singles titles. But Neilly, seeded 11th, did not lose a set in the tournament, and brought a lethal weapon to the court-his forehand. He used his pace and an occasional deft drop shot to shorten points, thereby neutralizing Young?s primary strengths- court coverage and creativity.

After the match, Young was downcast about his play. ?He played well, but I just didn?t. At 5-4 (in the first set) I had the worst return game ever?didn?t get a single return in play.?

Though Young was disappointed, the large and appreciative crowd watching the final demonstrated the impact he has had on the junior game. And with three more opportunities to win the Orange Bowl, most expect to see him holding the Waterford crystal bowl of Florida oranges that Neilly captured Sunday.

In the girls 18 singles, Jessica Kirkland of Dayton Ohio beat Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia 6-3, 6-2 to become the first American winner since 1989. And with Neilly?s win, it is the first sweep of the 18 singles by Americans since 1974.

Argentina pulled off a similar sweep in the 16s singles with Emiliano Massa defeating Kellen Damico of Parker Colorado, 6-2, 6-0, and Florencia Molinero downing Stephanie Herz of the Netherlands 7-6 (7), 6-2.

Murray was having none of that.

"I'm just at the bottom of the ladder and I need to try and work my way up," said the native of Dunblane, Scotland.

"I think I can do it. But just now, I'm nowhere near as good as what Tim is.?

On a day with weather as fair as the price of admission ($5), Murray, seeded third, displayed a game bearing no similarity to that of the six-time British Grand Slam semifinalist. There was no serve and volley, just a solid forehand, a talent for chasing down every drop shot and a deft collection of spins.

All those virtues were on display in the first game of the match, as there were seven deuces before Stakhovsky finally held. He sensed then that it would be a difficult day.

?I had big problems with my serve today,? shrugged Stakhovsky, the seventh seed. ?From the first, it was such a struggle to hold, plus Andrew made no errors.?

?But the biggest problem,? Stakhovsky repeated, ?was my serve.?

In his semifinal conquest of second seed Andreas Beck--the favorite once three-time 2004 Grand Slam holder Gael Monfils of France was eliminated?Stakhovsky displayed a brilliant backhand and the ability to finish a point at the net. But with his serve deserting him on Sunday, and an opponent more nimble than the German baseliner, the eighteen-year-old Ukrainian would close his junior career with a finals loss.

Murray?s junior career is far from over. Though a professional, he is only 17, with an opportunity to raise the crystal cup at the US Open once again. Murray would also like to advance deeper into the draw at Wimbledon than he did this year (losing in the third round) and to play next year at Roland Garros on his favorite surface, clay, a Grand Slam he skipped this year to rest his knee. He is a non-playing member of Great Britain?s Davis Cup squad, which begins World Group playoffs versus Austria September 24-26, giving him very little time to celebrate.

Another Henman? Certainly much to soon to tell, but perhaps the Spanish-trained clay court version will bloom in Scotland next year.

?When we got up this morning and turned on the television, all the stations were showing the memorials,? Evans said after the match. ?It was hard.?

Although a tennis match diminishes in importance on such a day, it still must be played, and top seeds Evans and Oudsema were carrying one of the hopes for American tennis on Saturday.

With no Americans in the men?s or women?s singles finals for the first time since 1986, Evans and Oudsema represented one of two remaining opportunities for a championship for the United States, (Jessica Kirkland plays for the junior girls title on Sunday). The match, the last either will play as juniors, pitted the Australian and Wimbledon junior champions against the fifth seeded German team, Andreas Beck and Sebastian Rieschick.

Evans and Oudsema have not made it easy on themselves this week. Unlike the Australian Open, where they did not drop a set, the US Open saw them struggle throughout, going to three sets in three of their four previous matches. ?This is the hardest tournament to win,? said Evans, ?because, by now, everyone is gunning for us.? Beck and Rieschick shot out to a lead, taking the first set 6-4--gaining the break when Oudsema was serving, but a bathroom break by both Germans may have stalled the momentum they had gained. After Evans held his serve easily in the first game of the second set, Rieschick was immediately broken and the Americans showed no mercy from then on.

The lethal Beck serve had the Americans playing in a two back formation; it was Reischick?s serve that they feasted on, breaking him twice in the second set, to take it 6-1.

So Evans, 18, a professional for three years. and Oudsema, also 18 and still pondering his future, were down to a final set in their last opportunity to win their country?s Grand Slam. And when they broke Beck to begin the third set and broke Reischick in the third game to take a 3-0 lead, the Americans in the crowd, including the recently retired Todd Martin, breathed a sigh of relief. Though the Germans hung tough, saving three match points before Evans finally closed out the match on his serve, they were unable to stand up to the power and touch of the experienced American pair, who played their best tennis when they most needed it.

So they finish their junior careers with three of the four 2004 Grand Slam junior doubles titles, with only an 8-6 in the third loss in the French Open semifinals to the eventual Spanish champions standing in the way of an unprecendented four junior doubles Grand Slam titles.

Both Evans and Oudsema expressed relief that the past three weeks, which saw them play mens singles qualifying and main draw doubles prior to the week long junior tournament, are over. When asked how they would celebrate, Evans?s face lit up with obvious delight.

?I?m going home (Key Biscayne) in about two hours.?

Oudsema echoed that relief, citing his return to his Kalamazoo home as a celebration. ?I definitely need a rest.?

Going out on top will no doubt make the dreams sweeter.

Jenkins was not in top form on Friday, and several times the talented lefthander from Germany served his way out of a tight spot. The most telling statistic of the match was break points converted. Jenkins had three chances but failed to convert any of them. Beck capitalized on only one of his four, but it was at a crucial moment in the first set. Up 40-0 in the eighth game, Jenkins could not win that last point, as Beck won the next five points in succession and then held. The second set tiebreaker was unlike the first twelve games, with several mini breaks until 4-4. Jenkins, who uncharacteristically doubled faulted six times in the match, managed an effective second serve but his backhand floated long for 5-4. Beck then smacked a great backhand crosscourt on his serve to seize a match point that Jenkins saved by forcing an error. Jenkins, however, finished his junior career with a double fault, losing the tiebreaker 7-5.

Jenkins faced the loss philosophically. "I'm going to lose hundreds of matches in the next few years," he said. "I've faced three levels of tennis in just this tournament, playing Andy Roddick, then going down to the first few rounds of the juniors, and now this opponent and match, which was somewhere in between."

He'll go back up to that top level after taking next week off at his Atlanta home, when he heads to Charleston to serve as a hitting partner for the Davis Cup team. "It's a great honor to be selected, especially so late into it" (the semifinals vs. Belarus), he said. "I'm sure I'll learn a lot hitting with Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish and the Bryan twins."

Sam Querrey got his first taste of the top level of junior tennis this week, and he too learned something.

"I can play with these guys,? declared the 6?5? junior from Thousand Oaks, California. ?I didn't know before I started this tournament if I could, but now I do."

Querrey put together an almost perfect first set of tennis in his quarterfinal tilt with Scotland's Andrew Murray. Using his serve, his footwork and his tennis instincts, Querrey completely baffled the third seed, 6-2. But in the second set, Querrey's first serve percentage began to drop, and Murray played his retrieval game to perfection, taking the second set 7-6 (2). Showing the effects of playing his third straight three set match, Querrey began to wilt, and the energetic Murray continued to run down shots and get them back over the net, to the tune of a 6-1 final set.

Heading back to California with his parents on Saturday, Querrey has a new way of looking at his game and his future.

"I'm hoping I can get some wild cards now, or maybe earn enough points to get in all the Grand Slams next year."

Junior Grand Slams will be a thing of the past for Brendan Evans and Scott Oudsema after this Saturday's doubles final against Beck and his partner Sebastian Rieschick. But their hopes for a third Slam title and their first US Open championship hinged on a tantalizing net cord in the third set of their late afternoon semifinal match with the Murray brothers of Scotland-Andrew and his older brother Jamie. At 4-5, the Murrays were serving at 30-40 and after a brief rally, Jamie's shot caught the tape, bounced on it, hung and then dropped back on their side, putting Evans and Oudsema in the final, with a 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-4 victory. "I was hoping, " said Evans of the netcord, "but I really couldn't see it with the sun and shadow until it dropped to the court."

Evans and Oudsema know that their number one ranking and two Grand Slam titles (Australia and Wimbledon) don't guarantee wins. They have often struggled, going to three sets in every match in the draw save one. But they have two big serves and forehands, -and excellent volleys- to deflate opponents at important points. They have the confidence that comes with winning titles on the biggest junior tennis stage in the world. And a little of bit of luck never hurts either.