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Monday, October 29, 2007

Croatia Looks to Improve Coaching; Asia Oceania Closed; Brengle & Frilling Take Augusta Doubles


You know the tennis cycles are getting shorter and shorter when Croatia is cast as a fading tennis power, but that is what this story from Reuters suggests. And this quote from Goran Prpic, Davis and Fed Cup captain for Croatia, has a familiar ring:

"We're not that successful in turning young talents into pros. I often hear from players that, while in the young categories, they were beating some of those who later reach top class. We have a wide base of young talents, but far from enough top coaching experts."
Coaching certification is being pushed, and that's certainly a good thing, but there are still only 100 spots in the top 100, no matter how competent your coaches are.

The Asia/Oceania Closed ITF B1 is underway in India, and I found this preview in The Hindu. Australia's Bernard Tomic is the top seed, but according to The Hindu "Sriram Balaji starts favourite." I'm not familiar with him, so I'll reserve judgment on that. Sanam Singh, mentioned in the story, has begun his freshman year at the University of Virginia.

And although this story from the Augusta Chronicle requires registration, it is a detailed look at the Pro Circuit $25K singles final between 18-year-old Alisa Kleybanova of Russia and Tanja Ostertag of Germany. (Kleybanova is not, as this article states, going to be WTA Top 50 after her win). There is also a brief mention of the doubles final, won by Madison Brengle and Kristy Frilling.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

EXCEPTION TO NCCA COACH COMMUNICATION RULE IN PORTLAND, OREGON?

I figured that Wes Not, Colette, Marcia Frost or some other expert on college tennis who participates on this board might know the answer to this question.

I'm puzzled.

It is my understanding that the NCAA Div. 1 rules are pretty strict about communications between coaches and high school players. In fact, I understand that the coaches aren't allowed to have ANY communication with high school and junior players until the student's senior or junior year at the very earliest.

However, I also know that the University of Portland Varsity head coach, Andy Gross, runs the top junior academy in Portland, Oregon where he coaches several of the top junior players in Portland, most of whom are not old enough to be even Juniors in high school. The coach also attends USTA junior tournaments and coaches those same academy attendees while they are competing in those tournaments even though most of those players are not old enough to be Juniors or Seniors in high school.

Is there some sort of exception to the NCAA rule that I'm not aware of? I am not questioning the integrity of the coach because I've heard nothing but good things about him. And, he's obviously not trying to hide anything because his academy is well known. I'm just trying to reconcile this with the pretty clear NCAA rule and figure there must be some exception. Could someone please explain to us the exception to the rule?