Top Junior's Thread

[Up&comer]

Originally Posted by ClarkC

Thai Kwiatkowski is still in. Rising high school senior from North Carolina.

It will be interesting to see what he does. If he can keep his composure he could do some damage.

[Rattler]

K-Zoo should be very interesting this year, very interesting and entertaining indeed.

[TennisNinja]

Junior Wimbledon Singles championship highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJN0XoQPOls

[10ismom]

Krueger is now in QF Boys Wimbledon.
No other US juniors, boys or girls (including Taylor Towsend), passed 3rd round.

Post vid of our US juniors in action there, if you could find one.

[chalkflewup]

Originally Posted by 10ismom

Krueger is now in QF Boys Wimbledon.
No other US juniors, boys or girls (including Taylor Towsend), passed 3rd round.

Amazing effort by 14 year old Kozlov going 3 sets with Broady in the 2nd round. He lost 6-4 in the 3rd.

[tenniscp]

Originally Posted by 10ismom

Krueger is now in QF Boys Wimbledon.
No other US juniors, boys or girls (including Taylor Towsend), passed 3rd round.

Post vid of our US juniors in action there, if you could find one.

It is probably noteworthy that second year in a row we have an American junior doing well in the slams. Last year it was Fratangelo winning French. This year Kruger got to the semis of the French and is now in quarters of Wimby. Both kids train with their private coaches. Kruger in Texas, I think with coach Lickor and Bjorn was coached by his dad.

The year before that it was Jack Sock who won US Open and Kudla got to the finals. Also were the product of private coaching, Sock with his coach and Kudla from the College Park academy.

I wonder if it is coincidental that all these kids who did well on a highest stage of Junior tennis came from a private coaching environment. USTA sent a pretty good bunch of kids to these slams but have not had the same success rate. I am talking on the boys side, of course. Because on the girls side, Grace Min and Taylor Townsend won the slams.

[TeflonTom]

we usually have at least one jr grand slam singles champ each year

2012 - townsend won AO girls
2011 - fratangelo won FO boys, grace min won USO girls
2010 - sock won USO boys
2009 - nothin
2008 - coco vanderweighe won uso girls
2007 - don young won wimby boys

etc

[tenniscp]

Originally Posted by TeflonTom

we usually have at least one jr grand slam singles champ each year

2012 - townsend won AO girls
2011 - fratangelo won FO boys, grace min won USO girls
2010 - sock won USO boys
2009 - nothin
2008 - coco vanderweighe won uso girls
2007 - don young won wimby boys

etc

I agree with the statistics. My point was that on the boys side, it seems like the kids do come from a private coaching environment as opposed to the USTAPD trained kids. It seems like from the names of the kids that were part of USTAPD in the last 6 -8 years, most of them wound up in college. Unless I am wrong and do not have sufficient information.

Can anyone name someone from USTAPD program in the last 5 years who went on to become a pro? I can name plenty who are or were in college.

I can name one kid who did go pro and that s Halebian.

[TeflonTom]

i think ur prolly makin a mistake by assumin that top jrs go to college rather than ustapd because the training is better. college in the usa is expensive. 99.9% of pros dont make enough money that they dont have to work after retiring

if u r a young player, massive gamble to skip college when someone is offerin u $100,000+ of free education. especially when the conversion rate from junior champ 2 successful pro is so low

[ClarkC]

Originally Posted by TeflonTom

i think ur prolly makin a mistake by assumin that top jrs go to college rather than ustapd because the training is better.

Where did he assume that? Sounds like you are the one doing the assuming. The long-running discussion on these boards is whether the expensive USTA Player Development program ever produces anything.

[TeflonTom]

isnt the ustapd program supposed to complement college? so therefore the q about whether it was usta or college which produced a player is kinda moot

usta says 'go to college unless u regularly beating top 100 players n we'll give u extra support'

[tenniscp]

Originally Posted by ClarkC

Where did he assume that? Sounds like you are the one doing the assuming. The long-running discussion on these boards is whether the expensive USTA Player Development program ever produces anything.

A friend is providing me with a list of the kids that went through the USTAPD in the last 5 years. I will try to see where these kids are now and what schools they are playing for. It would be interesting to see.

This is by no means a full list of names but for what it s worth, here it is in no particular order:

Mousheg Hovnasian, Lawrence Formentera, Jarmere Jenkins, Chase Buchanan, Evan King, Ray Sarmiento, Van Overbeek, Spencer Simon, Tyler Gardiner, Shane Vinsant, Michael Rinaldi, Hunter Harrington, Spencer Newman, Jeremy Efferding, Alexios Halebian, Roy Lederman, Michael Redlicki, Martin Redlicki, Thai Kwiatkowski, Spencer Papa, Luca Corinteli, Joseph Di Giulio, Justin Butsch, Konrad Zieba, Nikko Madregallejo, Daniel Kerznerman.


Obviously, the list is not complete and may be added to but from all the names mentioned some are still at USTAPD but the older kids are all in college or graduating from college or going to college. The only one from the list that declared his commitment to going pro is Halebian.

[tenniscp]

Originally Posted by TeflonTom

isnt the ustapd program supposed to complement college? so therefore the q about whether it was usta or college which produced a player is kinda moot

usta says 'go to college unless u regularly beating top 100 players n we'll give u extra support'

Maybe I truly misunderstood the purpose of having a USTAPD. I thought they were in place to help aspiring, talented juniors to transition into lower level pros and subsequently build them up or at least get them ready for the next step.

If you are telling me that their job is just to complement college, then they are doing that very well. I would bet that 95% of the kids that went through the PD did wind up in college.

In order for these juniors to be regularly beating top 100 players, as you claim, they have to be in a position to do so, i.e be ranked around 200-300 in the world. Now PD should be working on getting the juniors to the 500, 400, 300 level. Or even a step before that, transition juniors from the ITF junior level to the pro level of even 1000-1300 range and then, like many claim, the cream will rise to the top. The better and stronger ones will make a jump into the 500 range, and subsequently into the 300 range.

That is how you help produce a decent level pro and then if luck will have it, and the right choices were made in the selection process, one of them will maybe be a top 100 pro, and even more optimistically top 50, 40 , 30 and etc.

Of course, I may be missing something in the process and I don t mind being corrected or pointed in the right direction.

[ClarkC]

Originally Posted by TeflonTom

isnt the ustapd program supposed to complement college?

No. There is a USTA college player summer program, but that is totally different. USTA Player Development works with juniors. Their goal is to produce the next Sampras, or Roddick, or similar. Their attitude for a long time was that a truly great player at that level will not go to college at all (e.g. Jack Sock). They are starting to soften that attitude and work more cooperatively with colleges, but when a player gets a fortune spent on him over years at USTA PD and then goes to college, the odds are he will not be anything like a Roddick, much less a Sampras or Agassi, and therefore many people on these boards conclude that the USTA just spent a fortune helping that guy get a college scholarship.

[10ismom]

Originally Posted by TeflonTom

isnt the ustapd program supposed to complement college?

usta says 'go to college unless u regularly beating top 100 players n we'll give u extra support'

USTA, not USTPD, advises juniors to go to college unless u regularly beating top 100 players.

I do not believe that the USTPD's mission is to train top juniors to go play college tennis or feed the top juniors to colleges.

[tenniscp]

Originally Posted by 10ismom

USTA, not USTPD, advises juniors to go to college unless u regularly beating top 100 players.

I do not believe that the USTPD's mission is to train top juniors to go play college tennis or feed the top juniors to colleges.

Pretty strong two performances from Mitchell Kruger. Semis of two slams on two different surfaces. Had match points at wimby, in the semis. Did he turn pro yet or is he going to Texas A^M?

[10ismom]

^^^ According to TRN, he signed NLI with Texas A&M.

[chalkflewup]

Originally Posted by 10ismom

^^^ According to TRN, he signed NLI with Texas A&M.

Unconfirmed but I heard he is not going to A&M.

[GRANITECHIEF]

Rubin vs Bangoura at Birmingham Futures on Radiotennis, in 3rd set.

http://www.ezstream.com/play/index.c...5D6EE&ptype=sl

[GRANITECHIEF]

I had the pleasure of hosting him and pop and sis when he came out for Challenger in Ojai. Got to hit with him too. Great fun.

Looks like he's in good shape today and pushing for his highest ranking. Rubin impressive as well.