adios burdette!

[mikej]

http://www.itatennis.com/AwardsAndRa...s_Rankings.htm

i thought her name missing on there was curious...so i googled...and hello!

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article...ro-3846457.php

best of luck to her in the pros, glad she won't be there to help stanford get in duke's way of the title next year

[SoCal10s]

good for her... good luck...

[tacoben]

Wow! Just one year shy of graduating from one of the nation"s finest universitiies. I don't get it.

[mikej]

Originally Posted by tacoben

Wow! Just one year shy of graduating from one of the nation"s finest universitiies. I don't get it.

doesn't make a lot of sense to me either

like thacher, she's interested in being a doctor according to a lot of the articles

and like thacher, she's going to be pretty old by the time she finishes residency etc after taking a few years to give it a go at pro tennis...she'll have to put in a couple years finishing her college degree, taking pre-med reqs, and applying before she even thinks about med school

hard to tell someone not to take their shot at the glory of being a star athlete, but come on, who's the career counselor for stanford's tennis teams

[Satsuma Illini]

Passing up 65,00 bucks (or whatever it was) was just too hard to pass up maybe.

[mikej]

Originally Posted by Satsuma Illini

Passing up 65,00 bucks (or whatever it was) was just too hard to pass up maybe.

she didn't get that money...turned pro after us open, she talked about it in her us open interviews actually how it's too late now to not check that amateur box

[mikej]

what she did get of course is the 3rd rd us open ranking pts which will allow her to not work her way up from the bottom

capra was able to pass up the draw of all those points a few years ago, but looks like burdette thinks she can make it, we'll see, maybe...

[Satsuma Illini]

Originally Posted by mikej

she didn't get that money...turned pro after us open, she talked about it in her us open interviews actually how it's too late now to not check that amateur box

Yeah I know, but it's hard to not think about the next one though.

[BHSC]

Originally Posted by mikej

what she did get of course is the 3rd rd us open ranking pts which will allow her to not work her way up from the bottom

capra was able to pass up the draw of all those points a few years ago, but looks like burdette thinks she can make it, we'll see, maybe...

Like you said, the rankings points are the key reason. It takes a lot of effort to work your way up from the bottom.

Burdette is now #159. That's a huge head start.

I support her decision. With a ranking that high, at the very least, she had to take the fall off to play pro events (like Johnson did last year). Though as we've seen with Stanford's scheduling (especially not playing the Team indoor), it's not like she's missing much competition. Last year, Stanford only played two decent teams (California & Florida) before mid-April.

Their scheduling means that their "competitive season" is really just about 6-8weeks.


Capra also had her ranking way up there. Certainly, could have understood her decision either way.

Would think that the difference with Burdette is that Burdette could piggyback her results prior to the US Open: two tournament wins, including a $100,000 level tournament, Vancouver.


By the way, I got to see some of the Capra/Will match in the NCAAs in Athens. Capra was the better player on the court and was in control most of the match. She frustrated and was able to out grind Will.

She ran into a hot Burdette (who is better at ending points) in the Singles.

Also, after Capra has another dominant year, I'm not sure how she (her tennis) benefits from staying for a Senior season.

[mikej]

Originally Posted by BHSC

Also, after Capra has another dominant year, I'm not sure how she (her tennis) benefits from staying for a Senior season.

i wouldn't put too much money on her leaving after her sophomore or junior seasons - she has two interesting examples around her to think about...

cecil coaching her, who went pro after the most dominant season a rookie has had in a long long time, leading the team to the title and taking the singles crown...we know how that worked out, i think she'd like to have been on the court rather than the sidelines the past few years

and cunha who is staying for his senior season after being the #1 seed in NCAAs as a freshman - he'll be taking his shot at the pros in a year with a solid degree and future ahead of him if he fails

not to mention guys like ramsey smith and michael yani hanging around the program who can tell you first hand how difficult it is to break through on tour

[bluetrain4]

Originally Posted by mikej

doesn't make a lot of sense to me either

like thacher, she's interested in being a doctor according to a lot of the articles

and like thacher, she's going to be pretty old by the time she finishes residency etc after taking a few years to give it a go at pro tennis...she'll have to put in a couple years finishing her college degree, taking pre-med reqs, and applying before she even thinks about med school

hard to tell someone not to take their shot at the glory of being a star athlete, but come on, who's the career counselor for stanford's tennis teams

While that's all true, I don't see the problem. If she fizzles out on tour, or even if she has a relatively long successful career, if she really wants to be a doctor, she'll make it happen. So what if she'll be "pretty old" by the time she finishes her residency. If she's okay with it, why would it be a problem? If it's a little extra work, a less traveled path, big deal.

[mikej]

Originally Posted by bluetrain4

While that's all true, I don't see the problem. If she fizzles out on tour, or even if she has a relatively long successful career, if she really wants to be a doctor, she'll make it happen. So what if she'll be "pretty old" by the time she finishes her residency. If she's okay with it, why would it be a problem? If it's a little extra work, a less traveled path, big deal.

sure, if she really wants it, she'll make it happen

and i don't know what her family financial situation is, so she may or may not be in a huge amount of debt heading into the second half of her 30s if she were to go that route - may or may not be a big deal

but in my experience, there are very few people (a handful of exceptions, sure) in med school who have taken a significant amount of time away from academics (some are a bit older, but usually research, a masters, etc filled the interim)...and i think the reason isn't hard to figure out - it's hard to go from even college with classes just a couple hours a day to much longer days of sitting in lecture halls or pouring over notes in med school - the transition is that much harder after years away from the classroom entirely - and most people like to be making some money at that point in their life

thacher and burdette certainly have control over their futures, go for it if they think they can play pro tennis for a few years then go back to the (pre-reqs / standardized tests / applications / sitting in class all day for the first two years if they get in somewhere) route - i think it's extremely unlikely and i just hope they've thought about the level of academic energy they'll have left after a few years having fun playing tennis

[socaltennnis]

You're from Duke right? There's a Stanford tennis player, KJ Hippensteel, who played for Stanford for 4 years, went pro, got to rank 150, is now in his 30's, just graduated from Duke Med this past spring. He should be in internship year somewhere.

[mikej]

Originally Posted by socaltennnis

You're from Duke right? There's a Stanford tennis player, KJ Hippensteel, who played for Stanford for 4 years, went pro, got to rank 150, is now in his 30's, just graduated from Duke Med this past spring. He should be in internship year somewhere.

yep, awesome guy - followed his career a good bit since he grew up around my area of the country

1) i'm not saying no one ever does it - just becomes a much more unlikely path - again, good for them if they go for it and follow kj's example

but

2) he had a HUGE advantage over them, having graduated from stanford as a bio major (and thus likely having all of the pre-reqs out of the way by the time he graduated, though i'm not positive on that)..............that's probably a 2 year advantage over thacher (per the articles i've seen, a history major who will have to go somewhere for pre-med reqs as a post-grad) and a 3 year advantage over burdette (who will have to finish off her BA in psychology and then get those medicine pre-reqs done)

so yes, someone who had a couple year advantage over them due to his undergraduate choices has pulled it off, credit to him

[mikej]

anyway, not trying to have a thread arguing over the futures of these two people, they'll both come up with something great to do after they're done with tennis i'm sure, maybe something that makes a lot more money or they end up liking better than medicine

just brought it up because it seems odd to me that two different people taking off from stanford this year with the stated goal of becoming doctors 1) didn't seem to really do anything to move toward that goal during their undergrad years and 2) seem to think they'll jump right back into it after time on tour per the articles that have been written - i don't think it's that easy - i doubt kj would make it sound that easy either, even when he did much more of the preparation while at stanford

[tball2day]

.............

[mikej]

she did end up getting the 65K - per zootennis's interview posted on tennisrecruiting site

so perhaps that did factor in the decision - she's already hiring a coach to travel with her, so that certainly helps offset some expenses

[floridatennisdude]

Originally Posted by mikej

she did end up getting the 65K - per zootennis's interview posted on tennisrecruiting site

so perhaps that did factor in the decision - she's already hiring a coach to travel with her, so that certainly helps offset some expenses

WoW, I have no doubts that Mallory has the tools for the tour. I am surprised how easy it was for her to flip-flop on the amateur status mid-tournament.

Part of me says "that's great, she earned it"

Another part of me thinks it's dangerous for other juniors to see it can be done mid-tournament. I envision an 18 y/o WC getting on an unsustainable hot streak and taking a few thousand bucks. That'd be it for college for a kid without the tools Mallory has.

[NLBwell]

Having a second career as a doctor? Seems like a pretty good thing to me.

[Nostradamus]

Originally Posted by NLBwell

Having a second career as a doctor? Seems like a pretty good thing to me.

pretty good but you will still be a medical resident at age 36. It's not as easy as you think. She still has to get married and have children. Longer you wait, more chance of problems with having a baby. She can do it but it is going to be alot of hard work.