Kypson ATP 688 lost to a blue chip Iyy League recruit in 3rd set tiebreak a few minutes ago. Kypson had several medical timeouts. Before this round, Kypson had cruised through Kzoo matches. Kypson retired out of dubs in Winston Future in mid June (injury?) and did not play again until 3 weeks later at two July Challengers where he won some Quali matches, and he lost in Qualis of City Open. Does anyone know what injury Kypson had in June and if it is still affecting him? Is he definitely going pro or is that a decision he will make this fall or in January? Also #2 seed Danny Thomas ATP 747 loses in straight sets. Will be interesting to see who gets the WC to Open now with the frontrunners gone. Cracked Racquets had a good analysis of the top seeds and dark horses.
It's kind of funny he lost to a guy who lives not far from Texas A&M, I wonder if Kevin watched any of the Aggie matches last year. He's a very quiet, very smart guy, should do well at Penn.
I think Kevin had signed up to play the ITA summer circuit champs at TCU this weekend-guess he will be pulling out! Interesting the guys who are playing ITA summer circuit champs this weekend including Rybakov ATP low 500s. Add in $3k prize for winner and you get ATP ranked players to come...
I'm not sure the Kalamazoo champion should be automatically guarateee a wildcard into the US Open. They have all been routed in the first round of the Open in the last few years and often times they don't have near the experience that would indicate they are ready for a grand slam main draw.
Same can be said for NCAA Champs as well, both men and women..anyway it’s a great tradition and the Wildcard makes Kalamazoo THE junior tournament of the USTA. Orange Bowl is an ITF...and most of the USTA players that do well at Kalamazoo don’t usually fair that great at their first Orange Bowl.
In light of the cancellation of ACI and its WC to a college player, the Kzoo WC may seem to have dubious merit. However, the rest of US juniors would never get to play the USTA PD kids without that WC. That is the only time they play a USTA junior tournament-rest is ITF/Futures. Some years there is incredible talent at Kzoo like the year with Tiafoe, Fritz, Opelka, Kozlov, etc. It was incredible for close to 400 juniors to have the opportunity to watch them play or possibly play them themselves. JJ Wolf was a finalist last year at Kzoo and has now won a match vs top 100 player. Kzoo is like the mecca for junior tennis players and without the WC, Kzoo might be Nat Clays with a few more college coaches. The WC draws the top kids who inspire the other juniors, and occasionally the underdog regular kids beat one of the PD kids like when Zhu beat Kypson. In general, USTA PD juniors get too many WCs. Even the consolation finalist at Kzoo I think gets a WC to Future-not sure if MD or Quali. Keep the WC for the Kzoo winner but make sure there are enough WCs for deserving college players at aTP events of different levels. An ITF top 20 junior played 15 Futures before winning his first ATP point, and he got into several MDs with USTA WCs and lost 1st rd. Wasted WCs at 16, maybe worthy of WC at 18 as that player has earned some ATP points.
I disagree. It's a huge incentive and many, many, opponents are routed in the first round anyway. With the state of tennis' popularity in the US currently, juniors need more exposure to the pro level, not less. Keep in mind that I'm saying this with the full belief that Brooksby is going to be routed in his match, based on the play I saw from his matches at Kzoo including the final. Specifically, that serve of his is going to get eaten alive by pros. Whereas many of the juniors he played couldn't seem to swallow being beaten by "this guy with the sh***y serve" (pure conjecture but the body language seemed to indicate that), having failed to be aggressive against it, the pros won't fail.
Feel for DJ, he played at my local club, brought up over here in Cbus. Great funny guy, has the potential to set the tour on fire!
The NCAA champ has been more competitive in recent years. Zoo champ results 2017: Menendez-Maceiras def Kypson 6-4 7-6(9) 6-1 (probably the easiest hard court draw Kypson could have hoped for) 2016: Chardy def Mmoh 6-4 6-4 6-1 2015: Troicki def Tiafoe 7-5 6-4 6-3 2014: Delbonis def Rubin 6-4 6-3 6-0 2013: Kohlschreiber def Altamirano 6-1 6-3 6-1 2012: Novikov def Janowicz 6-2 7-6(6) 3-6 6-3, 2nd round: Benneteau def Novikov 3-6 6-3 7-6(1) 7-5 NCAA champ results: 2017: M. Zverev def Kwiatkowski 7-6(5) 4-6 4-6 7-5 6-3 2016: Satral def McDonald 4-6 3-6 6-3 6-2 6-2 2015: Chardy def Shane 6-2 6-1 6-7(6) 6-2 2014: Isner def Giron 7-6(5) 6-2 7-6(2) 2012: Johnson def Ram 6-3 7-6(5) 6-3, 2nd round: Johnson def Gulbis 6-7(3) 7-6(5) 6-3 6-4, 3rd round: Gasquet def Johnson 7-6(4) 6-2 6-3 This is probably strictly due to age and physical maturity. 18 is a lot younger in tennis these days than it used to be and throwing the Kalamazoo champ into the fire in the US Open has been rough the last 5 years since Novikov. Of course the French Open also usually gives a WC to at least one young unproven junior every year as well who gets routed. The wildcard does give Kalamazoo a lot of prestige so in the interest of keeping it a special event I am not against keeping the wildcard from that perspective.
At first I was surprised why someone would make a thread on a specific result for a junior. Wow I just realized Kypson won Kzoo last year and he is going to Texas A&M already. So he's got the tourney experience as well as college tennis. Now I'm also pretty surprised he lost so early.
