LADIES TENNIS REVIEW FROM CARSON CALIFORNIA BY DR. DON BROSSEAU THE 10SCHIRO

Written by: Tennischiro on 15th July 2014

LADIES TENNIS REVIEW FROM CARSON CALIFORNIA BY DR. DON BROSSEAU THE 10SCHIRO |

Michaella Krajicek @ Carson holding a 10sBalls shirt. Photo by George Lopez.

A Day at Carson

I got to make it down to the USTA PLAYER DEVELOPMENT WOMEN’S $50,000 CLASSIC at the Stub Hub Center in Carson yesterday. I wanted to see the second round qualifying match of one of my former students, Danielle Lao. I was a little late and they got off to a quick start and when I arrived Danielle seemed to have the situation well in hand, up 6-3, 2-0 on young Megan McCray from Oceanside, CA who just celebrated her 19th birthday last week. Megan will be a sophomore at Oklahoma State next year; she played second singles for the Cowgirls last year. Danielle graduated from USC a year ago after earning All American honors twice and has had a terrific rise up the WTA standings. Since first appearing on the WTA rankings last October at 1006, she has moved up over 600 places to 402 in singles after a quarterfinal last week in Sacramento; She is also ranked 266 in doubles.

As is often the case in tennis matches, all was not quite as “in hand” as I had thought. Megan has earned a number of #1 rankings in Southern California and San Diego in 14’s, 16’s and 18’s and was not about to go away so easily. She broke back to even the match at 2-2 and they both held to even the match at 3-3 going into the pivotal 7th game. It looked like McCray had taken the momentum when she got up 0-40 on Lao’s serve, but her inexperience showed just a bit as she pressed when she just needed to keep doing what she was doing. Danielle reeled her in with 3 errors to even the game at deuce and then eventually held to make it 3-4. That had to be a big let down as Megan dropped her serve again in the next game and Danielle served out the match 6-3 with errors suddenly coming more frequently from McCray’s racket.

I wandered around to see a few of the various players practicing on the other courts. It’s a great venue for getting up close and personal to these players as they are going through their practice routines. For that matter, you can’t get much closer to the actual match play unless you are an umpire or ballboy. There were a number of main draw players preparing for their start tomorrow as well as other players getting ready for other quails later in the day.

Alexandra Stevenson had finished off Sophia Bursulaya 6-2, 6-1 and current USC standout Zoe Scandalis was fighting back to take the second set against the third seed in the qualis, Jennifer Elie of Brooklyn, NY. However, Elie would prevail 6-1 in the third. I had completely missed the first two matches of the day. Krista Hardebeck defeated Peggy Porter 7-5, 6-1 in a battle of teenagers. And 18 year old Mari Osaka of Japan defeated Kristina Smith of Laguna Niguel 6-1, 6-1. These challengers are largely the domain of the 18 and 19 year olds.

I settled in to watch a little of the match that followed on the Lao/McCray court, Tatjana Maria vs another local player, Brynn Boren. These are big ladies with big serves. I was kind of curious about the interested gentleman watching while tending a baby carriage. I figured he had to be with one of the players so I went over to talk to him. Charles Maria was the husband of Tatjana and also the father of their 6 month old Charlotte. That’s right, 6-month old! And she’s already been back for three months. Don’t tell me women aren’t tougher than we are! Tatjana knocked off the first seed in the qualifying in the first round and is a tough draw in a $50,000 qualifying. She used her protected ranking to play doubles in the French and beat the 13th seeded team in the first round there. Her protected ranking will get her into the US Open and she’s hoping to get back in good shape by that time. She’s been ranked in the top 70 in both singles and doubles and had a serve timed at the US Open at 125 MPH! Charles and Charlotte and Tatjana live in Palm Beach; she’s German, he’s French and Charlotte is definitely an international traveler. Well, Tatjana ended up handling Brynn 6-2, 6-4. Yes, Brynn, those were some pretty big serves for a little $50,000 Challenger!

There were two more matches on the day that I missed. Los Angeles native Brianna Morgan upset 17 year-old Ching-Wen Hsu of Taipei who was the 6th ranking junior in the world just 19 months ago. And in the final match of the day, Jacqueline Cako came back to beat UCLA’s #2 Jennifer Brady 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. These courts hold great memories for Arizona State’s Cako; she reached the finals here in 2008 of the International Spring Championships, beating her doubles partner here, Danielle Lao in the semis. She lost that final to another player in the draw who has fond memories of Carson, Melanie Oudin.

The final rounds of qualifying all go off at 10:00 AM today. Stevenson vs Cako on court 4. Lao vs Morgan on court 5. Maria vs Osaka on court 2. They are followed by four first round main draw singles matches and all 16 of the doubles teams in action. So it will be a full day of activity and a great chance to see some of the better known players like Melanie Oudin, Michaella Krajicek, Sachia Vickery and last week’s Sacramento finalists Olivia Rogowska and Julia Boserup in match play up close and personal.

You can find the full schedule and the draws at:

http://www.itftennis.com/procircuit/tournaments/women%27s-tournament/info.aspx?tournamentid=1100032270

Before I left, I walked down to the USTA Player Development courts across the street to see who else might be working out. I found #3 ranked US player Steve Johnson, currently #64 on the ATP computer just two places behind Sam Querrey. He was working on his forehand with USTA Player Development coach, Steven Amritraj. If you have time you should try to wander over there. You never know who might be working on those courts. In any case, come on down to Carson this week. There will be some great tennis and you never know what else you may find.

10sChiro

to see other articles by 10sChiro, go to

https://archive.10sballs.com/category/columnists/dr-chiro/

https://archive.10sballs.com/author/don/

For more information about about lessons with TennisChiro or his videotaping and analysis service, just dial **tennispro on your cell phone. You will get a text with his email and phone number.

Topics: 10sChiro, Carson, Don Brosseau, Sam Querrey, Steve Johnson, Stub Hub Center, Tennis, Tennis News, Usta

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10sBalls_com says:

July 15, 2014 at 8:24 am

LADIES TENNIS REVIEW FROM CARSON CALIFORNIA BY DR. DON BROSSEAU THE 10SCHIRO- http://t.co/VMYRUO82iH #tennis #Carson #StubHubCenter #USTA
Gstaad_lopez says:

July 15, 2014 at 8:24 am

RT @10sBalls_com: LADIES TENNIS REVIEW FROM CARSON CALIFORNIA BY DR. DON BROSSEAU THE 10SCHIRO- http://t.co/VMYRUO82iH #tennis #Carson #Stu…