Hey Tennis Friends!
This past week through Sunday, April 10, is the 2011 USTA International Spring Championships being held at the Home Depot Center in Carson.
I stopped by late in the week to check out the juniors, and file this report.
As usual, there was so much more going on than I was able to cover. I barely touched the tip of the iceberg! The matches began at 9:00AM and I didn’t arrive until around 10:30AM.
There were boy’s and girl’s 16s & 18s, singles and doubles, matches going on. Action was happening on 14 courts with various degrees of viewing angles. I chose to cover a few where I could get a decent camera position.
It’s always entertaining to see some of the juniors that just might be making their last stop at this level, before moving on up to the pros.
There was one point, during the Andrews/Makarova match, when Gabby’s ball was called out by the chair umpire. After Gabby questioned her opponent, in the spirit of good sportsmanship, Christina Makarova admitted that the ball was, in fact, in. The chair umpire then gave to point to Gabby Andrews.
This prompted a discussion between both the players and the chair umpire because Christina clearly had a play on the ball, but had stopped play because of the umpire’s errant call.
Thankfully the point was, appropriately, replayed.
Also, in the interview with Gabby, I mistakenly said that she won the 2010 Easter Bowl 16s, when it was the 14s where she won her championship trophy.
Here are the scores for the matches that I featured:
Madison Keys (USA) d. Alejandra Cisneros (Mexico) 6-3, 6-2
Marco Nunez (Mexico) / Alexander Petrone (USA)
d. Bjorn Fratangelo (USA) / Alexios Halebian (USA) 3-6, 6-3 [11-9]
Gabrielle Andrews (USA) d. Christina Makarova (USA) 6-7(4), 7-5, 7-6(4)
It’s fun to come to these events to see the the new faces of the future of tennis. Plus, it’s at the price we like here at GroundsPass.net: Absolutely FREE!
I’ll see you next time, with more tennis, . . . outside the lines!
– Marcus Tennis
Tags: 2011, Alexander Petrone, Alexios Halebian, Bjorn Fratangelo, Carson, Christina Makarova, Gabby Andrews, Home Depot Center, Madison Keys, Marco Nunez, Southern California, Tennis, USTA Juniors
