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Monday, February 9, 2009

Georgia to Host NCAAs in 2010 and 2012; In-depth Feature on Octagon's Tom Ross; Kristie Miller Returns to Michigan


The University of Georgia announced today that it will host the Men's and Women's NCAA Division I Tennis Championships next year and in 2012. The NCAAs were last held in Athens in 2007, when the men captured their fifth national championship. Georgia was considered a front-runner for the 2010 championships, due to their extensive experience they have in holding the event and the short turnaround time between the bid acceptance and the tournament--less than 16 months. It also demonstrates a commitment to the combined men's and women's events, which I personally believe has added immeasurably to the college tennis experience. For more on the announcment, see georgiadogs.com. Stanford, the 2006 host, was awarded the 2011 championships.

It's not often that an executive of a sports management company gets profiled by a local paper, but the Marin County (California) Independent Journal recently published this feature on Tom Ross, a senior vice president at Octagon. There are reminisces about Todd Martin, an early client, and there are statements on Donald Young, a much more recent addition to the Octagon tennis roster. With the SAP Open in San Jose this week, there were high hopes that Young would qualify for the main draw, but the third seed lost to Michael Ryderstedt in the second round of qualifying.

The only Pro Circuit event taking place this week is in Midland, Michigan, and it's a big one, the $75,000 Dow Corning Tennis Classic. The Port Huron Times Herald noted that nearby Marysville's Kristi Miller, the former Georgia Tech star, had received a wild card into qualifying, and wrote this story on her return home. In the final round of qualifying on Tuesday morning, Gabriela Paz of Venezuela and Madison Brengle of the U.S. will square off for a main draw berth.

And to wrap up the Fed Cup over the weekend, a blogger from Phoenix was in Surprise for the U.S. and Argentina tie and had this to say about Melanie Oudin's performance. For a great overview of everything that happened around the world in Fed Cup play, see Todd Spiker's always excellent WTA Backspin.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

have it at UGA EVERY year.

Anonymous said...

Austin, as a former player at UF, I can't agree more with your statement. To add to your comment, the only two schools who have any business hosting NCAA's are UGA and Stanford. Anywhere else is second rate.