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Monday, June 12, 2017

O'Leary Hired to Lead Virginia Women's Program; Three USTA Pro Circuit Tournaments This Week; ITF Grade 4 International Grass Courts Underway in Philadelphia, Grade 1 in Germany Draws a Dozen American Juniors


The University of Virginia announced today that Sara O'Leary, the former North Carolina assistant who has been head coach at Davidson the past three years, has been hired to lead the women's program in Charlottesville.

O'Leary, whose maiden name was Anundsen, played at North Carolina and won the NCAA doubles title with Jenna Long in 2007.  She served as an assistant for one year at Princeton following graduation, then joined her alma mater as an assistant from 2009-2014. After the 2014 season Anundsen left to become head coach at Davidson, where she compiled a 45-21 record in the Atlantic 10 conference.  For O'Leary's complete biography, see the Virginia website.

That leaves just two Power Five conference head coaching jobs open: North Carolina State men and Minnesota women.  The LSU men's job has been filled, with the official announcement expected on Tuesday.

After little action on the USTA Pro Circuit the past three weeks, things have picked up this week with two men's Futures and a women's $25,000 tournament.

One of the Futures is also a $25,000 event, in Winston-Salem, with the qualifying completed today.  Five American collegians, four of them currently in school, advanced to the main draw through qualifying: Riley Smith and Brandon Holt(USC), Felix Corwin(Minnesota), Korey Lovett(Central Florida) and Jarryd Woog(Memphis).

Top seed in Winston-Salem is two-time junior slam champion Filip Peliwo of Canada, one of only eight international players in the draw. Peliwo has won two consecutive Futures tournaments in Israel coming into this event.

The other men's Futures is $15,000 tournament in Buffalo, on green clay, with qualifying scheduled to be completed tonight. Gonzalo Lama of Chile is the top seed.

Qualifying will not be complete until Tuesday for the women's tournament in Sumter South Carolina, but the main draw has been posted.  Olivia Rogowska of Australia is the top seed, and wild cards went to Alexa Graham and Sara Daavettila of North Carolina, Ashley Lahey of Pepperdine and Andie Daniell of Alabama.

Today at the WTA International tournament in Nottingham, qualifier Kristie Ahn defeated No. 8 seed Naomi Osaka 6-1, 6-1 to earn just her second WTA main draw win.  Julia Boserup also won her opening round match.

The International Grass Court ITF Grade 4, the only junior grass court tournament in the United States, is underway this week at the Merion Cricket Club in Philadelphia. Kirac Bekisoglu of Turkey is the top boys seed; Alana Smith is the No. 1 seed in the girls draw.

After a week without a Grade 1 tournament on the ITF Junior Circuit, this week there is a Grade 1 in Germany.  It has attracted four US boys and eight US girls, with Ryan Goetz, Skyler Grishuk and Peyton Stearns earning a place in the main draw via qualifying.  The other direct entries from the US:  Axel Nefve, Alafia Ayeni[3], Christian Alshon, Lea Ma[14], Alexa Noel, Victoria Flores[10], Hurricane Tyra Black[4], Katya Townsend and Elli Mandlik.

1 comments:

Spy said...

LSU men's job going to Andi Brandi I hear and his son coming to be the Assistant.