Black Tennis Pros

Robin Anderson receiving trophy

Matawan, New Jersey teen Robin Anderson maximized her 2011 U.S. Open National Playoffs opportunity with a win over 2010 UCLA graduate Robin Schnack 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 to earn a spot into the U.S. Open Qualifying Tournament.

The Playoffs have been held at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

The women were up first in the second match of the day on stadium court. Perhaps overwhelmed by the chance to compete in the US Open qualifying draw, Anderson opened up the match with three double faults to give Schnack an early break and struggled with her timing early on.

“I was very aware of my surroundings and the crowd,” said Anderson. “It took a little while to settle in.”

The first set was a back-and-forth encounter featuring numerous service breaks, but it was Schnack’s gutsy trips to the net that got her to prevail in the opening set. She followed up a forehand drive with a volley winner to reach set point at 6-5, and a backhand error from Anderson gave the California native a one-set lead.

Anderson had a break point in Schnack’s first service game of the second set, but missed it with a routine overhead. However, a forehand error from Schnack in her next service game gave Anderson a 3-1 lead.

Schnack gained the break back in Anderson’s next service game, but a forehand winner from the Matawan native gave her a 4-2 lead, and she rode the momentum through to the rest of the match, reeling off eight consecutive games in total.

“I just tried to stay more consistent and make her play one extra ball,” said Anderson. “She started missing a bit towards the end, which was definitely good for me.”

The final set was one-way traffic for Anderson. Schnack struggled to find the timing on her serve, hitting a pair of double faults to go down 2-0, and a double fault to also lose her next service game. Down 0-5, Schnack managed to hold serve and get on the board, but an ace down the middle from Anderson on her first match point gave her the match and the wildcard into the US Open qualifying tournament.

“I like my chances at qualifying,” said Anderson. “I think I’ve been hitting the ball pretty well this week.”

Despite the loss, Schnack was gracious in defeat afterwards.

“I want to thank the crowd for coming out here today and congratulate Robin for playing such a well-fought match,” said Schnack. “She definitely deserves it. I’m just glad that a Bruin will still be competing in the US Open.”

Anderson will be heading off to join the Bruins at UCLA in a few weeks where the top recruit has been signed to play tennis.

She's going in swinging!!

Read the rest of this post...........

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The finals of the US Open National Playoffs will pit the defending champion Blake Strode against crafty veteran Nathan Healey, while an all-UCLA final between rising freshman Robin Anderson and recent graduate Yasmin Schnack was locked in on Saturday afternoon.

In the first men’s semifinal of the day, defending champion and No. 1 seed Blake Strode had little trouble in dispatching No. 4 seed Damon Gooch 6-1 6-1. Despite facing break points in three of his final four service games, Strode did not lose serve once all match as he easily advanced into the championship match.

“It was a lot closer than the score says,” said Strode. “He played well and there were a lot of long rallies out there, especially towards the end.”

Strode has dropped only six games in his three matches at the US Open National Playoffs, but he said that he has made sure to not get ahead of himself.

“I don’t ever think I’m the favorite when I go out there,” said Strode. “I just look at the person who’s in front of me as an obstacle and do my best to try and come through.”


In the second semifinal of the day, Anderson stormed out to a 5-0 lead in the opening set against No. 3 seed Macall Harkins and had the lead for the duration of the match, not losing her serve once throughout the contest.

“I thought I served really well out there,” said Anderson. “I started to revert back in the second set and play a little bit too defensively, but was able to hang on in the end.”

Earlier in the day, Anderson competed in her second round qualifying match at the New Haven Open, where she lost 6-0, 7-5 to Anastasia Rodionova of Australia. However, Anderson she was quickly able to put the loss out of her mind.

“I knew I had another match to get prepared for,” said Anderson. “I just put the loss right out of my mind and came out ready to play.”

Read the rest of this post...........

Already low on marquee names because of the Olympics, the Countrywide Classic lost another one Tuesday as eighth-seeded Tommy Haas was beat by 19-year-old Donald Young, 6-2, 6-4, in the first round at UCLA.

It was the earliest Haas has lost at UCLA since 2002. He won the tournament in 2004 and 2006, something Haas said may not have helped him.

"There's always usually a feeling of coming back to a tournament you've won once or even more times like in this case," he said. "You always feel pretty good about your game, so in one way it is surprising for myself but on the other hand maybe you don't want it as bad as winning another title."

Young was the youngest player to finish in the top 100 at the end of 2007 and he rose to as high as 73rd on the ATP tour this year. However, he is coming off consecutive first-round exits at Cincinnati, Toronto and Indianapolis.

"The summer by my standards hasn't been going that well," Young said. "I felt I had a lot more expectations for myself and I wasn't doing that well. To get a win here [and] . . . to beat someone of his caliber is great."

After breezing through the first set, Young broke Haas to open up the second set. Haas responded by breaking Young at love to get back on serve and the two then held serve to 4-4.

"Later in the match, obviously I got really nervous," Young said. "A lot of double faults started to roll in. . . . I have been up on a player like that before, but I hadn't closed it before. It was just different territory for me."

At 4-4, Haas fell behind, 15-40, but rallied to deuce before Young hit a winner at the net to take the game and eventually the match.

Other matches Tuesday included fifth-seeded Marat Safin of Russia beating John Isner, 6-3, 6-4, and victories by Americans Vince Spadea over Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, and Amer Delic over Dudi Sela of Israel, 6-4, 6-4.

Read the rest of this post...........