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August 28, 2007
USOPEN Tuesday 5:30pm
A "good experience" is what you get, when you don't get what you wanted. Ashley wanted a win today but got a good experience instead. She got to compete on a large stage. She got to test herself, not against the best in Austin, not against the best in Texas, not against the best in the USA, but the best the world has to offer. She got to compete against the #6 ranked player in the world today. And, while the score was not close 1-6, 1-6, there were signs that Ashley can sucessfully compete with players of this calibar.
Chadvetdze is #6 because she has a 105+ mph serve that she can put wide or down the middle or into your ear. She has one of the best backhands in the world that is hit as hard as most pros forehands with excellent spin and depth. Her overall depth on all shots and her overall committment to hitting a high quality ball every shot simply was too much for Ashley to handle...today. A month from now, a year from now, 18 months from now might be a different story. As each player makes the transition to new levels, whether that's from ZAT to champ or champ to super or super to national or national to international or international to professional, there is always a period of time of gaining experience at that new level as the player learns what is necessary to be sucessful. It's called paying your dues. Everyone has to do it, Ashley paid some dues today to become a professional player.
She can take what she learned today and apply it to both the women's doubles and mixed doubles. She will be playing both of those events, in addition to the Girls singles and Girls doubles. She will be competing throughout this week and next in all 5 events in this Grand Slam. I believe she is the only player for a second year in a row playing in all five events.
Ashley says thanks to the many of you who have sent best wishes and positive energy.
Posted by Jack Newman at 4:25 PM | Comments (0)
USOPEN Tuesday 12:20
Arrived at US Tennis Center to grab some lunch. Ashley is 4th up on Louis Armstrong Stadium, we have a 2:30pm practice planned. Her match can come up at any time as it is dependent upon the prior matches. If the previous matches go fast, she will be on early, if they go slow she may go on late and be moved to Ashe stadium.
Posted by Jack Newman at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2007
USOPEN Monday 6pm
The schedule for tomorrow is out. ATA’s Ashley Weinhold will be the 4th match up on Louis Armstrong Stadium court. If matches on that court go late, she would be moved to Arthur Ashe Stadium. Armstrong is the stadium court we already practiced on early this weekend. Ashe is the big stadium at the USOPEN. Either of those will be one of the biggest tennis stadiums in the world to play on. What a great opportunity for Ashley to experience the biggest stage of tennis.
Ashley plays the #6 seed Anna Chakvetadze, who is currently #6 in the WTA world rankings. Chakvetadze has five years of tour experience. The pundits are saying Ashley does not have a chance, but we all know that on any given day, any athlete can have a great day or a lousy day. If Chakvetadze has a lousy day and Ashley has a great day, the pundits will have to eat their words.
To give you an idea of start time for tomorrow…third matches up today are finishing right now at 5pm New York, 4pm Austin time. We expect Ashley to go on sometime tomorrow between 3 and 5 pm New York time. You can track it on the USTA website which has live scoring and you can catch it on television on USA network.
Posted by Jack Newman at 5:19 PM | Comments (0)
USOPEN Monday 2:30pm
We were able to watch two young American's today at the USOPEN. Donald Young won in 4 sets for his first grand slam singles victory. Unfortunately Alexa Glatch lost 1 & 1 to #10 seed Bartoli. The last two games Alexa really relaxed and played well, it was jut a little too little, a little too late.
We also caught up with Lee Hamilton, the executive director of the USTA. Lee is a former president of the Texas Section of the USTA and before that former president of the Dallas Tennis Association and an Ashley Weinhold fan. Lee has promised to be at Ashley's match tomorrow.
Tomorrow's order of play will be released between 5-6pm New York Time, check back later for Ashley's match time.
Posted by Jack Newman at 1:46 PM | Comments (0)
USOPEN Monday 10:30am
Ashley and Madison had pratice court 20 this morning. We arrived early and got onto the court by 8:20am, it was a luxery again today as the girls did not have to share a court. If you are willing to pay the price of being early, you can get a court that you do not have to share. It was a solid 1.5 hour practice, both girls raising their intensity level in preparation for their matches tomorrow.
We are getting ready to go out and support the young Americans in the draw.
Yesterday I visited the USOPEN weight room for a workout. It is about 4 times the size of the ATA gym, with lots of equipment for the players to use. While I was there both Justine Henin and Jelena Jankovic did a workout. While their time in the gym was not that long, their focus was very clear.
As Ashley goes through the last 24 hours before her match at the USOPEN, she will try to do everything right. She will try to relax as much as possible, get a good meal tonight and a good nights sleep. She will get a short practice in prior to her match and then wait for the call.
More later today....
Posted by Jack Newman at 9:38 AM | Comments (0)
USOPEN Monday 8am
We made an early trek to the National Tennis Center this morning to get an early morning practice. Both Ashley and Madison Brengle play tomorrow, but a large number of young American's play today. The girls wanted to get their practice in early so they could support their friends who are playing. You can see the order of play at this URL:
http://www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/schedule/index.html
First matches go on at 11am. We will try to watch Alexa Glatch who Ashley is playing girls doubles with and Donald Young, who Ashley played Mixed doubles with last year. We will also try to see some of the big names of tennis today
The schedule for tomorrow should come out sometime this afternoon and I will post it to this blog as soon as it comes out.
Posted by Jack Newman at 7:26 AM | Comments (0)
August 26, 2007
USOPEN Sunday 10am
This is the first entry in my blog from the USOPEN. I am here with long time Austin Tennis Academy student Ashley Weinhold, her parents Guy and Lisa (ATA Pro Shop Manager) and John Des Dunes, Ashley's USTA Coach.
After arriving Saturday afternoon, we all met at the US Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows. The first order of business is getting credentials. These are badges that you wear around your neck that get you access to various areas of the tennis center. Coach and Player guest credentials get you everywhere except the locker room. This is a great perk because it allows you to go into the players dining room where you can rub elbows with Roger Federer or Raphael Nadal, both of whom I saw in the dining area. Also the prices are subsidized in the players dining room, so you don't have to play $12 for a hot dog.
After getting credentials we went to practice. The practice was on court 19, probably the furtherest you could get from the center of the facility. (I guess this is where 1st time main draw players get assigned). Ashley and Madison Brengle (another young lady in the same USTA program with Ashley) had 1/2 the court for 45 minutes and that is it, the next group comes on and boots you. The girls practiced hard for that 45 minutes as you can imagine.
Afterward Ashley and Madison went to the USOPEN players meeting while Guy, Lisa and Coach Des Dunes and I met to discuss next year's program for Ashley.
John and I took a trip to the tournament directors office to talk to the practice court scheduler. Because Ashley is playing a top seed in the first round, we pled her case to get some practice time on one of the stadium courts where she might be assigned to play. All the courts were taken except Louis Armstrong from 8-9am. We grabbed the opportunity. We told the girls that the only time available was 6am, they reluctantly agreed to a 6am practice and were delighted when we let them know it was actually 8am. After that we departed the tennis center, Ashley was invited to a party hosted by Wilson, which she attended and was there with some of Wilson's top pros like Roger Federer.
We met at the girl's hotel this morning at 7am. One of the perks of being a main draw player is that you have an official car at your disposal. So we had a car pick us up at the hotel and drop us at the US Tennis Center. We arrived at 7:30am. We were the first players and coaches at the tennis center this morning, something all our players can relate to. We then went to Louis Armstrong Stadium. It is the smaller stadium and holds about 9,000 people when completely full. We used the whole 1.5 hours of practice and the girls did their normal routine and then played about 15 games..about a set and 1/2. This was a great practice due to a number of factors: 1) the girls did not have to share the court. To get the stadium to ourselves for an hour and half is a true practice luxery at the USOPEN, usually only afforded to top seeds.
The rest of the day the girls have off. We will plan a practice for tomorrow and will go out and support the other young American players what are competing in the draw. The schedule for tomorrow should come out later today, check the USOPEN website.
Ashley's first round match will take place some time on Tuesday.
Posted by Jack Newman at 9:02 AM | Comments (0)
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