THE QUEEN OF LEAGUES

If you’ve ever captained a USTA League team you’ve experienced the challenges, rewards and friendships gained from playing on and leading a team.

But how about captaining 17 teams in one year?

Marco Island’s Andrea Washak captained the most teams of anyone in Florida last year, and passes on a few tips for surviving and thriving in USTA League play (and advancing 22 teams to sectionals over the last six years).

ATP, WTA TOURS APPROACH YEAR-END CHPS.

The end of the (pro tennis) year is upon us, as this Sunday begins the BNP Paribas WTA Finals in Singapore, featuring Top 8 qualifiers Simona Halep, Garbine Muguruza, Karolina Pliskova, Elina Svitolina, Venus Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Ostapenko and Caroline Garcia.

The men have two more weeks of events — next week at Vienna and Basel, and the following Paris Masters — before the ATP Finals featuring the Top 8 players. Currently Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem have secured the first four spots, with Sam Querrey still in the running for some American representation at No. 11 in the 2017-only point standings.

Also ending the year will be the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals, featuring the Top 7 players (and one wild card) in the rankings age 21 and younger. American Jared Donaldson sits at No. 5 in the standings, while fellow Americans Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz and Ernesto Escobedo currently sit just outside the Top 7.

MISCELLANEOUS

The 2017 USTA Florida “Bobby Curtis” Green Ball Sectional Championships will determine the top green ball juniors in Florida this weekend…What to do when there are more girls on the boys’ high school tennis team than boys? Or when sisters make up the entire line-up of a team?…Serena Williams was the top tennis player at No. 3 on GQ’s “The 50 Greatest Living Athletes” list, followed by Roger Federer (No. 8), Martina Navratilova (25), Rafael Nadal (27) and Bjorn Borg (45)…Bradenton’s Whitney Osuigwe won the ITF B1 Pan American Closed in Tulsa, Ok., which put her on top of the ITF world junior rankings..Fabio Fognini seemingly got off pretty easy after berating a female chair umpire at the US Open…After viewing the ITF Super-Seniors in action last week at the USTA National Campus, Hollywood director Rocky Lang penned “Why Senior Tennis Matters to the Rest of Us.”…Here’s how Jimmy Connors being a jerk inspired a high school student to start an adaptive tennis program…Roger Federer’s Shanghai title (and fifth straight win over Rafael Nadal) last weekend was his career 94th, tying him at second with Ivan Lendl, and only behind Jimmy Connors’ 109.

Sock Into Quarters at Stockholm

Jack Sock

Jack Sock remains the only American flying the flag into the weekend after advancing to the quarterfinals of the Intrum Stockholm Open. On Friday the No. 3-seeded American will face No. 6 seed Fabio Fognini.

The final two Americans fell on Thursday at the European Open Antwerp when wild card Frances Tiafoe lost to top-seeded David Goffin 7-6(1), 6-2, and unseeded Ernesto Escobedo was edged 6-3, 7-6(5) by No. 5 seed Diego Schwartzman.

Next week will see the Top 8 women compete at the WTA Finals in Singapore, and the men at ATP events in Vienna, Austria and Basel, Switzerland.

They Said It

Andy Roddick

“Two-and-a-half hours and his attention span is focused, I think that’s what they should be doing.”
— Andy Roddick on juniors needing to train less but with more focused practices, speaking to Entrepreneur magazine

“Serena’s just so comfortable with being No. 1. It’s normal for her. For these other players, it’s abnormal and it’s uncomfortable. I mean Serena’s probably watching this year unfold with one eyebrow up, thinking ‘Hmmm.'”
— Chris Evert speaking to the New York Times

“I am a normal and a common person. I do not see myself as a role model of anything. I am a guy who plays tennis well.”
— Rafael Nadal

Tennis on TV This Weekend

(EST, times subject to change)

Friday
6am — ATP Stockholm (live), Tennis Channel
4:30pm — ATP Stockholm/Moscow (delay), Tennis Channel

Saturday
6am — ATP Moscow Final (live), beIN Sports
7am — ATP Stockholm (live), Tennis Channel
4:30pm — ATP Stockholm/Moscow (delay), Tennis Channel

Sunday
5am — WTA Luxembourg Final (live), beIN Sports
4:30pm — ATP Stockholm/Moscow Finals (delay), Tennis Channel