Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends across the globe, I have had a glorious day with Coach Amanda Augustus and our 2013 USA National Collegiate team here in beautiful Aix en Provence (Southern France). And especially gave thanks to having such a talented and wonderful group of collegiate tennis players representing the USA. 

 

Our American team rebounded from a rerouted flight which arrived 14 hours late in the early morning here due to flight problems.  But I was elated to finally to get our new team into Aix en Provence safe and sound. After a short night's sleep , the USA team  got up early to hit the courts for an intense and  motivated practice.  Our team is made up of an incredible crew of America's finest collegiate tennis players:

 

Mitchell Frank (University of Virginia)

Peter Kobelt (Ohio State University)

Marcos Giron  (UCLA)

Robin Anderson (UCLA) 

Sabrina Santamaria  (USC)

Lauren Harring  (University ofGeorgia) 

 

We made the most of our 2 practice sessions at the tournament site, and I was absolutely stunned by how fast our elite athletes were able to bounce back from over 30 hours of a travel nightmare to jump out on the courts to practice with enthusiasm and complete focus.  They are definitely special.

 

The French truly are gracious and wonderful hosts. All the teams participated in a mile long parade to the City Hall for the draw ceremony. There we learned that we are the #1 seed and that we and populate a very talent laden and strong half of the draw.  We play tomorrow morning against a very crafty Irish team in the quarterfinals.  If we get by them, we would play the winner of #3 seed China (whose squad includes the #135 women's professional and several other players with rankings at the professional level) vs. France (whom we have played in the finals for 3 out of the past four years). 

 

We have won this event in 2009, 2011, and 2012. So this year is a very special year in the fact that we are close to realizing a three peat. After seeing the depth of talent that the other seven nations have sent, I know that we are in for some exciting battles. The Master U consists of: USA (#1 seed), Germany (#2 seed), China (#3 seed), Russia (#4) seed and Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Ireland.  Our diverted flight  turned out to be a blessing for our team had quality time to bond and truly get to know each other and realize that they all had common a traits and experiences. This turned out to be a great team bonding experience which they took advantage of.

 

Our team match will consist of two women's singles matches followed by two men's singles matches.  Then three doubles matches will follow starting with the women's doubles,followed by men's doubles and finally with mixed doubles. The first team to win four matches will take home the victory and live to play another day in the main draw. 

 

Our tentative lineup for tomorrow is:

women's singles  #1 Robin Anderson                      

women's singles  #2 Lauren Harring

men's singles    #1 Peter Kobelt                              

men's singles    #2 Marcos Giron

women's doubles     Robin Anderson/Lauren Harring

men's doubles       Peter Kobelt/Mitchell Frank

mixed doubles       Sabrina Santamaria/Mitchell Frank

 

The link to live scoring is  www.master-u-bnpparibas.com. (remember that Aix en Provence is eight hours ahead of us on the West Coast. ) We will update you with the scores from tomorrow's match and hopefully have good news that we will be playing in the semifinals on Saturday morning. I have thrown in some photos of the team and a 3 second video of the team during the parade in Aix en Provence.

 

Have a great day of Thanksgiving! 

 

Greg Patton

Boise State Mens Tennis Coach

1910 University Dr t 

Boise, ID 83725

cell 208 484-2432

 

Mountain West Champions   2012, 2013

WAC TENNIS CHAMPIONS

2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009

gpatton@boisestate.edu

www.broncosports.com