NEW YORK -- Brock Yates, a longtime auto racing journalist who helped launch the popular and offbeat Cannonball Run races in the early 1970s and wrote the hit movie of the same name, has died.Yates died Wednesday in the western New York city of Batavia, according to his son, Brock Yates Jr. Yates was 82 and had been suffering from Alzheimers.For decades, Yates was an editor and columnist at Car and Driver, and he started the Cannonball Run to protest what he considered unduly strict traffic laws. He later became a screenplay writer, working on Smokey and the Bandit II and then The Cannonball Run, which came out in 1981 and starred Burt Reynolds. Yates also wrote more than a dozen books and was a racing commentator for CBS television. John Lynch Buccaneers Jersey . Coach Tom Thibodeau says the former MVP will probably start travelling with the team in the next few weeks. 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Its certainly premature to say the reign of the Williams sisters is near, but its also only natural to spend a bit of this day wondering about the future of American tennis.Without a doubt, the crystal ball has a rosy tint.First, theres the known quality in young Americans like Madison Keys (ranked ninth), Sloane Stephens (28), Shelby Rogers (62), CiCi Bellis (120) and Taylor Townsend (144). But theres another, perhaps more significant, sign of growth: quantity. Ten American girls advanced to the round of 16 in the junior draw at the US Open. Thats the most at the Open since 1984, when the draw expanded to 64 players.And, 16-year-old American Kayla Day won the title to snap a streak of 15 junior majors without an American champion. Day was the first American to win the girls title at the Open since Samantha Crawford in 2012.I think there will be a lot of good pros just not, you know, Serena and Venus, said Day, who fell to Keys in the main draw before running the table in the juniors, capped by a 6-3, 6-2 win over Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia. I think thats really good, getting American tennis [back] to what it was 10 or 15 years ago when we were dominating the European countries.USTA head of womens tennis Ola Malmqvist agrees that theres reason for optimism.I think for a few years, I dont think a lot of our players were working hard enough, said Malmqvist, who added that it has been the mission of USTA player development to change the culture within its program. [The culture] needs to be more about hard work with a purpose. I think thats part of it.Under the leadership of Martin Blackman, who took over the position of player development general manager for Patrick McEnroe in 2014, Malmqvist says that the USTA has developed a strong structure and expanded its partnership with the private coaching sector to reach players all over the country.Malmqvists goal for the USTA is to launch 20 players into the WTA top 100, increasing the odds of producing Grand Slam champions. There has been little depth among Americans ovver the past decade when it comes to contending for Grand Slam titles.dddddddddddd Its been 11 years since Lindsay Davenport became the last American excluding the Williams sisters to reach a Grand Slam final. In 2005, Davenport went head-to-head with Serena Williams in the Australian Open final and Venus Williams in the Wimbledon final. Unfortunately for Davenport, she was the runner-up on both occasions.Currently, the United States has the most players of any country in the top 100 with 14, and the most players in the top 10 with three -- the Williams sisters and Keys.Were not on the top of the hill yet, but we are getting pretty close to the top of the hill to really start taking off, Malmqvist said. We are going to keep pushing for it and look for better ways for us to do a better job.The good feeling extends down to that next wave of players.I am glad that the hard work is paying off and Im glad that we are seeing changes, said Ashley Lahey, a 16-year-old freshman at Pepperdine who fell to fellow American Sofia Kenin, 17, in the round of 16. Because tennis has been really dominated by European and Asian players for the last however many years.Carson Branstine, who was ousted by Day in the quarterfinals after beating Olesya Pervushina, the third-ranked junior in the world, is on board as well.There are definitely a lot of girls with talent in the juniors and young pros, the 16-year-old Branstine said. I think for sure we are going to have at least a few of them come through.But when it comes to replacing one of the greatest athletes of all time in Serena Williams, Malmqvist reminded that it is no easy void to fill, regardless of the programs in place and the work ethic instilled.Youre talking about the greatest ever, said Malmqvist, who was a USTA coach for 10 years before being named the head of womens tennis. I believe we do have a few players who do have the ability to win Grand Slams, and that is definitely a goal of ours. We have a lot of juniors coming up as well, you can tell from this years junior Open.I think we are on the right track. ' ' '