Summer time means a slew of college guys/gals hit the road to play in Pro Circuit events all across the world so I’ll start doing a weekly recap each Sunday of the top performers.
Nick Chappell (TCU ’15) was playing in his first career singles final at the Kiryat Shmona, Israel, F9 Futures but he came up short falling to #638 Edan Leshem 6-3, 6-3. Leshem broke Chappell from 30/40 to go up 3-1 in the first and then held three more times to take the opening set 6-3. Leshem broke Chappell to go up 2-1 in the second on a three-deuce game but Chappell broke back from 15/40 to even it at 2-2. Leshem broke on a one-deuce game to go up 4-3 and then broke again on a three-deuce game to seal the win. Chappell’s semifinal appearance a week ago earned him a new career high ranking of 823 and this finals appearance should bump him up even higher next week.
Nik Scholtz (Ole Miss ’15) was seeking his first singles title of the year, and eighth overall, but he ran into a buzzsaw named Marc Sieber in the finals of the Antalya, Turkey F22 Futures. Sieber was appearing in his fifth Futures final of the year, having won three of four, and really took it to Nik winning 6-0, 6-1 in one hour and thirteen minutes. Despite the lopsided score 5 of 13 games went to deuce and 9 of 13 went to at least 40/30 or 30/40.
Finn Tearney (Pepperdine ’13) was trying to win his second career singles title but he came up short falling to Mitchell Krueger in the finals of the Jinan, China, F9 Futures. Krueger was a 2012 Texas A&M commit but he chose the pro route instead and this win today was his third career singles title. Tearney broke on a two-deuce game to go up 2-1 in the first but Krueger broke back from 15/40 to even it at 2-2. Tearney broke from 30/40 to go up 4-3 and then he held for 5-3. Krueger held at love for 4-5 and then broke from 30/40 to tie it at 5-5. The first set went to a tiebreak with Tearney going ahead 3-1 but Krueger won 6 of the next 7 points to take the tiebreak 7-4. Krueger broke on a one-deuce game to go ahead 2-1 in the second and he made the break lead hold up to take it 7-6(4), 6-3.
Illinois rising junior Aron Hiltzik defeated his Illini teammate Julian Childers 6-3, 6-0 in the finals of the Decatur, Illinois, Ursula Beck Wildcard Shootout. The win earned Hiltzik a main draw wild card in the August Futures event while Childers was awarded a qualifying wild card for his runner-up finish. Full results are available here.
My coaching carousel page should be current with all Division I men’s and women’s head coaching openings listed on this page. I’m currently showing 13 men’s and 16 women’s jobs open including some higher profile ones like Oklahoma (M&W), Arizona State (M), Auburn (M), Illinois (W), and Miami FL (M). There are a few places that had an interim coach this year so it’s possible the interim coach could land the full time position.
UCF would have to give up compensation details as it is a public university. However, I know that will only tell part of the story as the full details are very juicy indeed.
We'll probably never get any solid information of what went down. Roddick is never going to tell the public what he got from UCF and UCF is never going to tell the public what exact benefits they gave him. It's also extremely likely UCF reached out to him far earlier in the year and he was mentally prepared to leave at the end of the season no matter how the team did. Oklahoma was not expected to do well at the NCAAs this year and I think that surprised everyone on their team.
What in the world is going on at Oklahoma? Within a span of about 6 days or so both Men & Women HC exit. First Roddick to take the job at UCF and then Women's coach to "retun to Ireland and spend more time with his family". Both had been at OU a good while(7-8 yrs), had been very successful, and were young and in their prime. I know Roddick was making about $210,000 in official salary at OU according to their website and have no idea how much of a bump he got to go to UCF but its hard for me to believe the decision came down to money. He mentioned the proximity of the USTA site to UCF and his plan to use it for practice, training and recruiting tool for UCF so mavbe he's aiming for a big time position with the USTA. It's hard for me to believe the loss of both at OU was simply coincidental, esp. in light of the time span. Does anyone have any hard, solid info as to what went down/is going down with the Sooners?