by Bobby Knight | Sep 6, 2017 | Blog
For the first time since Todd Martin (Northwestern) at the 2000 US Open, we have a player with college ties in the semifinals at a grand slam. Former Illinois Fighting Illini Kevin Anderson (’05-’07) busted through the ceiling late Tuesday night with a tough four-set win over American Sam Querrey. Due to the Venus Williams/Petra Kvitova match running late, Anderson and Querrey didn’t take the court until almost 10:30 p.m. ET and by the time the match ended at 1:51 a.m. there was only around 2000 fans left in the almost 24000 seat Arthur Ashe Stadium. Anderson dictated play all night long with the 6 foot 8 inch South African crushing the...
by Bobby Knight | Sep 4, 2017 | Blog
Kevin Anderson, who spent three years at Illinois from 2005 to 2007, equaled his career-best result at a grand slam and moved into the quarterfinals at the 2017 US Open with a four-set win over Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi. Anderson broke Lorenzi once in each of the first two sets and after 1 hour and 14 minutes of play he led 6-4, 6-3. Lorenzi earned his first break of the match in the third set and despite Anderson breaking back Lorenzi would take the set in a tiebreak 7-4. In the fourth set, Lorenzi broke Anderson to go up 3-2 but Anderson broke back and held for 4-3. After a Lorenzi hold, Anderson would hold and then break to close it out 6-4, 6-3, 6-7,...
by Bobby Knight | Sep 2, 2017 | Blog
Kevin Anderson was one of Friday’s big winners at the US Open with the former Illini rolling into the fourth round with a sound straight set win over Croatia’s Borna Coric. The opening set was the closest of the three with Anderson only winning three more points than Coric but the South African cashed in his one break opportunity to close out the set 6-4.After not facing any break points in the first set, Anderson would face five in his 2-2 service game in the second set. Anderson managed to come all the way back from 0/40 down to get the hold and then three games later he’d break Coric from 30/40 to go up 5-3. Anderson held at love to take...
by Bobby Knight | Sep 1, 2017 | Blog
Three former college tennis players moved into the third round at the 2017 US Open with none more impressive than Jennifer Brady. The former UCLA Bruin hammered the No. 23 seed Barbora Strycova 6-1, 6-1 in just 56 minutes. Brady won 56 of 82 points (.683) and won 70% of the points on Strycova’s second serve. Brady has played in all four majors this year with her best performance thus far coming in Australia when she made the round of 16. Brady’s third round opponent will be WTA #57 Monica Niculescu with the match scheduled for Saturday. Take a look at ?? @jennifurbrady95’s match point as she dominates Strycova, 6-1 6-1. See you in...
by Bobby Knight | Aug 30, 2017 | Blog
The World University Games wrapped up on Monday in Taiwan with several U.S. college players bringing home medals. Jason Jung, who was born in Torrance (Calif) and played at Michigan from 2007 to 2011, won the gold medal in singles after not dropping a set during the whole competition. Jung was representing Chinese Taipei and even though he graduated from Michigan in 2011 he was eligible since is enrolled at a university in Taiwan.Mississippi State rising junior Nuno Borges won the bronze medal in men’s singles after making it to the semifinals before falling to Jung 6-3, 6-3. Borges defeated current U.S. collegians Jackie Tang (Columbia) and Yuya Ito...
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