by Bobby Knight | Jun 15, 2017 | Blog
There are three pro events this week in the United States and all three have a slew of players with college ties that are still in the draw as the weekend approaches. In Winston-Salem, seven of the eight singles quarterfinalists and all four of the doubles finalists have college ties. Georgia Tech rising senior Chris Eubanks and 2012 Georgia Tech graduate Kevin King advanced to the doubles finals where they’ll meet USC rising sophomores Brandon Holt and Riley Smith.Eubanks, King, and Holt also advanced to the singles quarterfinals with King getting a walkover win over the No. 3 seed Christian Harrison. Holt came back from 5-3 down in the third to defeat...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 15, 2017 | Blog
Another big coaching opening was filled as LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva named Andy Brandi and his son Chris as the men’s co-head coaches of the Tigers. Andy has plenty of coaching experience in the SEC after spending 17 exceptional seasons as the women’s head coach at Florida from 1984 to 2001. During those 17 seasons, Andy won three NCAA Championships while his teams won 91% of its matches and lost zero SEC home matches! After Andy left Florida he served as Director of Tennis at the IMG Academy for five years and then most recently he was a national coach on the USTA Player Development staff.Chris Brandi played collegiately at TCU and Florida...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 13, 2017 | Blog
For the second time in the last three weeks Virginia director of athletics Craig Littlepage welcomed in a new head tennis coach. The day after the NCAA team championships he named Andres Pedroso as the director of tennis and head men’s coach and today he named Sara Anundsen O’Leary as the new women’s head coach. O’Leary comes to Charlottesville after spending the last three seasons as the women’s head coach at Davidson where she led the Wildcats to a 45-21 (.682) record. Prior to coaching at Davidson, O’Leary was an assistant coach at her alma mater, North Carolina,Sara O’Leary has been named the new women’s...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 11, 2017 | Blog
Prior to this week Michael Venus (LSU ’09) had never made it past the round of 16 at a grand slam but today he and Ryan Harrison are French Open doubles champions after the duo defeated Donald Young and Santiago Gonzalez in a tough three-setter. There were no breaks of serve in the first two sets with Venus and Harrison taking the first set 7-6(5) while Young and Gonzalez claimed the second set 7-6(4). In the third and final set, Venus and Harrison broke for 4-2 but Young and Gonzalez broke back in a four-deuce game for 4-3. Venus and Harrison broke again for 5-3 and then Harrison served it out in a one-deuce game to give the guys with Louisiana...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 9, 2017 | Blog
Michael Venus (LSU ’09) and his doubles partner Ryan Harrison advanced to the French Open doubles final with a come from behind three set win over Robert Farah (USC ’10) and Juan Sebastian Cabal. Farah and Cabal won the opening set 6-4 with the lone break of serve coming in the third game of the match. Venus and Harrison opened up a 3-0 lead in the second set, after breaking for 2-0 in a three-deuce game, and would go on to take the set 6-3. The third and final set stayed on serve until Venus and Harrison broke for 5-4 in a one-deuce game and then they served it out in a two-deuce game to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. If Venus and Harrison can...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 9, 2017 | Blog
The women had their Kick-Off Weekend draft on Wednesday which meant the men were up today. There are four regional hosts (Cal/Oklahoma/Oklahoma State/Virginia) that have to replace three singles starters and sure enough those were the first four regionals to get filled. It only took seven picks for the Oklahoma regional to fill up with Georgia Tech, Illinois, and Northwestern choosing to play indoors in Norman. Oklahoma has a large incoming class of recruits scheduled to arrive in the fall but they’ll be some drop off with Andrew Harris, Alex Ghilea, and Florin Bragusi all graduating. Georgia Tech returns everyone except Carlos Benito, Illinois...
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