by Bobby Knight | Feb 10, 2017 | Blog
After a month of dual-match play we have our first major team event of the year as 16 teams descend upon the Connecticut towns of West Haven and Rocky Hill. Yale is this year’s host and therefore the Bulldogs gets an automatic bid into the tournament while the other 15 teams qualified during the ITA’s Kick-Off Weekend two weeks ago. The eight teams with the highest ITA ranking secured a seed in the draw while the other eight teams were slotted at random so that’s why we don’t have a typical 1 versus 16 matchup because normally that would be Florida and Yale. FloTennis will have a live stream for all the matches at the...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 9, 2017 | Blog
For the first time in over a month the ITA released a new set of singles and doubles rankings. Nine of the top ten in the men’s singles rankings stayed the same with Florida sophomore Alfredo Perez the only one able to move into the top 10 at No. 9 while Duke junior Nicolas Alvarez fell out landing at No. 12. The top six in the women’s singles rankings stayed the same though there was some minor shuffling within the six with UNC’s Sara Daavettila and UCLA’s Ena Shibahara moving up one spot each while Vanderbilt’s Astra Sharma fell two spots from No. 2 to No. 4. I have a full breakdown of the singles rankings down below...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 8, 2017 | Blog
Wednesday was a busy day for rankings with the USTA releasing its inaugural top 25 while the ITA released its first singles and doubles rankings in over a month in addition to releasing its men’s top 25 (no women’s team rankings this week due to the NTIs). I’ll start off with the ITA top 25 which kept the same teams at one through four (UVA/Wake/Ohio State/Cal) with North Carolina moving up two spots to No. 5. Florida was the biggest mover of the week rising five spots from No. 11 to No. 6 after defeating USC and UCLA over the weekend. Georgia and Texas A&M took the biggest tumbles with each falling five spots. No teams dropped out...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 8, 2017 | Blog
Late Tuesday night the ITA released the draws for the upcoming Women’s National Team Indoor Championships which will take place this Friday through Monday in New Haven, Connecticut. Florida as expected is the top seed with North Carolina seeded No. 2 and Oklahoma State No. 3. Cal, which is the defending NTI champions, is seeded No. 7. Yale University will be the tournament hosts with the on-campus Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center the primary venue while the Tennis and Fitness Center of Rocky Hill (30 miles away) will host half of the first round matches and the consolation matches on Saturday and Sunday. FloTennis will live stream all the matches from...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 7, 2017 | Blog
The Tennis Recruiting Network (TRN) released it’s Winter Rankings of the Top 25 Women’s Recruiting Classes for the Class of 2017 and coming in at No. 1 was Jeff Wallace’s Georgia Bulldogs. Wallace signed a pair of blue chippers for next fall in Oklahoma’s Morgan Coppoc (11.16) and California’s Annette Goulak (10.67) along with Katarina Jokic (12.23) from Bosnia/Herzegovina. Coppoc is the top rated recruit in the Gulf States and has been ranked as high as sixth in the country while Goulak is the fourth rated recruit in California and has been ranked as high as 19th in the country. Jokic achieved a career high ITF junior ranking of...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 6, 2017 | Blog
The fourth Pac-12/SEC Challenge is in the books and the big winner from the weekend was the Florida Gators. Florida had only won one match at this event over the last three years but this year they doubled that number with a win over USC yesterday and today they took out UCLA 4-2. Florida started off the match in a 1-0 hole after UCLA won the doubles point with 6-4 wins at No. 1 and No. 3. The key point at No. 3 doubles came when UCLA’s Max Cressy was serving at 4-4 (40/40). Florida’s Elliott Orkin and McClain Kessler were in control of the point and had an overhead at the net to get the break but Cressy used his quick reflexes to block back the...
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