The defending national champions will be shooting for their third title in the last four years and even though they lost one of the all-time greats in Mitchell Frank they’ll still have a pretty stacked roster that’s loaded with talent and experience. Virginia has a rugged top 3 with Ryan Shane, Collin Altamirano, and Thai-Son Kwiatkowski each likely to split time in the top 3 spots while there will be 5 guys (Ritschard, Aragone, Wiersholm, Styslinger, Corinteli) that are more than capable of filling the bottom 3 spots.
Brian Boland has lined up a tough non-conference schedule that has the Hoos facing Kentucky and UCLA at home and Illinois, Tulsa, Oklahoma (@ Tulsa), and Florida on the road. Virginia hosts this year’s National Team Indoors in February which will have them facing another 3 or 4 top 15 teams and of course Virginia plays a full ACC schedule with Wake Forest coming to Cville and the Hoos going to Virginia Tech, North Carolina, and Duke. The full schedule is further down the page.
As has been the case for years Virginia’s guys didn’t disappoint in the fall. Below are each players fall records (singles/doubles) in college events with some accomplishments in both collegiate and professional action.
Ryan Shane (3-1/3-0) – won the Oracle/ITA Masters Doubles Championship with Luca Corinteli, won the Oracle/ITA Masters Singles Consolation draw, won the USA F27 Futures (Hard) Singles Championship in Costa Mesa, won the USA F25 Futures (Hard) Doubles Championship in Champaign with his brother Justin.
Collin Altamirano (didn’t play college events) – made the semifinals of the USA F16 Futures (Hard) in Charlottesville, made the semifinals of the Italy F21 Futures (Clay) in Bolzano, made the semifinals of the USA F26 Futures (Hard) in Claremont which included a win over 2014 NCAA Singles Champion Marcos Giron, made the quarterfinals of the USA F30 Futures (Hard) in Houston.
Henrik Wiersholm (5-3/3-0) – won the USA F33 Futures (Clay) Singles Championship in Pensacola by winning 9 matches in 8 days, won Doubles Flight at the UVA Ranked 1+1 with J.C. Aragone, picked up a ranked win over #28 Andreas Bjerrehus (Va Tech) at the USTA/ITA Atlantic Regional.
Alexander Ritschard (8-0) – won singles flight at UVA Ranked 1+1, won singles flight at Wake Forest Fall Invite, picked up a ranked win over #45 Piotr Lomacki (Miami) at UVA Ranked 1+1, made the Round of 16 at the USA F30 Futures (Hard) in Houston by coming through qualies and defeating teammate Collin Altamirano 6-4, 6-1 in the 1st round.
Mac Styslinger (7-3/8-4) – won the ITA All-American Doubles Championship with Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, had a ranked win over #45 Piotr Lomacki (Miami) at the UVA Ranked 1+1, and a win over #78 Samm Butler (SMU) in the opening round of qualies at the All-Americans.
J.C. Aragone (4-2/3-1) – won Doubles Flight at the UVA Ranked 1+1 with Henrik Wiersholm, defeated former Illinois #1 Dennis Nevolo in qualies at the $15K Champaign USA F25 Future (Hard).
Luca Corinteli (4-2/3-2) – won the Oracle/ITA Masters Doubles Championship with Ryan Shane and had a ranked win over #89 Jack Murray (UNC) in the opening round of qualies at the All-Americans.
Jonathan Cornish (5-5/2-4) – made the finals of a singles flight at the UVA Ranked 1+1
Harrison Richmond (5-5/1/4) – won 2 singles matches at the USTA/ITA Atlantic Regional
Players With A Current ATP Singles Ranking (12/3/15)
#815 – Collin Altamirano
#902 – Henrik Wiersholm
#904 – Ryan Shane
#1638 – Thai-Son Kwiatkowski
#1760 – Alexander Ritschard
#2130 – Mac Styslinger
Universal Tennis Ratings as of 12/3/15:
15.00 – Ryan Shane
14.78 – Thai-Son Kwiatkowski
14.36 – Collin Altamirano
14.26 – Alexander Ritschard
14.15 – Henrik Wiersholm
14.06 – J.C. Aragone
13.99 – Mac Styslinger
13.42 – Luca Corinteli
12.66 – Jonathan Cornish
12.34 – Harrison Richmond
Universal Tennis Ratings as of 6/3/15
15.06 – Ryan Shane
14.66 – Thai-Son Kwiatkowski
14.60 – Collin Altamirano
14.13 – J.C. Aragone
14.09 – Alexander Ritschard
14.00 – Mac Styslinger
13.51 – Henrik Wiersholm
13.40 – Luca Corinteli
12.46 – Jonathan Cornish
12.18 – Harrison Richmond
Pre-College Ratings/Rankings:
Peak ITF Junior Ranking:
#13 – Thai-Son Kwiatkowski
#27 – Henrik Wiersholm
#32 – Mac Styslinger
#35 – Luca Corinteli
#65 – Alexander Ritschard
#80 – Jonathan Cornish
#149 – J.C. Aragone
#195 – Harrison Richmond
#388 – Collin Altamirano
#609 – Ryan Shane
TennisRecruiting.Net Star Rating/High Class Ranking (Americans Only)
Blue Chip #1 – Collin Altamirano
Blue Chip #1 – Thai-Son Kwiatkowski
Blue Chip #1 – Henrik Wiersholm
Blue Chip #2 – Mac Styslinger
Blue Chip #3 – Luca Corinteli
Blue Chip #4 – Ryan Shane
Blue Chip #6 – Harrison Richmond
Blue Chip #10 – J.C. Aragone
TRN Yearly Recruiting Rankings:
2015 – no additions
2014 – #19 – (Altamirano, Wiersholm, Ritschard)
2013 – #1 – (Kwiatkowski, Aragone, Corinteli, Daigle)
2012 – #1 – (Shane, Styslinger, Richmond, Cornish, Polnet)
Note: Altamirano committed after TRN had already done its rankings, Daigle transferred to LSU
2016-17 Recruiting Class:
None at this time
2016 SCHEDULE
Returning singles starters: Ryan Shane (1), Collin Altamirano (3), Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (4), Alexander Ritschard (5), J.C. Aragone (6)
Departing singles starters: Mitchell Frank (2)
Potential starting 6 next year: Shane, Altamirano, Kwiatkowski, Ritschard, Aragone, Wiersholm or Styslinger
Departing doubles starters: None
Departing depth: None
New Roster Additions: None at the moment
Virginia is the favorite to win the ACC again but I think this may be the year their massive ACC winning streak (currently 139 matches) comes to an end. Virginia has had a good 10+ guys capable of starting on any given day in the past but this year’s team will have between 7 and 8 so if a few guys get injured and/or out playing in a Futures somewhere then the team could be vulnerable against a few teams. North Carolina (if healthy) is going to be better, Virginia Tech should be just as good, plus I even think that Wake Forest, despite losing Noah Rubin, will be just as good if not better with who they have coming in (Chrysochos, Uspensky, Rutledge). Duke, which has been a solid #2 in the past, lost 4 starters off last year’s team so they’ll live and die with freshmen this year. Virginia gets Wake at home but they have to travel to Blacksburg, Chapel Hill, and Durham.
Virginia has to be considered one of the favorites, if not THE favorite, to win the National Title again. They have one of most challenging schedules in school history so they will definitely be battle tested by the time the NCAAs (Tulsa) roll around in May.
For those that forgot what happened last May, here is my National Championship recap of the Virginia/Oklahoma match with the box scores and a few video clips below.
6. Florin Bragusi (OU) vs. J.C. Aragone(UVA) 7-6 (5), 4-6, 1-0, UF
Post Match Press Conference with Brian Boland
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