by Bobby Knight | Mar 11, 2019 | Blog
Sunday was a day of near upsets with a pair of top 5 men’s teams narrowly avoiding a big loss on the road. Second-ranked Wake Forest, who was playing without Borna Gojo (playing Canada Challenger) got all it wanted and more from #49 UCF.The Knights took the early lead with 6-2 wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles and then the teams split opening sets in singles. Wake senior and ITA #1 Petros Chrysochos evened the match at 1-1 with a straight set win at No. 1 and freshman Siddhant Banthia put the Deacs ahead with a straight set win at No. 6. UCF freshman Trey Hilderbrand tied it back up with a straight set win at No. 5 but Wake freshman Melios...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 10, 2019 | Blog
Saturday was a busy day across the Pac-12 with 8 of the 9 men’s schools in action while there were 4 in action on the women’s side. On the men’s side #7/#6 Stanford and Cal finished off weekend sweeps of #21 Arizona and Arizona State. Stanford won a top 25 showdown over Arizona in convincing fashion with the Cardinal winning every completed set in singles. Cal came back from 2-0 down with four straight set wins in singles to defeat Arizona State 4-2. #12/#21 Oregon overcame a slow start at home to defeat Washington 5-1. The Ducks dropped the doubles point but won a lot of close first sets and used that as a springboard to collect four...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 9, 2019 | Blog
The two biggest upsets of the day on Friday took place between Alabama and Kentucky. The Kentucky men clawed past ITA #17/USTA #24 Alabama 5-2 in Lexington. The Wildcats took the doubles point with a 6-2 win at No. 2 and a 6-3 win at No. 3 and then won the first four singles matches to finish with the wins at No. 1, No. 2, and No. 4 coming in straight sets. “We had a big team meeting last week about the standards and the culture that we had to set heading into the SEC season,” said Kentucky volunteer assistant coach Mark Goldberg. “I think this was a big one, protecting our home, setting our standards high. We came out, took care of our...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 8, 2019 | Blog
Thursday night brought us a pair of close matches in the SEC with Texas A&M and Tennessee pulling out hard fought 4-3 wins. In College Station, Texas A&M fell behind after dropping the doubles point but the Aggies rallied with four opening sets in singles. Juan Carlos Aguilar tied the match at 1-1 with a 6-0, 6-1 rout at No. 1 but Georgia’s Jan Zielinski put the Bulldogs back in front with a 7-6, 6-3 win at No. 2. Texas A&M’s Valentin Vacherot evened the match at 2-2 after a 7-6, 6-3 win at No. 3 but Georgia was still leading on two of the remaining courts with the third about to split sets. Texas A&M freshman Noah Schachter...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 6, 2019 | Blog
Wednesday afternoon brought us a top 3 showdown on the women’s side with North Carolina hosting rival Duke. The Tar Heels, ranked No. 1 by the ITA and No. 2 by the USTA, jumped out to the early 1-0 lead on #3/#4 Duke after rolling to 6-2 win at both No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. UNC added four opening sets in singles however the first match to finish came at No. 6 with Duke’s Ellyse Hamlin winning convincingly 6-0, 6-1. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils that’d be the only point they’d muster because UNC’s Sara Daavettila would make it 2-1 with a 6-4, 6-0 win at No. 3 and Cameron Morra would up the lead to 3-1 with a 6-2, 7-5 win...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 4, 2019 | Blog
Sunday was an exciting day with several close matches coming down to the wire and many of them took place in the Southeast. Texas A&M (NR/#24) isn’t accustomed to being unranked in the ITA rankings at this point in the season but after Sunday’s win at #20/#25 Alabama the Aggies will be back in the ITA Top 50 by Tuesday. The Aggies jumped out to the early 1-0 lead with doubles wins at No. 1 and No. 2 and then the teams split opening sets in singles. Texas A&M’s Valentin Vacherot extended the lead to 2-0 with a straight set win at No. 3 but Alabama answered with straight set wins from Mazen Osama and Jeremy Gschwendtner at No....
by Bobby Knight | Mar 3, 2019 | Blog
There wasn’t a huge schedule on Saturday and it was made even smaller courtesy of the rain. The highly anticipated top 10 women’s showdown between Texas and Stanford was washed out as were matches between Arizona/UCSB (M), Cal Poly/Santa Clara (M), UCSB/Cal (W), the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships, and just about every other match scheduled in the state of California. There was a unique match on Saturday in Houston between No. 45 Denver and Minnesota. Both teams were led by a Thompson with Christian the head coach of Denver and her twin sister Catrina the head coach of Minnesota. Christian’s Pioneers won the match 6-1 after taking...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 2, 2019 | Blog
Friday was an action-packed day of tennis across the country with a pair of top 7 women’s teams going down while Baylor, Alabama, and a pair of Georgia schools were the big winners on the men’s side.We’ll start in the Battle for LA as No. 32 USC upset crosstown rival No. 5 UCLA 4-1. The non-conference match, which was televised on the Pac-12 Network, saw the Women of Troy jump out to the early 1-0 lead after claiming the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3. USC kept things rolling along in singles and claimed four opening sets. UCLA evened the match at 1-1 with a straight set win by Jada Hart at No. 1 but USC remained in control...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 28, 2019 | Blog
Over the last few days both the ITA and USTA released their weekly rankings. There wasn’t much movement in the USTA/Tennis Channel Top 25 however in the Oracle ITA Top 50 there were several changes. Last week’s ITA rankings used each team’s four best wins but this week’s rankings used each team’s five best wins so that extra data point accounted for some of the movement. The North Carolina women took over the top spot from undefeated Georgia who just defeated them just two weeks ago in the finals of the National Team Indoors. UNC got a ranking bump by having wins over last week’s #3 Duke, #5 UCLA, #7 Vanderbilt, #13 Oklahoma...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 25, 2019 | Blog
A Tennis Channel national audience, along with 1200 fans in the stands at the USTA National Campus, witnessed UCF knocking off ITA No. 48/USTA No. 18 Florida for the first time in school history with a thrilling 4-3 win. The Knights dropped the doubles point and then in singles each team claimed three opening sets. UCF won the first two matches to finish with Natalia Serrano and Rebeka Stolmar winning in straight sets at No. 3 and No. 5 but Florida’s Victor Emma evened it up with a straight set win at No. 4. UCF’s Ksenia Kuznetsova put the Knights in front 3-2 with a 6-2, 7-6 win at No. 2 but Florida’s No. 1 Ida Jarlskog countered with a...
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