by Bobby Knight | Aug 9, 2015 | Blog
5 former college players played for singles titles this week with Mikelis Libietis the only 1 to claim the prize.Libietis (Tennessee ’15) only dropped 1 set all week in his native Latvia in route to winning his 2nd career Futures singles title with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Fred Simonsson. Libietis’s other singles title came back in 2013 at the Estonia F2.John Isner (Georgia ’07) was looking for his 11th ATP singles title and 1st above the 250 level but he came up just short falling to #5 Kei Nishikori 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 at the ATP 500 in Washington DC.Kevin King (Georgia Tech ’12) was seeking his 3rd singles title but he lost to #220 Luke Saville...
by Bobby Knight | Aug 9, 2015 | Blog
The Boys 18 National Championship and main draw wild card into the US Open will come down to #1 Frances Tiafoe and #3 Stefan Kozlov after each won their semifinal matches in straight sets.Props goes out to TennisRecruiting.Net’s forecasting model for correctly predicting the finals before the tournament started. TRN shows Tiafoe as a slight favorite in the finals with a 53% chance of winning but that’s a pretty slim margin. Boys 18 Semifinal Results:#1 Frances Tiafoe def. #4 Tommy Paul 6-3, 6-2#3 Stefan Kozlov def. #2 Taylor Fritz 7-6(3), 6-3Don’t forget to read Colette Lewis’s recap of today’s matches on...
by Bobby Knight | Aug 8, 2015 | Blog
The Boys 18 draw in Kalamazoo is down to the final 4 and wouldn’t you know it but the 4 remaining guys are seeded 1, 2, 3, and 4. Neither of Friday’s matches were very close in terms of score with both Stefan Kozlov and Taylor Fritz winning in straight sets while both of Thursday’s matches were much closer with Tommy Paul needing 3 sets to beat Alex Rybakov and Frances Tiafoe getting past Reilly Opelka in 2 tight sets.According to TennisRecruiting.Net’s prediction formula the only unexpected result was Fritz’s win over Mmoh though they basically had it as a pick em’ with Mmoh a 51% favorite. TRN shows both Tiafoe...
by Bobby Knight | Aug 5, 2015 | Blog
It was a pretty straightforward Round of 16 in Kalamazoo on Wednesday as the higher seed in the Boys 18 draw won each of the 8 matches with 6 of those going in straight sets.#5 Michael Mmoh (2016 Pro) was the only high seed that had to come back from a set down as he dispatched #20 John McNally (2017 uncommitted) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.#12 Eduardo Nava (2015 uncommitted) had the shortest match of the day as his opponent #22 Brandon Holt (2016 USC commit) retired with a hamstring injury after just 3 games were completed.According to TennisRecruiting.Net’s prediction formula the only surprise winner was #7 Alex Rybakov who was just given a 26% chance of...
by Bobby Knight | Aug 5, 2015 | Blog
The picture is become clearer and clearer in Kalamazoo after another day of results are in the books. There weren’t any big upsets on Tuesday though the scores that probably stuck out the most were in the Genender/Kirkov and Paul/Ross matches. Michael Genender (2015 Stanford commit) rolled over #28 Vasil Kirkov (2018 uncommitted) 6-2, 6-1. Both are TRN Blue Chips with UTRs within .05 of each other so you’d have thought this would have been a tight match but the scoreline tells a different story.#4 Tommy Paul (2015 Professional) got pushed by #19 Gianni Ross (2017 uncommitted) before pulling away in the 3rd set for a 6-7(6), 7-6(2), 6-0 win....
by Bobby Knight | Aug 4, 2015 | Blog
After a day off the USTA Boys 18 Nationals resumed play with 3rd round action and while 21 seeds advanced there were 3 that got upset.The seeded losers were:#18 Spencer Furman lost to Alexander Lebedev 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. Levedev (2015 Notre Dame commit) is a TRN 5-star with a 12.81 UTR while Furman (2016 uncommitted) is a TRN Blue Chip with a 13.92 UTR.#17 Nick Stachowiak lost to Ben VanDixhorn 6-4, 6-1. VanDixhorn (2015 Northwestern commit) is a TRN 4-star with a 12.89 UTR while Stachowiak (2016 Duke commit) is a TRN Blue Chip with a 13.90 UTR.#31 Jacob Brumm lost to Vincent Rettke 6-2, 6-1. Rettke (2016 uncommitted) is a TRN 4-star with a 12.22 UTR while...
by Bobby Knight | Aug 3, 2015 | Blog
3 more titles last week and 2 runner-ups for our favorite guys with college ties.John Isner (Georgia ’07) won his 3rd straight BB&T Atlanta Open with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Marcos Baghdatis in the finals. Isner has now won 14 singles titles as a professional with 10 of those being on the ATP Tour (2015, 2014, 2013 Atlanta, 2012 & 2011 Winston Salem, 2012 & 2011 Newport, 2014 & 2010 Auckland, 2013 Houston), 3 Challengers (2009 Tallahassee, 2008 Lubbock, 2007 Lexington), and 1 Future (2007 USA F14).Evan King (Michigan ’13) won his 2nd career Futures singles title after defeating Clay Thompson 6-4, 6-3 in the finals of the...
by Bobby Knight | Aug 3, 2015 | Blog
The Southern Illinois swing of the USTA Pro Futures Circuit came to an end today in Edwardsville at the F23 Future hosted by the EGHM Foundation with Evan King and Clay Thompson giving the 150+ fans in attendance an entertaining match to watch.Chicago’s Evan King, who is a 2013 Michigan graduate, had the slight edge in crowd support because of him being an Illinois native as well as being a frequent participant in the Edwardsville Future. This was King’s 4th visit to Edwardsville in the last 5 years with Evan making the semis in 2013, quarters in 2012, and finals in 2011 so he was hoping to add a Championship to that list of accomplishments. Venice...
by Bobby Knight | Aug 2, 2015 | Blog
Day 2 of the USTA Boys 18 National Championship in Kalamazoo is in the books with 24 of the top 32 seeds moving on to Day 3. 4 of the top 16 seeds were upset with 2 of those being top 10 seeds. Below are the 8 seeds to lose though a few wouldn’t be considered upsets based off TRN and UTR info.The seeded losers were as follows:#27 Andrew Heller lost to Vincent Lin 6-2, 6-2. Lin (2015 Duke commit) is a TRN Blue Chip with a 13.50 UTR while Heller (2016 Yale commit) is a TRN 5-star with a 12.59 UTR.#21 Connor Hance lost to to Grayson Broadus 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. Broadus (2015 Notre Dame commit) is a TRN 5-star with a 13.11 UTR while Hance (2017...
by Bobby Knight | Aug 1, 2015 | Blog
All the seeds had 1st round byes but there were some upsets on the opening day. Below were the 4 Universal Tennis upsets, which occur when the difference in rating is more than 1.0, and the 4 biggest upsets per TennisRecruiting.Net based off their ranking system.UTR Upsets:Sean Burnette (11.95) def. Oliver Sec (13.47) 6-3, 3-6, 6-1Jacob Wareti (11.36) def. Nikolai Parodi (12.55) 7-6(2), 6-3Ryland McDermott (11.65) def. Payam Ahmadi (12.82) 2-6, 6-1, 6-3Alex Ross (12.29) def. Blaine Boyden (13.77) 6-1, 7-5TR.Net Biggest Upsets – chance of winning in ( ):Lorenzo Rollhauser (11%) def. Adrian Chamdani 2-6, 6-1, 6-0Sean Burnette (9%) def. Oliver Sec...
Latest Comments