by Bobby Knight | Jul 13, 2017 | Blog
Radford Director of Athletics Robert Lineburg announced the hiring of Ricardo Vargas as the new men’s head coach. Vargas comes to Radford after spending the last seven seasons as the men’s and women’s head coach at Auburn University at Montgomery which recently moved up from NAIA to D2. Both of his teams won a lot with the women winning four national titles while the men were runner-ups once. Vargas replaces Mike Anderson who recently retired after 21 years. Below are some quotes from Radford’s release:”We are very excited to have Rolando Vargas as our new men’s tennis head coach. Rolando has had tremendous success at Auburn...
by Bobby Knight | Jul 10, 2017 | Blog
Chuck Merzbacher retired from coaching at the end of April but after two months off he decided to jump back in and last Friday he was named the new men’s head coach at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Merzbacher coached the women’s team at his alma mater, Minnesota, for the last five years and prior to that he served as the women’s head coach at Ohio State for 15 years. Merzbacher replaces Carlos Garcia who stepped down after going 154-208 (.425) over the last 16 season. Below are some quotes from UTC’s release:”We are very excited to welcome Coach Merzbacher to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga,”...
by Bobby Knight | Jul 9, 2017 | Blog
Tristan Meraut had never won a pro title of any kind before this week but the Oklahoma State rising senior managed to win eight matches over the last week to win the singles title at the Germany F6 Futures in Saarlouis. Meraut only dropped nine games in his three qualifying matches then during the main draw he won all five matches in straight sets with no opponent winning more than seven games. In Sunday’s final, Meraut won 75% of the points on his serve and broke his opponent Alexis Gautier three times in a 6-3, 6-4 win. Meraut came into the week with only three career main draw wins and he had never advanced past the second round but the draw...
by Bobby Knight | Jul 8, 2017 | Blog
All summer long we’ve seen players with college ties make their mark on the doubles side and this week has been no exception. Seven former college players and two current players won doubles title this week at the Futures-level while another nine with college ties finished as runner-up. Texas A&M rising sophomore Hady Habib won his first professional title when he and Ankit Chopra won the doubles title at the Sri Lanka F3 Futures in Colombo. Habib and Chopra came back from a set down to defeat Chandril and Lakshit Sood 2-6, 7-5, 10-8. Habib joins Arthur Rinderknech, Austin Krajicek, Jackson Withrow, and Junior Ore as Aggies that have won pro doubles...
by Bobby Knight | Jul 7, 2017 | Blog
Thursday was a mixed bag for players with college ties at Wimbledon. John Isner fired 45 aces and hit 100 winners but he couldn’t close out Israel’s Dudi Sela and fell in five sets. Isner had seven break points in the fifth set but he wasn’t able to convert any and ended up falling 6-3. Former collegians had more success on the doubles side with 14 guys advancing to the doubles second round. The doubles team of Johan Brunstrom (SMU ’03) and Andreas Siljestrom (Middle Tenn St ’07) won the second longest match of the day by winning 12-10 in the fifth set in a match that lasted 3 hours and 54 minutes. French Open doubles champions...
by Bobby Knight | Jul 6, 2017 | Blog
Steve Johnson and Kevin Anderson moved into the third round at Wimbledon on Wednesday while the opening round of doubles got underway. Johnson hit 41 winners (28 unforced errors) and broke Radu Albot four times in a 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win. Johnson’s career-best result at Wimbledon was a fourth round appearance a year ago but to get back he’ll need to knock out ATP #6 Marin Cilic on Friday.Anderson only needed 1 hour and 40 minutes to get past Andreas Seppi 6-3, 7-6, 6-3. Anderson had a tremendous day serving with the South African hitting 16 aces while also winning 85% of the points on his serve. Anderson didn’t face a break point all day...
by Bobby Knight | Jul 4, 2017 | Blog
The opening round of singles at Wimbledon went about as good as expected with players with college ties going 4-2. John Isner, Steve Johnson, and Jennifer Brady won in straight sets while Kevin Anderson came back from a set down to knock out the No. 31 seed Fernando Verdasco in four sets. Cameron Norrie made his Grand Slam debut but the No. 12 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga knocked him out in just 1 hour and 23 minutes. Irina Falconi was the only former collegian to come through qualies but she lost in straight sets to the top seed Angelique Kerber though it was a respectable 6-4, 6-4 scoreline. The doubles draw gets started on Wednesday plus Anderson, Johnson,...
by Bobby Knight | Jul 2, 2017 | Blog
It was just one week ago at the Portugal F8 Futures in Lisbon that Joao Monteiro (Va Tech ’16) won the singles title with a close three set win over Nuno Borges (Miss St Rising Jr) so when they met again today in the finals of the $15K Portugal F9 in Setubal most were expecting another close battle. However if you showed up an hour after it started all you got to see was the trophy ceremony because Borges exacted some revenge with a quick 6-3, 6-0 win in a match that only took 57 minutes. Borges won 73% of the points on his first serve and held all eight times while breaking Monteiro four times. The singles title was the first of Borges’s career...
by Bobby Knight | Jul 2, 2017 | Blog
Saturday was another great day for doubles with former college players winning six pro titles. Robert Lindstedt (Pepperdine ’98) won a pro doubles title for the 20th year in a row as he and his doubles partner Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi won the ATP 250 Antalya (Turkey) Open with a 7-5, 4-1 retirement win over Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic. Lindstedt has won 47 career titles with the last 21 of those coming at the ATP level. His biggest tournament win came in 2014 when he and Lukasz Kubot won the Australian Open plus Lindstedt has also been a runner-up at Wimbledon three times. Lindstedt is currently ranked No. 44 in the latest ATP doubles rankings however he...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 30, 2017 | Blog
The Wimbledon main draws were released on Friday with 34 players with college ties set to compete at the All England Lawn Tennis Club. There were 23 former college players in the singles qualifying draws but Irina Falconi was the only one to come through with the former Yellow Jacket qualifying with a straight set win over Mariana Duque-Marino. Falconi’s reward for qualifying will be a match against the top seed and last year’s runner-up Angelique Kerber.There will be four former college players in the men’s singles draw and two in the women’s singles draw. The men’s doubles draw has 25 former college players while the...
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