by Bobby Knight | Apr 5, 2017 | Blog
The latest USTA Top 25 is out with the Wake Forest men taking over the top spot while the Florida women remain at No. 1. Wake Forest moved up to the top spot after defeating Virginia last Friday which dropped Virginia down to No. 2. Ohio State and North Carolina remain at No. 3 and No. 4 while USC moved up one spot to No. 5. TCU made the biggest jump rising 10 spots from No. 16 to No. 6 while Florida took the biggest tumble falling four spots from No. 13 to No. 17.On the women’s side Ohio State and Stanford moved up one spot each to No. 2 and No. 3 while North Carolina fell two spots from No. 2 to No. 4 after losing to Georgia Tech last Saturday....
by Bobby Knight | Apr 4, 2017 | Blog
The ITA released its latest team, singles, and doubles rankings today with the Wake Forest men and Florida women remaining in the top spots. In the men’s team rankings, Ohio State stayed at No. 2, Baylor moved up one spot to No. 3, Virginia dropped one spot to No. 4, and USC remained at No. 5. TCU was the only team to enter the top 10 after picking up wins last week over #7 Texas A&M, #8 Oklahoma State, and #16 Oklahoma. On the women’s side, Georgia moved up one spot to No. 2, Ohio State fell one spot to No. 3, North Carolina fell two spots to No. 4, and Texas Tech moved up one spot to No. 5. Georgia Tech made a nice jump up to...
by Bobby Knight | Apr 3, 2017 | Blog
The next set of ITA rankings will be coming out on Tuesday afternoon and I have the top 40 for you on my rankings tab (premium). There won’t be a lot of movement in the men’s top 10 but there will be some with a certain team from Texas known for the “Hat” expected to be back in the top 10 for the first time since early in the season. On the women’s side I’d expect to see a nice jump for Georgia Tech after its big win at North Carolina plus a team from the Magnolia State will make a big move into a prime position after a pair of weekend wins. By Wednesday afternoon I’ll have my real-time rankings with each teams...
by Bobby Knight | Apr 3, 2017 | Blog
Both TCU and Oklahoma State picked up big wins on Sunday with OSU defeating Texas for the first time in 10 years while TCU won in Norman for the first time since April 1977. We’ll start with the Oklahoma State/Texas match which started outdoors before going indoors after the doubles point due to rain. Oklahoma State won the doubles point for the 17th time in 22 matches after picking up wins at No. 1 and No. 2 while Texas won at No. 3. Oklahoma State took four opening sets in singles and Arjun Kadhe and Lucas Gerch won in straight sets at No. 2 and No. 3 to make it 3-0. Texas’s Leo Telles won in straight sets at No. 5 and Texas earned splits at No....
by Bobby Knight | Apr 1, 2017 | Blog
After watching a top 10 men’s showdown on Friday night in Winston-Salem, I took in a top 10 women’s showdown on Saturday afternoon in Chapel Hill. Fourth-ranked North Carolina hadn’t dropped a regular season conference match in three years and was riding a 50-match home court winning streak but both of those streaks would come to an end courtesy of tenth-ranked Georgia Tech. North Carolina was playing without Alexa Graham (#4S/#2D) who was out with an illness so they had to change one doubles pairing and move everyone in the lower half of the singles lineup forward one spot. North Carolina’s Hayley Carter and Jessie Aney jumped out...
by Bobby Knight | Apr 1, 2017 | Blog
What a night of tennis it was in Winston-Salem as top-ranked Wake Forest fought through the wind and a tough as nails opponent to defeat previously undefeated No. 3 Virginia 5-2. The match was originally scheduled to start at 4 p.m. ET but due to a late shower the start was delayed two and a half hours until 6:30 p.m. Once play began both teams had to fight through windy conditions and as the sun dropped so did the temperature. Virginia got off to a quick start at No. 3 doubles with JC Aragone and Collin Altamirano holding on a no-ad point and then breaking on a no-ad point to go up 2-0. Wake’s Petros Chrysochos and Dennis Uspensky would break back...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 31, 2017 | Blog
The last day of March brings us one of the biggest matches of the year as No. 1 Wake Forest hosts No. 3 Virginia in a match that will hopefully be played outdoors if the rain clears out in time. The match was originally scheduled to be the last USTA College MatchDay event of the year but unfortunately the broadcast had to be cancelled due to the uncertainty of the weather which is calling for rain up until about 4 p.m. I’ll be in Winston-Salem this afternoon and am hoping to see outdoor tennis even if the start time has to be delayed a few hours. The Big 12 kicks of its conference schedule on Friday evening with a pair of gems as No. 6 Texas travels...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 30, 2017 | Blog
Thursday was a busy day in the SEC with eight teams in action however the highest profile match of the day didn’t quite live up to expectations. Georgia, ranked No. 14, strolled into Starkville and took out the host No. 17 Mississippi State 4-0 in just under two and a half hours. The doubles point itself took just under an hour with two of the three matches going to tiebreaks. Mississippi State’s No. 2 team of Mate Cutura and Vaughn Hunter won the only match that didn’t go to a tiebreak. Cutura and Hunter broke from 30/40 to go up 3-2 and then they came back from 15/40 down to hold for 4-2. After an exchange of holds, Cutura and Hunter broke...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 29, 2017 | Blog
Late Tuesday afternoon news started to circulate that University of Virginia men’s head coach Brian Boland was departing to take over as the new USTA Player Development Head of Men’s Tennis and on Wednesday morning it was officially confirmed. Boland will finish out the current season at Virginia and will then relocate to Orlando where he’ll serve under USTA Player Development General Manager Martin Blackman. Boland took over as head coach at Virginia in 2001 and since then his teams have won over 400 matches while winning three of the last four NCAA Championships and completely rewriting the record books at both Virginia and in the ACC. The...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 29, 2017 | Blog
The ITA released its latest team rankings today with the Wake Forest men and Florida women remaining in the top spots. In the men’s team rankings, Ohio State moved back up to No. 2 while Virginia dropped down to No. 3 while Baylor and USC stayed at No. 4 and No. 5. On the women’s side, Ohio State, Georgia, and North Carolina remained at No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 while Vanderbilt came up three spots No. 5. These team rankings were comprised of each team’s seven best wins and all losses but next week it moves to each team’s eight best wins. The following week it goes up to nine and will stay at nine up...
Latest Comments