by Bobby Knight | Mar 8, 2017 | Blog
The latest edition of the Big Slam was another classic with #41 Stanford upsetting #6 Cal 4-3 on Tuesday night at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium. Cal welcomed Filip Bergevi back into its singles and doubles lineup after he missed the last few weeks with an injury and his return paid off in doubles as he and Florian Lakat, who earlier in the day were elevated to the ITA’s No. 1 doubles team, defeated Tom Fawcett and William Genensen at No. 1. Bergevi served for the match up 5-2 but he was broke on the no-ad point after Fawcett hit a second serve return winner. Fawcett held at love for 5-4 but Lakat would serve it out from 40/30 to give Cal the 6-4...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 7, 2017 | Blog
Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, Georgia, began playing tennis at the NAIA-level in the fall of 2012 and since then they’ve been an unstoppable force. The Grizzles came into this season as the 3-time defending NAIA National Champions after going a perfect 26-0 last season. This morning GGC hosted Hawai’i Pacific in a battle of No. 1s with GGC the top ranked team in the NAIA while HPU is the top ranked team in Division II. GGC brought a 44-match winning streak into the contest with its last loss coming back on April 3, 2015 to this same HPU Shark squad. GGC jumped out to a 3-0 lead after sweeping all three doubles courts with the match at...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 6, 2017 | Blog
For the third year in a row a doubles team from Oklahoma State won the Pacific Coast Doubles Championship as seniors Lucas Gerch and Arjun Kadhe defeated Stanford’s Jack Barber and William Genesen 6-3, 6-4 in the final. Kadhe won the title last year with Julian Cash while Gerch won it in 2015 with Nicolai Ferrigno. Gerch and Kadhe’s toughest match came in the quarterfinals when they defeated USC”s Laurens Verboven and Nick Crystal 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(2) and their second closest match came in the semifinals when they defeated UCLA’s Martin Redlicki and Evan Zhu 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Up until the quarterfinals they played 8-game pro sets and then...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 6, 2017 | Blog
The last time Oklahoma came into Columbus they broke Ohio State’s 200-match home court winning streak but on Sunday afternoon the only thing they’d break would be a few strings. Oklahoma looked poised to take the early lead after picking up a 6-2 win at No. 1 doubles but they’d let break leads slip away on the other two courts. Oklahoma’s Jochen Bertsch and Mason Bridegan jumped out to 3-1 lead at No. 3 but Ohio State’s Hunter Tubert and Matt Mendez would take the next five games to win it 6-3. Oklahoma’s Adrian Oetzbach and Alex Ghilea broke for a 3-2 lead at No. 2 and they’d extend the lead to 5-3 but Ohio...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 5, 2017 | Blog
Wake Forest and Texas had played a lot of close matches over the past three years (four 4-3 matches) but on Saturday afternoon in Austin there wouldn’t be any suspense as the third ranked Demon Deacons would run over the eighth ranked Longhorns 4-0. The ITA top ranked doubles team of Skander Mansouri and Christian Seraphim jumped out to an early 3-0 lead at No. 1 and they’d make the break lead hold up and take it 6-3. Texas’s Harrison Scott and Julian Zlobinsky jumped out an early 2-0 lead at No. 2 against Borna Gojo and Alan Gadjiev but the Wake duo would break back on the no-ad point to make it 2-1. After a Wake hold for 2-2, Texas held on...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 4, 2017 | Blog
Texas A&M started off its season by losing three of its first four but after tonight’s come from behind 4-3 win at Florida they’ve now won five in a row with the last three coming on the road. Florida jumped out to the early 1-0 lead after winning at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles and then the Gators also added four opening sets in singles. Florida’s Chase Perez-Blanco extended the lead to 2-0 with a straight set win at No. 3 but Texas A&M countered with straight set wins from freshmen Valentin Vacherot and Hady Habib at No. 5 and No. 6 to tie it at 2-all. Florida’s Elliott Orkin put the Gators ahead 3-2 by coming back from 3-1 down in...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 3, 2017 | Blog
There are plenty of ranked versus ranked matches this week though only a handful of top 10 tilts. I mentioned three of the bigger men’s and women’s matches in my What To Watch article on the ITA’s site and down below I’ve got a list of all the matches to keep an eye on this weekend. There are two tournaments on the men’s side with Texas A&M Corpus Christi hosting the HEB Tournament of Champions while Pacific and New Mexico will co-host the Pacific Mountain Invitational. South Alabama is the only top 50 team at the HEB while Cal Poly is the only top 50 team at the PMI. Top ranked Ohio State hosts a pair of top 30...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 3, 2017 | Blog
Teams in the top 20 were busy and Auburn, the No. 8 team in the country, was the big winner of the week with its title at the Blue Gray Classic. The Tigers had the upset of the week downing No. 5 Texas Tech 4-2 in the championship match. No. 18 Cal also had a big win over No. 9 UCLA while No. 2 Ohio State had a huge weekend shutting out Miami (FL) and No. 10 Baylor. Matches involving the Top 20 are below.February 24thNo. 5 Texas Tech def. Utah 4-0No. 8 Auburn def. Tulane 4-0No. 18 Cal def. No. 9 UCLA 6-1No. 10 Baylor def. Miami (FL) 4-2No. 14 Kansas def. No. 33 UNLV 4-1 February 25thNo. 2 Ohio State def. Miami 4-0No. 3 North Carolina def. No. 21 South...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 3, 2017 | Blog
Usually Thursdays are fairly quiet before the start of a busy weekend but today was wide open with several schools playing dual-matches down in San Diego prior to the start of the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships. Fifth-ranked Oklahoma State improved to 11-3 with a 4-1 win over No. 9 Michigan. The Cowboys won the doubles point going away with its top two teams each winning 6-1 and then it took five opening sets in singles. Julian Cash, Artur Dubinski, and Tristan Meraut each won in straight sets with Meraut clinching at No. 5. Michigan picked up its lone point from Carter Lin at No. 6#5 Oklahoma State 4, #9 Michigan 1March 2, 2017 | La Jolla Beach &...
by Bobby Knight | Mar 2, 2017 | Blog
The USTA released its top 25 on Wednesday with no change in either the men’s or women’s top 4. The women’s top four of Florida, North Carolina, Ohio State, and Stanford were all unanimous selections while the men’s top four of Virginia, Ohio State, Wake Forest, and North Carolina was near-unanimous with Wake missing out by just one vote. Northwestern and South Carolina were the only men’s schools to move more than two spots with Northwestern falling five spots to No. 18 while South Carolina fell three spots to No. 25. Auburn made the biggest jump on the women’s side coming up four spots to No. 8 after winning the...
Latest Comments