by Bobby Knight | Jan 7, 2017 | Blog
Yannick Hanfmann (USC ’15) was the big winner on Friday at the $25K USC/Los Angeles USA F1 Futures. The 6’4″ German started off the day playing a fellow 6’4″ German in former Pepperdine Wave Sebastian Fanselow. The opening set stayed on serve through the first five games until Fanselow broke Hanfmann at love to go ahead 4-2. Fanselow would hold for 5-2 and then break in a one-deuce game to claim the opening set 6-2. Hanfmann struck first in the second set when he broke for a 3-2 lead and then two games later he broke again to go up 5-2. A love hold would give Hanfmann a 6-2 set to send it to a winner take all third set.Hanfmann...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 6, 2017 | Blog
The first official women’s team rankings were released late Wednesday afternoon with Florida coming in at No. 1 after finishing last year at No. 3. The Gators return five of six singles starters from a squad that won the SEC last year before stumbling in the NCAA Round of 16 to eventual champion Stanford. Speaking of Stanford they come in at No. 4 with four singles starters returning after the depatures of Carol Zhao (turned pro after junior year) and Krista Hardebeck (graduated). North Carolina checks in at No. 2 despite losing half of their starting lineup however the Tar Heels did add highly touted freshmen Sara Daavettila, Alexa Graham, and Makenna...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 6, 2017 | Blog
There were a lot of close battles on Thursday at the $25K USC/Los Angeles USA F1 Futures with all eight second round matches played between players with collegiate ties and a few played between players from the same school. Virginia freshman Carl Soderlund held off Virginia senior Thai-Son Kwiatkowski in a match that’ll probably be repeated in practice for weeks and months to come. The match started off with back-to-back holds and was then followed by six consecutive breaks before Soderlund held for 5-4. After another pair of holds Soderlund broke from 30/40 to close out the set 7-5. The server did much better in the second set with only one break in the...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 5, 2017 | Blog
The first official team rankings of the year were released late Wednesday afternoon with Virginia coming in at No. 1 as anticipated. In the past, all team rankings have listed the top 75 but this year the D1 Operating Committee voted to just make it a top 25 and it will remain that way until the first computer rankings begin after the National Team Indoors in February. Virginia remains at the top while the defending ACC Champion Wake Forest Demon Deacons move up to No. 2. Ohio State, which added JJ Wolf to the roster on Thursday, came in at No. 3 and Texas shoots up to No. 4. If comparing these to last season’s final rankings the biggest...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 4, 2017 | Blog
It looked like Virginia was playing a dual-match today at USC as five guys played in the singles main draw with four of them on court at the same time. UVA senior JC Aragone was the first off the court after holding off ATP #515 Markos Kalovelonis. Aragone broke from 30/40 to go up 5-4 in the third and then he served it out from 40/15 to take it 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. UVA junior Collin Altamirano pulled off the biggest upset of the day when he beat the top seed ATP #282 Tommy Paul 4-6, 6-0, 6-3. Altamirano was in control of his serve all day winning 50 of 68 points (.735) while he had an amazing 22 break point opportunities converting three in the second set and...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 4, 2017 | Blog
I got caught up working on my men’s preseason top 25 so I wanted to circle back around and go over some tournament results from this past weekend. Princeton commit Ryan Seggerman won the USTA National Winter Championships in Scottsdale after only dropping one set in seven matches. Seggerman defeated Jenson Brooksby 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the semifinals and Robert Maciag 7-5, 7-5 in the finals. Liberty commit Sebastian Mermersky made it to the semifinals before falling to Maciag while Virginia commit Matthew Lord, Notre Dame commit Richard Ciamarra, and Indiana freshman Bennett Crame made it to the quarterfinals. Lord and Vanderbilt...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 3, 2017 | Blog
The start of the 2017 dual-match season is just a few weeks away so it’s time to look ahead to see what’s in store for the next five months. I listed the returning singles starters, returning depth players (didn’t list all just ones I think will have a chance to play), key departures, and additions. I’m sure they’ll be some January roster additions that haven’t been announced yet so these rankings are based off what is known to this point. The UTRs used for the freshmen are from January 1st. 2017 Men’s Preseason Top 25 (final ’16 ranking in parentheseis) 1. University of Virginia (1) – The...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 31, 2016 | Blog
With the ball set to drop later tonight I thought it was a perfect time to look back at 2016 and highlight some of the biggest moments of the year. There were five teams that qualified for the National Team Indoors for the first-time in school history and both of the eventual champions ended up being first-time winners. North Carolina won the Men’s National Team Indoor Championship in Charlottesville by defeating the host Virginia Cavaliers in a 4-2 thriller. Virginia came into the match riding a 140-match ACC winning streak and had beaten North Carolina 15 straight times but despite winning the doubles point and taking four first sets North...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 31, 2016 | Blog
The USTA National Winter Championships in Scottsdale are down to the quarterfinals after 13 of the 16 matches in the boys and girls draws finished in straight sets. Virginia commit Matthew Lord is still alive in both the singles and doubles draws as are Trey Hilderbrand and Chelsea Kung with both of the latter still uncommitted. The ones with no year listed are committed for next year. Full draws are available here.Boys Round of 16 (Friday)(17) Trey Hilderbrand (13.15/Uncom ’18) def. (17) Carson Haskins (12.86/Uncom ’18) 6-4, 6-4(6) Ryan Seggerman (13.09/Princeton) def. (9) Ivan Thamma (13.31/UC Davis) 6-4, 6-2(16) Jenson Brooksby...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 29, 2016 | Blog
The USTA National Winter Championships in Scottsdale (AZ) are loaded with the college stars of tomorrow with many still trying to figure out where they’ll sign in the coming months. Below are Thursday’s singles results and Friday’s matchups. The ones with no year listed are committed for next year. It’s interesting to note that most of the boys playing are committed to a college while next to none of the girls are committed. Both of the top seeds got bounced with Illinois commit Alexander Brown (13.75) falling to Carson Haskins (12.87) while 2018 Duke commit Hannah Zhao (11.48) lost to Mary Profit (10.24). Full draws are...
Latest Comments