by Bobby Knight | Dec 24, 2016 | Blog
Virginia senior Thai-Son Kwiatkowski got an early Christmas present on Saturday when he won his first career pro singles title at the $10K Mayaguez, Puerto Rico F1 Futures with a straight set win over 22 year-old American Alexios Halebian. Kwiatkowski broke Halebian four times in a 33-minute first set which Thai-Son took 6-1. After the second set began with nine consecutive holds, Kwiatkowski broke Halebian at love to close out the match 6-1, 6-4 in 1 hour and 23 minutes. Kwiatkowski won 30 of 40 (.75) points on serve and 33 of 62 (.53) points on Halebian’s serve. Kwiatkowski entered the week with an ATP ranking of 675 and when these 18...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 24, 2016 | Blog
Friday was a great day for Guillermo Nunez (TCU Jr) and Sadio Doumbia (Georgia ’12) as they each won pro doubles titles on opposite ends of the globe. Doumbia won his third career doubles title after he and Fabien Reboul defeated Soon Woo Kwon and Jea Moon Lee in the doubles final of the $10K Thailand F5 Futures in Hua Hin. Doumbia and Reboul earned the only break of the first set when they broke from 30/40 to go ahead 3-1 and they’d eventually take the set 6-3. The second set followed a similar pattern with Doumbia and Reboul breaking from 30/40 to go up 2-1 and they’d make that break advantage hold up to win it 6-3,...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 23, 2016 | Blog
Virginia senior Thai-Son Kwiatkowski moved into the doubles final and singles semifinals after picking up straight set wins in both of his Thursday’s matches at the $10K Mayaguez, Puerto Rico F1 Futures. Kwiatkowski started off the day with a sound 6-1, 6-3 win over Kalamazoo Boys 18 runner-up Vasil Kirkov. Kwiatkowski won 32 of 37 (.865) points on serve and 29 of 56 (.518) on Kirkov’s serve while breaking the 17 year-old four times. Following a brief break Kwiatkowski and Quinton Vega, who spent a few years at Wisconsin, defeated the Lock Brothers. Ben and Courtney, 6-4, 6-2. Kwiatkowski will now face recent UNC Tar Heel Brayden Schnur in the...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 21, 2016 | Blog
This is supposed to be the tennis off-season but there are several players with college ties that are playing in one of the few Futures taking place this week down in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. 10 of the 16 players in the singles second round and 10 of the 16 doubles quarterfinalists have college ties including 2004 Rutgers graduate and New York NBC Sports Anchor Harry Cicma. Cicma lost in the opening round of qualies in the singles draw but he and Evan King cruised in their opening round doubles match.Puerto Rico F1 – Second Round [1] Evan King (Michigan ’13) vs. Quinton Vega (Wisconsin ’12*)[3] Ben Lock (Florida State ’16) vs. Roy...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 19, 2016 | Blog
While most of us are spending the holiday season closer to home guys like Evan King are still out on the road trying to earn some extra points to better position themselves up for next year. The 2013 Michigan graduate has spent the last three weeks in the Dominican Republic and after a singles and doubles runner-up showing two weeks ago he was able to get the sweep this week. King won his fourth doubles title of the year, 17th career, when he and Alexios Halebian defeated Nebojsa Peric and Ilija Vucic 6-4, 6-4 at the Dominican Republic F3 Futures in Santo Domingo Este. King’s doubles ranking should climb just inside the top 300 when these 18 points are...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 18, 2016 | Blog
This past week I went down to Naples to attend the ITA Coaches Convention which was definitely a nice change of scenery for me since the colder winter temperatures have finally hit the St. Louis area. The ITA always has a knowledgeable group of speakers lined up with each having a different speciality so as a visitor it was nice to hear what everyone else had to say. Unlike the past few years there were no talk of scoring changes, since no-ad is here to stay, but there was discussion about the NCAA Championship format along with the some changes on player conduct. It seems to be all but a forgone conclusion that effective in 2019 the NCAA Championships...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 12, 2016 | Blog
Brayden Schnur finished off the last US pro event of the year with a three-set win over Virginia senior JC Aragone in the finals of the $25K USA F40 Futures in Tallahassee, Florida. Aragone, who was playing in his first career pro final, broke Schnur at love to go ahead 5-3 in the first set but Schnur broke back from 30/40 and went on to win the final four games of the set. In the second set Aragone fought off a pair of break points on his 2-2 service game and then he broke Schnur at love to make it 4-2. Aragone would hold two more times to take the second set 6-3. Schnur started off the third set by holding in a one-deuce game and then he broke in a...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 10, 2016 | Blog
It’ll be an All-ACC singles final on the campus of an ACC school after both Brayden Schnur and JC Aragone won their semifinal matches at the $25K USA F40 Futures in Tallahassee. Aragone (14.25), who had never made it past the first round of a pro event prior to this week, won a break-filled match over recent Tulane graduate Dominik Koepfer (14.43). Aragone started off the match by fighting off four break points to to hold in an eight-deuce game. There would then be five consecutive breaks until Koepfer stopped the streak with a hold for 3-3. Aragone then held, broke from 30/40, and held at love to take the opening set 6-3. Aragone opened up a...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 10, 2016 | Blog
The $25K USA F40 Futures in Tallahassee is guaranteed to have a singles and doubles champ with college ties after some nice wins by recent Tulane grad Dominik Koepfer and Virginia senior JC Aragone. Koepfer came back from a set and break down and fought off a pair of match points to defeat the third seed Kaichi Uchida 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2. Uchida led 6-4, 5-3 and served for it at 5-4 but Koepfer managed to break in a four-deuce game that included both of those match points for Uchida. Aragone won his second match in a row via a retirement, and advanced to his first-ever semifinal, after the second seed Tim Van Rijthoven threw in the towel down 7-5, 1-0.On the...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 8, 2016 | Blog
The USTA College MatchDay Series has already lined up six matches at the soon to be completed 100-court USTA National Campus in Orlando. The first match will take place on January 21st when Adam Steinberg’s Michigan Wolverines square off against George Husack’s Alabama Crimson Tide and then in February there will be a pair of women’s matches including a national championship rematch on February 17th between Stanford and Oklahoma State. In addition to these matches in Orlando there will also be several others in the MatchDay series including Virginia/Wake Forest in Winston-Salem on March 31st. Six of the eight singles quarterfinalists at...
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