by Bobby Knight | Jun 20, 2016 | Blog
There were five guys with college ties playing for singles titles on Sunday and after an 0-3 start both Sekou Bangoura and Evan King salvaged the day.Sekou Bangoura (Florida ’11) picked up his fourth career Futures singles title with a straight set win over #274 Darian King in the finals of the the Winston-Salem USA F18 Futures (Hard). Bangoura broke King in a one-deuce game to go up 3-1 in the first but King broke back from 30/40 to make it 3-2. Bangoura made it three breaks in a row when he broke in a two-deuce game to go up 4-2 and a few games later he had a 6-3 first set. Bangoura broke from 15/40 to start the second set and then he broke again in a...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 19, 2016 | Blog
It was a great day for several former collegians on the pro tour with two picking up singles titles and five others moving on to a Sunday final.Alejandro Gomez (Kentucky ’14) won his first career pro singles title at the Cartagena, Columbia, F1 Futures (Hard) with a thrilling three-set win over #551 Juan Sebastian Gomez. Alejandro broke Juan in a one-deuce game to go up 2-1 in the first set and he made that break lead hold up and took the opening set 6-4. Juan broke Alejandro from 30/40 to go up 3-1 in the second and then broke him again from 30/40 to take the set 6-2. Juan broke Alejandro in a one-deuce game to go up 2-0 in the third but Alejandro broke...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 18, 2016 | Blog
Former Drake women’s coach Sadhaf Pervez was named as the new men’s head coach at Southern Utah. Pervez was the head coach of the women’s team at Drake for two and a half seasons but left abruptly in between the fall and spring semesters this past season. Southern Utah started it’s men’s program in the fall of 2012 but it’s been tough sleeding so far with the Thunderbirds a combined 0-58 with 52 of those losses being shutouts. Click here or on the tweet for the full release.Sadhaf Pervez Named as SUU Men’s Tennis Head Coach | https://t.co/W3Sz9mQx0k #TBirdNation pic.twitter.com/17N3tYjV8E SUUTennis...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 17, 2016 | Blog
The 2016 NCAA Singles and Doubles Champion and recently named ITA National Player of the Year Mackenzie McDonald announced today that he was leaving UCLA a year early and turning pro. Many people including myself figured it was a foregone conclusion that McDonald would move on after a tremendous junior year and he made it official after signing an exclusive representation agreement with Octagon.2016 @NCAATennis singles and doubles champion, Mackie McDonald will forgo his senior year and turn pro immediately. Best of luck Mack! UCLA Men’s Tennis (@uclatennis) June 16, 2016Colette Lewis had a Q&A with Mackie after today’s announcement so I highly...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 16, 2016 | Blog
On May 4th it was announced that Arizona State was bringing back its men’s tennis program and today came the announcement that Adam Steinberg was leaving Michigan to become the Sun Devils new head coach. Steinberg, who had coached Michigan for the last two years and Pepperdine the 12 prior including the 2006 NCAA Championship team, will have a full year to build the program from scratch. Here is Arizona State’s release which lists all his past accomplishments.Stanford junior Carol Zhao announced that she is foregoing her senior season to turn pro. Zhao went 76-16 in three years at Stanford and was a three-time all-conference selection. Zhao...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 15, 2016 | Blog
The ITA announced its 2016 All-Star Team which included the year-end number one in the singles and doubles rankings, the NCAA D1 Singles and Doubles Champions, and the winners from last fall’s National Indoor Intercollegiates. UCLA junior Mackenzie McDonald was named the ITA National Men’s Player of the Year while Virginia’s Danielle Collins was named the ITA National Women’s Player of the Year. I have all the winners listed below and for the full release from the ITA which includes more information about the winners you can click here.Division IMackenzie McDonald, Jr., UCLADominik Koepfer, Sr., TulaneMikael Torpegaard, So., Ohio...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 13, 2016 | Blog
I wanted to start off by giving a congratulations to Texas Tech assistant James Wilson on landing his first heading coaching job at Utah State. Wilson, who had been an assistant for the last three years at his alma mater, replaced Clancy Shields who recently took the head coaching job at Arizona. I’m still showing there are 13 D1 men’s head coaching jobs open and another 16 on the women’s side. If anyone knows of another opening or one that’s been filled let me know.6 of the 15 US Open National Playoff Sectionals have been completed with all 6 men’s singles winners and 5 of the 6 women’s singles winners having college ties....
by Bobby Knight | Jun 12, 2016 | Blog
There are several pro events that take place in July and August in Illinois and several of them have tournaments in advance to help determine wild cards. Last week Illinois rising junior Aron Hiltzik won the Ursula Beck Wildcard Shootout in Decatur, Illinois and this weekend Edwardsville High School is hosting the Edwardsville Open with the winner getting a wild card in the late July Futures eventI made the 45 minute drive north to watch today’s semifinal matches which included three current college guys and one 16 year-old that will be a force in years to come. Both semifinal matches started shortly after 11 a.m. and with temperatures in the mid 90s the...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 11, 2016 | Blog
Summer time is a great time for many guys with pro aspirations to earn some ATP points before they head out on the tour after graduation or before they start college in the fall. Let’s take a look at some guys that have performed well this week.ATP 250Hertogenbosch (Netherlands) – Dennis Novikov (UCLA ’13) qualified for the main draw at the by defeating Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M ’11) 7-6, 7-6 in the final round of qualies before falling in the first round to #68 Dudi Sela 7-5, 6-7, 7-6(5).ChallengersMoscow (Russia) $75K+H Clay – Emilio Gomez (USC ’13) is into the semis; Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Oklahoma State...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 10, 2016 | Blog
The 2017 Women’s Kick-Off Weekend draft is complete with none of the regionals filling up quickly while the Cal Regional filled up last with no one choosing to go to Berkeley until pick 44 of 47.I thought Virginia would fill up quickly with most of the team graduating but it took 24 picks to fill up the three spots in Charlottesville. Both the Vanderbilt and Duke Regionals filled up first followed by Virginia, Auburn, Georgia Tech and Michigan.Cal, Florida, Ohio State, and Georgia will roll through their regionals while North Carolina Vanderbilt, Oklahoma State, Pepperdine, and Duke will be heavy favorites. Miami, Michigan, Auburn, and Georgia Tech will...
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