by Bobby Knight | Aug 26, 2017 | Blog
There were seven players with college ties in action on Friday in the final round of the qualifying draw at the US Open and by the time the dust had settled six of them had secured a spot in the main draw. JC Aragone, Evan King, and Danielle Lao will each be making their grand slam debuts next week while Cameron Norrie advanced to his second grand slam main draw, JP Smith his fourth grand slam main draw, and Nicole Gibbs her 13th grand slam main draw.For the first time since 1987 there will be four men in the main draw that played college tennis in the same year because Aragone and Norrie join Thai Kwiatkowski and Chris Eubanks who were both granted main...
by Bobby Knight | Aug 25, 2017 | Blog
JC Aragone was awarded a last minute wild card into this year’s US Open qualifying draw and now he’s just one match away from the main draw after a come from behind win over Italy’s Riccardo Bellotti. Aragone dropped the opening set 6-3 and went down a break at 3-2 in the second but he broke back in the next game to even it at 3-all. After an exchange of holds, Aragone went up 40/0 on his 4-4 service game but Bellotti took the next four points to take the advantage. Aragone worked it back to deuce but Bellotti would have the advantage three more times until Aragone finally managed to win two straight and then after getting the advantage he...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 7, 2017 | Blog
Virginia first year Carl Soderlund still hasn’t played an official collegiate match but the 19-year old from Sweden has already defeated several of college’s elite this week at the $25K USC/Los Angeles USA F1 Futures. Soderlund met Evan King (Michigan ’13) on Saturday afternoon in a match that started four hours later than scheduled due to a morning downpour. Soderlund started off the match with a hold and then after three consecutive breaks he would hold again for a 4-1 first set lead. After another set of holds, King rallied to even it at 5-5 with a hold, break, and yet another hold. King had a break point to go up 6-5 but Soderlund...
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
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...
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