Zootennis


Schedule a training visit to the prestigious Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, MD by clicking on the banner above

Monday, January 25, 2010

Duke Tops Men's Recruiting Rankings; Applications for USTA Training Center East, New RTC; Pro Circuit Notes

The men's recruiting class rankings were released today at the Tennis Recruiting Network, and Duke finished on top, with 15 of the 18 first place votes. UCLA finished second, with 1 first place vote, Michigan third and Georgia, with 2 first place votes, fourth. Notre Dame rounds out the top 5.

I seemed to remember that Duke had ranked quite high in past years, and it was interesting to look back at the the 2007, 2008 and 2009 winter rankings. Duke finished second in '07 and '08, behind Florida and Stanford respectively. Stanford's 2008 class has lived up to its ranking, with Klahn and Thacher playing in the top half of the lineup in their sophomore years, but Florida's blue chip recruits that year--Tyler Hochwalt and Jeff Dadamo--did not have that same success in their second years. Dadamo is now at Texas A & M, and Hochwalt is no longer playing college tennis. Stanford again topped the rankings last year, but it will be a year or two before that class can be assessed.

The USTA made two player development announcements today. The National Training Center-East, which is located at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, is accepting applications for twice-a-week training at the center, so those in the New York area may want to apply. The complete release can be found at gvtnews.com. The USTA also announced another Regional Training Center, the Eagle-Fustar Tennis program, which is the first RTC in Northern California. That release can also be found at gvtnews.com.

Austin recapped some of the major Division I men's action this weekend in a comment under Sunday's post, but he didn't specifically mention Baylor's 5-2 win over Florida. Carlos Cueto didn't play for the Gators, but after losing 7-0 to Florida last year, the Bears are probably not attaching any asterisks to their victory this year. See the Baylor athletic site for the story.

In the Pro Circuit events last week, unseeded qualifier Jamie Hampton won seven matches to reach the finals of the $25,000 Lutz tournament, where she lost to Mandy Minella of Luxembourg 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. Christina McHale reached the quarterfinals for the second week in a row. At the $10,000 men's event in Hollywood, Alex Domijan also made the quarterfinals in consecutive tournaments. No. 2 seed Eric Prodon of France won four three-set matches to reach the final, where he beat qualifier Stefano Ianni of Italy 6-4, 7-6(2).

There is no women's Pro Circuit event in the U.S. this week. The men have another $10,000 in South Florida, with Junior Ore, Denis Kudla and Domijan receiving main draw wild cards, and a $50,000 challenger in Hawaii. For complete results, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com .

It will be several more hours before the junior matches in Australia are completed, but check the Twitter feed for updates later this evening.

7 comments:

Tyler said...

Collette,

Any idea what happened to Jessica Alexander? As a Gator Alum, I'm a little disappointed with the Gats free agent approach to college tennis. I wonder if they develop players there anymore or do they just open a can of balls?

Thanks

getreal said...

To bad the college recruiting rankings don't include international players as that would get a real indicator of what to expect for the upcoming year as Stanford is the only college team that seams not to relay on international players. Also Dukes comment "Hammond is a real talent that knocked off Virginia freshman Julen Uriguen last fall at the Pan-American", is ridiculous. When Hammond beat Urigan, he was going through a 7 months stretch of losing practically every tournamnet first rd and that win meant zero. What other top wins has he had.

Tyler said...

Agreed, college tennis is like the Ryder cup - the USTA and NCAA should feel embarrassed

fla_tennis said...

It will be interesting to see whether Carlos Cueto will play this weekend for the Gators. He was not in the line-up either last Friday or Sunday. He has had a tough year with injuries.

midwest said...

getreal-
I'm not sure why you're so upset by this one insignificant comment by Duke. It's a press release by the school so obviously they are going to build up their recruits and are happy with how successful they were in the fall.

getreal said...

to midwest

Not upset at all but think its rather a stretch to single out a single win against a player who was clearly struggling at the time. Agree with you it's all about the spin but it should NOT be at another junior's expense.

John said...

What coaches include in press releases can be anything from a 'stretch' to an "untruth" to try and pump up their program. I saw one where the coach was elaborating on the strength of his women's recruiting class and listed some opponents that his recruit had beaten........one was against a player that the recruit hadn't ever played......spin, baby, spin :-) fortunately it is played out on the court.......