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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Virginia Men, North Carolina Women Tops in Latest ITA Campbell Ratings; Claremont ITF, Pro Circuit Updates

There were no changes this week at the very top of the collegiate rankings, with the Virginia men and North Carolina women holding on to the No. 1 spots. But the No. 2 teams changed in both the men's and women's rankings. The Baylor women have yo-yoed from 1 to 7 to the No. 2 spot this week. Behind them in the top five are Florida, Northwestern and Duke. Miami moved into the Top 10 and Arizona State jumped from 23 to 16.

The Ohio State men have overtaken Tennessee directly behind Virginia, with the Volunteers falling to third. USC is fourth, with Texas fifth. Stanford made the biggest jump of the top teams, going from 15th to seventh after wins over Illinois and Michigan last week, but after losing tonight to Baylor at the HP Cup in Palo Alto, they may not be there for long.

The individual rankings, which are updated every other week, again have USC's Steve Johnson and Georgia Tech's Irina Falconi as the top-ranked singles players, with Stanford's Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher remaining atop the men's doubles rankings. Tennessee's Caitlin Whoriskey and Natalie Pluskota have also retained the top spot in the women's doubles, although Pluskota has not played in some time, and Whoriskey has recently been paired with Zsofia Zubor.

For the complete rankings, both team and individual, see the ITA website.

The final round of qualifying was played today in the women's $25,000 Pro Circuit tournament in Pelham, Ala., with 17-year-old Valeria Solovieva of Russia and 18-year-old Julia Boserup, both unseeded in qualifying, advancing to the main draw. Boserup breezed past US Open girls champion Heather Watson 6-2, 6-0 in today's match, while Solovieva delivered a love set in each of her three wins, including today's victory over Alexandra Mueller. Juniors Chanelle Van Nguyen, Grace Min and Nicole Gibbs received main draw wild cards, as did former Georgia Tech player Christy Striplin, who is from the area.

The men are also in Alabama, although farther south, in Mobile, at the same location as the recent USTA Spring Championships. The main draw wild cards in the $15,000 Futures event went to Devin Britton, and junior players Dennis Novikov, who lost today, Denis Kudla and Vikram Hundal. None of the juniors in the qualifying advanced to the main draw, with Robert Verzaal and Mitchell Frank falling in the final round of qualifying.

For complete results, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

There's a new ITF tournament this week in Southern California, a Grade 4 event in Claremont. There were only a few byes in the qualifying, which isn't surprising given the number of junior tennis players in the area, and a couple of the local wild cards have already posted upsets. Yesterday TJ Pura defeated No. 2 seed Morgan Mays, and today 13-year-old Gabrielle Andrews upset No. 8 seed Kyle McPhillips. Even though he lost today, it is good seeing Dennis Mkrtchian's name in a draw again. The 2009 16s champion in Carson has played very little since then, with what I think was a foot injury. Complete draws can be found here.

1 comments:

Brent said...

A couple random questions - anyone have a status update on Will Spencer or Christian Harrison?