Virginia Men Regain Top Ranking, Florida Women Still No. 1; Stephens Qualifies at Sony Ericsson; Copa Gerdau Update
An early post tonight, because I'm attending the Western Michigan Tennis Association banquet, where my husband is receiving the 2010 Distinguished Services award. With all his high school, college and junior tennis work, I am fortunate that he still finds time to take photographs for this website.
I am not able to wait until the action is over at the Sony Ericsson Open, but I can report that Sloane Stephens, who turned 18 two days ago, has earned a spot in the main draw. Stephens, who defeated Australian Sophie Ferguson 7-6(5), 6-1, is joined in the main draw by Jamie Hampton, who beat Belgian Kristen Flipkens 5-7, 6-4, 6-2. US men who have advanced through qualifying to the main draw are Michael Russell, Ryan Sweeting, Robert Kendrick and Alex Bogomolov. Full results can be found at sonyericssonopen.com. Wild card Madison Keys lost 7-6 in the third to Switzerland's Patty Schnyder in first round main draw play this afternoon. Melanie Oudin also played her first round match today and advanced over Julia Goerges of Germany.
The Grade A Copa Gerdau is underway in Brazil, and although Nicholas Naumann actually did make the trip from Mobile to Porto Alegre despite having only Sunday to do so, he is already out of both singles and doubles. Qualifier Richard Del Nunzio and Trey Strobel also lost in the first round, leaving Mac Styslinger as the only US boy in the second round. Vickie Duval, the No. 14 seed, is through to the second round as are Nadia Echeverria Alam and Elizaveta Nemchinov. Denise Starr and Tristen Dewar have yet to play their opening matches. For daily articles on the tournament, see the ITF junior website. Complete draws are here.
This week's Campbell/ITA team rankings have restored Virginia to the men's top spot, which was occupied for one week by Tennessee, who immediately lost to Baylor. Virginia is the only undefeated Division 1 team in the country, and they defeated Tennessee soundly in the final of the Team Indoor, so I don't think there's much of a dispute about who should be No. 1. I also don't think there can be much doubt that the Stanford women should be atop the rankings, but they remain behind Florida, despite their win over the Gators in the final of the Team Indoor.
The complete release on this week's ranking can be found at the ITA website, as can the team rankings, which were the only rankings updated this week.
2 comments:
Colette, I don't disagree that Stanford is probably the best team in the country, but when it comes to the rankings, it comes down to more then head to head matches but also who you play and how tough a schedule you have. Maybe if Stanford beefed up their schedule, this discussion wouldn't take place. We will know who the best team is once the NCAA's start in May and even then there is no guarantee!
Congrats to Paul, who certainly deserves the award!
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