Rain Disrupts Second Day of USTA Spring Team Championships; UCLA Takes Over as No. 1 in ITA Women's Rankings

©Colette Lewis 2014--
Mobile, AL--

The predicted rain came early Tuesday and stayed throughout the day, leaving the quarterfinals unfinished in the USTA Spring Team Championships.

Watching and waiting for a court at the Convention Center

With the organizers trying to get matches on court ahead of the showers, the boys began 15 minutes early, with all 60 courts at the Mobile Tennis Center in use.  The priority was singles matches, but a few doubles matches were scheduled, and one doubles match was all that was completed before the rain, a drizzle at first, became steady around 10 a.m.  With only three indoor courts available in the area, at the downtown convention center, the girls doubles were sent there, with all doubles matches played with no-ad scoring in order to ensure completion. Even with that concession to the rain, several matches did not finish until after 10 pm.

Two girls practice on the Mobile Convention Center carpet

The weather is expected to improve on Wednesday, with the completion of the boys second round scheduled to begin at 8 am, followed by the girls singles that could not be played Tuesday. The semifinals, with both singles and doubles, are then scheduled for early afternoon for the boys and late afternoon for the girls.

See the TennisLink site for more on Wednesday's schedule and for the results of the girls doubles.

The new rankings were released today by the ITA, with the Ohio State men retaining their No. 1 position despite their loss last week to Oklahoma, who moved up to No. 2.  The women have a new No. 1, with UCLA taking the top spot from Duke.

The men's Top 10:

1. Ohio State
2. Oklahoma
3. UCLA
4. Southern Cal
5. Virginia
6. Illinois
7. Texas
8. Notre Dame
9. Texas A&M
10. Duke

The women's Top 10:
1. UCLA
2. Duke
3. Florida
4. Stanford
5. Virginia
6. North Carolina
7. Texas A&M
8. Alabama
9. Northwestern
10. Southern Cal

The top spots in the singles rankings remained the same, with North Carolina's Jamie Loeb and UCLA's Clay Thompson staying No. 1.

The men's Top 5 in singles:
1. Clay Thompson, UCLA
2. Axel Alvarez Llamas, Oklahoma
3. Raymond Sarmiento, Southern Cal
4. Marcos Giron, UCLA
5. Guillermo Alcorta, Oklahoma

The women's Top 5 in singles:
1. Jamie Loeb, North Carolina
2. Kristie Ahn, Stanford
3. Julia Elbaba, Virginia
4. Robin Anderson, UCLA
5. Hayley Carter, North Carolina

Anderson and Jennifer Brady remain No. 1 in women's doubles, while Gonzales Austin and Ryan Lipman of Vanderbilt have moved into the No. 1 spot in men's doubles.

For the complete collegiate rankings, see the ITA website.