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Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Virginia Men Retake Top Spot in ITA Division I Rankings; USTA College Game Day Returns Thursday at Vanderbilt; Ten More US Juniors Advance in ITF Grade A in Porto Alegre; Orlando, Irving Qualifying Complete

The latest team rankings were released by the ITA today, and the University of Virginia has returned to the No. 1 spot they vacated after North Carolina won the ITA Team Indoor. Florida State moved from 51 to 23 after handing the Tar Heels their first loss, and Arkansas also made a big jump, going from 32 to 13 after a win over Texas A&M.

Cal stayed No. 1 in the women's rankings, with another West Coast team,  Pepperdine, moving up 12 spots from 17 to 5. South Carolina reached the Top 10 this week for the first time since 1983.

There were no individual rankings released this week. The full ranking list can be found by clicking on the headers below.  For more detailed analysis of the rankings and the upcoming matches for the Top 5 men's and women's teams, see College Tennis Today.

MEN:

March 15                                          March 8
1
    Virginia
                          4
2
    North Carolina
                          1
3
    TCU
                          3
4
    Ohio State
                          2
5
    UCLA    
                          6
6
    Oklahoma State 
                          5
7
    Northwestern
                         11
8
    Texas Tech
                         10
9
    Texas A&M
                          7
10
    Wake Forest
                          9


WOMEN:
March 15                                      March 8
1
    Cal
                          1
2
    Ohio State
                          2
3
    North Carolina
                          4
4
    Georgia
                          3
5
    Pepperdine
                         17
6
    Michigan
                          6
7
    Vanderbilt
                          5
8
    Duke
                          8
9
    South Carolina
                         12
10    Virginia                         10 



The USTA College Game Day is back beginning on Thursday, and it's the first women's match televised on the SEC Network. Like other USTA College Game Day broadcasts in the past, it is also available on WatchESPN. The match features defending NCAA champion and No. 7 Vanderbilt against No. 14 Texas A&M at 5 p.m. Eastern in Nashville. Stephen Amritraj and Mark Bey will be the broadcast team, so expect informed commentary from two coaches with extensive knowledge of the collegiate game.  More on the game can be found at the Vanderbilt website.

Ten US juniors advanced to the second round of the ITF Porto Alegre Grade A in Brazil, in the second day of opening round play.  (Brandon Holt was playing top seed Yosuke Watanuki of Japan tonight). Banana Bowl champion Ulises Blanch, the No. 2 seed, continued his winning streak, with Oliver Crawford, Vasil Kirkov, John McNally and Nathan Ponwith also picking up wins in the boys draw.  Top seed Usue Arconada began her defense of her 2015 title with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Maria Tyrina of Russia.  Abigail Desiatnikov, qualifier Lea Ma, Ellie Douglas and Natasha Subhash also won their opening round matches today.

Qualifying ended today for the $10,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit event in Orlando. Kylie McKenzie, Sofia Sewing, Grace Min(who would not have had to qualify and would have been seeded in the main draw had she been an on-time entry) and Makenna Jones are the Americans who advanced to the main draw.  McKenzie, who turns 17 next week, will play 17-year-old Katherine Sebov of Canada, also a qualifier, in Wednesday's first round.  Katerina Stewart, who won the title in 2014, is the top seed.


At the $125,000 +Hospitality Challenger in Irving Texas, three players with collegiate experience have advanced to the main draw.  TCU sophomore Cameron Norrie, who missed the Horned Frogs match with Tulsa tonight, earned his place in the main draw, as did former University of Michigan start Jason Jung and recent Oklahoma State graduate Jakob Sude.  In first round action, Jared Donaldson picked up his first main draw win of the year, beating Tim Smyczek 7-5, 6-4. Wild card Frances Tiafoe will face Benjamin Becker of Germany in his opening round match on Wednesday.  Norrie has drawn No. 2 seed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, who was given a last-minute wild card after his three-set loss to Rafael Nadal Sunday night at the BNP Paribas Open.

Four US men were seeded and reached the second week, with Steve Johnson and Jack Sock losing to Kei Nishikori of Japan and Dominic Thiem of Austria respectively, in today's third round.  John Isner is into the round of 16 with a 6-4, 7-6(4) win over Adrian Mannarino of France. Isner won 34 of 34 points in which he made a first serve, and lost only four points on serve in the entire match.  Sam Querrey is playing Jo-Wilfried Tsonga tonight.

Qualifier Nicole Gibbs lost to No. 8 seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, leaving Serena Williams as the last American woman in the singles draw.

1 comments:

Egg on Your Face said...

Harrison Bros receive Early Easter Presents and Drop their Wild Card Eggs in California Futures and Irving Tx Challenger …no yolk