Gullikson Retires from USTA Player Development; Florida Women Stay No. 1 Despite Second Loss to Vanderbilt, Wake Forest Remains Atop Men's Rankings, TCU's Norrie Moves to No. 1 in Singles; Pro Circuit Update

The USTA announced today that Tom Gullikson, currently serving as Player Development's Lead National Coach of men's pro tennis, is retiring from full-time coaching effective June 2. Gullikson, 65, is a former ATP Top 40 player who first joined the USTA in 1988, serving in the USTA's initial Player Development department until 1997. He was Davis Cup captain in 1995, when the USA won the Davis Cup and also coached the US Olympic team in 1996. Gullikson then served as Director of Coaching at the USTA, leaving the organization in 2001.  He returned in 2009, and has served in a variety of roles in Player Development in the past eight years.  Knowing him as I do, I would not expect him to retire from tennis, and I don't think the USTA expects that either, with their pointed use of the "full-time" adjective.  The full USTA release is here.

Three years ago, I had an opportunity to interview Gullikson for the Tennis Recruiting Network at the USTA Spring Team Championships in Mobile.  We talked about team competition, college tennis as a pathway, what's changed over the years in the sport and what's stayed the same, the prospects for American men's tennis and other topics. I learned a lot, and that was just during a 30 minute conversation, so I assume the players that he's coached and mentored have collected his wisdom to a much greater degree.  He's part of the institutional memory of American tennis and all of us will miss regular access to that connection.

The new ITA Division I rankings are out, with the Florida women staying at No. 1 despite losing for the second time in eight days to Vanderbilt.  I think this is the point where the human poll that the USTA conducts will start to show its value; Vanderbilt is still suffering from a poor showing at the National Team Indoor, which Florida won.  In the long run, the NCAA championships settle the dispute, and next week's rankings are the last published by the ITA until after the tournament. (But we have College Tennis Today and Texas College Tennis helping us out with rankings in the week leading up to the NCAAs and they have discovered some errors affecting this weeks rankings).  In the singles rankings, Francesca Di Lorenzo continues at No. 1, and there were almost no changes in the Top 10, other than LSU freshman Jade Lewis's big jump from 22 to 10.

Women's Team Top 10: (previous ranking in parentheses)
1. Florida (1)
2. Vanderbilt (2)
3. Georgia (4)
4. Ohio State (5)
5. North Carolina (3)
6. Stanford (8)
7. Texas Tech (7)
8. Georgia Tech (6)
9. Oklahoma State (9)
10. Michigan (10)

Women's singles Top 10:

1. Francesca Di Lorenzo, Ohio State (1)

2. Hayley Carter, North Carolina (2)

3. Ena Shibahara, UCLA (3)

4. Astra Sharma, Vanderbilt (4)

5. Blair Shankle, Baylor University (5)

6. Belinda Woolcock, Florida (7)

7. Viktoriya Lushkova, Oklahoma State (6)

8. Jasmine Lee, Mississippi State (10)

9. Gabriela Talaba, Texas Tech (9)

10. Jade Lewis, LSU (22)

Women's doubles Top 5:

1. Hayley Carter and Jessie Aney, North Carolina (1)

2. Astra Sharma and Emily Smith, Vanderbilt (3)

3. Jasmine Lee and Lisa Marie Rioux, Mississippi State (5)

4. Ellen Perez and Caroline Brinson, Georgia (4)

5. Erin Routliffe and Maddie Pothoff, Alabama (8)

The men's No. 1 continues to be Wake Forest and they have a large lead over Ohio State at No. 2.  TCU is all the way up to No. 4 after not being ranked in the Top 50 back in February.  Another plus for the Horned Frogs comes in singles, where Cameron Norrie has dislodged Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State from his No. 1 spot in the rankings.

Men's team Top 10:
1. Wake Forest (1)
2. Ohio State University (2)
3. Virginia (3)
4. TCU (9)
5. UCLA (8)
6. Baylor University (4)
7. Southern California (6)
8. Oklahoma State (5)
9. Texas (7)
10. Cal (11)

Men's singles Top 10:

1. Cameron Norrie, TCU (2)

2. Mikael Torpegaard, Ohio State (1)

3. Nuno Borges, Mississippi State (4)

4. Petros Chrysochos, Wake Forest University (3)

5. Aleks Vukic, Illinois (5)

6. Arthur Rinderknech, Texas A&M (6)

7. Christopher Eubanks, Georgia Tech (7)

8. Alfredo Perez, Florida (9)

9. Hugo Di Feo, Ohio State (8)

10. Michael Redlicki, Arkansas (10)

Men's doubles Top 5:

1. Christian Seraphim and Skander Mansouri, Wake Forest (1)

2. Jan Zielinski and Robert Loeb, Georgia (3)

3. Jose Salazar and Michael Redlicki, Arkansas (8)

4. Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat, California (2)

5. Johannes Ingildsen and Alfredo Perez, Florida (6)

The qualifying is complete at the two USTA Pro Circuit events this week.  At the men's $15,000 Futures in Vero Beach, Sam Riffice, Alexandre Rotsaert and Oliver Crawford are among those earning their way into the main draw with wins today. Wild cards were given to Junior Ore, Vasil Kirkov, Patrick Kypson and 16-year-old Ivan Yatsuk. Calvin Hemery of France is the top seed.

At the $60,000 Women's Pro Circuit event, Robin Anderson and Canada's Carol Zhao advanced to the main draw, with Julia Elbaba getting in as a lucky loser.  She will play former Virginia teammate Danielle Collins in the first round.  Wild cards were given to Claire Liu, Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia (whose sister Hana played at UVA) and Maria Sanchez.  Madison Brengle is the top seed.

At the ATP Challenger in Tallahassee, top seed and Sarasota Challenger winner Frances Tiafoe withdrew and No. 2 seed Darian King of Barbados lost today.  Sarasota finalist Tennys Sandgren fell in his first round match, but wild card Bradley Klahn, Dennis Novikov, Mitchell Krueger and Christian Harrison are Americans who have advanced to the second round.