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Monday, May 13, 2019

Nicole Gibbs Diagnosed with Cancer, Surgery This Week; US Juniors Compete at ITF Grade 1 in Italy, Grade 2 in Austria; Tennis Channel's Schedule for NCAAs

Two-time NCAA singles champion Nicole Gibbs, currently 117 in the WTA rankings, announced today that she had been diagnosed with a rare cancer of the saliva glands and will be having surgery on Friday. In the tweet, the 26-year-old former Stanford star said the prognosis for recovery is great and she hopes to be back for Wimbledon qualifying at the end of June. All of us who have known Gibbs since her early teens know she'll face this with determination and optimism and wish her the best in getting back to full health soon.

The ITF Grade 1 in Santa Croce Italy is the first of three major clay events on the Junior Circuit leading up to the French Open championships. With a $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour women's event in Naples Florida this week and a Grade 4 in Plantation Florida, American juniors have other options this week, but six boys and five girls are in the 48-player draws there.

Four of the six US boys are seeded and have first round byes: Dali Blanch[15], Eliot Spizzirri[3], Will Grant[14] and Tyler Zink[5]. Mark Mandlik lost his first round match today, with Andres Martin winning his opening match.  None of the five US girls were seeded, so all played today, with qualifier Rosie Garcia Gross, Hibah Shaikh and Ellie Coleman falling in the first round. Charlotte Chavatipon and Chloe Beck won their opening matches. 

The top seed in the boys draw is Bu Yunchaokete of China, with Sohyun Park of Korea the top seed in the girls draw.

A Grade 2 in Austria this week has also drawn several Americans: boys Blaise Bicknell[7], Andrew Dale[6] and Ronan Jachuck and girls Katrina Scott, Jenna De Falco, Charlotte Owensby[6] and Gabby Price. With just a 32-player draw, the first round begins Tuesday.

Tennis Channel has released its broadcast windows for the NCAA Division I tournament, beginning with coverage of the men's 5:00 pm Ohio State[1] vs North Carolina[9] match and the 7:00 pm Florida[3] vs Baylor[6] matches Thursday. The same times for women on Friday will feature No. 1 Georgia vs No. 8 Vanderbilt and No. 4 South Carolina vs No. 5 Duke.

The singles finals are scheduled for Saturday May 25th, with the women's final followed by the men's final. (This is a huge improvement, with the two events having been played simultaneously for at least the past seven years). The finals window is showing as 4-11 p.m., which is much, much longer than the two finals are likely to take. Maybe the doubles finals will also be included?

The complete Tennis Channel schedule is available at the USTA's NCAA Tournament Portal, which also contains information on tickets for those who have the opportunity to attend the event on the Lake Nona National Campus.

5 comments:

Guest said...

Colette, the NCAA Televisión schedule plans for 2 hour matches. That time schedule seems highly improbable at this high level of college. Or will the USTA not be using the same courts for all team matches. Did any round of 16 matches last less than 2 hours? What are your thoughts?

Colette Lewis said...

Yes, I don't understand that part of the schedule either, although they are allowing a 3-hr gap between 2 and 5 pm matches. All matchse are to be held at the 12-court Collegiate Center, weather permitting. I am assuming that is just an estimate.

Clark said...

I think they are planning on having overlapping times. Maybe that even gives the TV people more options on what to show.

fan said...

Could anybody tell me which team women semis they're putting on TV? They only specified match number, and I can't find it. Is it the top half or the bottom half, thank you.

fan said...

oh I got it, nevermind, of course the possible top seed match, so upper half. UGA/VU vs SC/Duke will be on TC