Junior Davis and Billie Jean King Cups Move to Turkey; Baylor Men Take Top Spot in ITA Rankings, Big Ten Continues to Lag; UCLA's Keegan Smith Seriously Injured
The International Tennis Federation announced today that the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup, the international team competitions for players 16-and-under, will be played September 28-October 3 in Antalya Turkey.
The USTA had a three-year agreement to host, from 2019-2021, but after hosting in 2019, and last year's cancellation, the USTA was not interested in having the competition this year, given the extra expense involved with Covid protocols. I know just getting visas for some players was an arduous task in 2019, so adding more complications with the various pandemic restrictions was probably not appealing, nor was the cost of having the event.
The ITF's announcement says the regional competitions that serve to qualify teams will take place in the next several months; the North and Central American qualifying is usually around now, but I assume those will be later this summer. There has been no word on the status of the ITF's 14-and-under World Junior Tennis team competition that takes place in August in the Czech Republic.
What I believe are the final published ITA Division I rankings were released today, and at least in the computer and coaches poll, a consensus is beginning to form. Baylor has taken over from Florida as No. 1 in the men's rankings, after Baylor crushed Texas in the Big 12 final and former No. 1 Florida lost to Tennessee in the SEC final.
That consensus does not extend to the USTA poll, which has Virginia, No. 5 in the ITA polls, as the top-ranked men's team. All three polls for the women have North Carolina as No. 1, followed by Texas and Georgia.
The NCAA committee has recently said it will not be following the ITA rankings as closely as usual, and in the list of the Top 20 teams below, I've made a note of the teams that have been approved as regional hosts. With the approval of 20 teams, four will be dropped and we won't know which ones until the selections announcement Monday. The Big Ten, which is playing its conference tournaments this week, has been approved for six hosts, but as of now, just one of the six teams are in the Top 16, the Ohio State women, who are 16th. Suffice it to say that the Michigan men will need a good showing at the conference tournament to enhance their chances for selection as they are ranked 44 right now.
CollegeTennisRanks has projections for the Division I men available here.
Division I Men's Team 4/28/21
Computer1. Baylor*
2. Florida*
3. Tennessee*
4. Texas*
5. Virginia*
6. North Carolina*
7. TCU*
8. Texas A&M*
9. Central Florida*
10. Georgia*
11. Wake Forest*
12. South Carolina*
13. Southern California*
14. Mississippi*
15. Kentucky*
16. Mississippi State
17. Illinois*
18. Oklahoma State
19. Arizona
20. Arizona State
Stanford*[23]
Texas Tech*[26]
Ohio State*[28]
Michigan*[44]
3 comments:
So, you’re saying Turkey has a better handle on costs & logistics of Jr Davis and BJK Cups?
Not exactly. I'm saying that Turkey is more comfortable with the cost/benefit equation than the USTA is.
Gotta wave the BS Flag on this one. Tunisa, Egypt, Turkey have been holding ITF 15ks Womens and Mens with as large as 64 Qually and 32 MD matches for weeks. They have a Testing Protocol and if you look at the ITF calendar the "rest" of the world seems to have figured this out. Ad to that these countries have NO Slams.
The USTA has no interest in Tennis below the Slam level. It is evident in the scheduling and the administration of the current events. For example when you play a ITF event in the US you have no access to practice once you are eliminated, so you travel 100s of miles maybe have a bad match and then they send you on their way.
If the USTA cannot figure this out then maybe they should hire the TD in these countries who seem to have this wired. Wonder why we got 100 courts? Some places seem to figure this out with 8, YES 8 Courts.
As for the cost/benefit? When you are the Federation the BENEFIT is what you live for! It is everything. Plus Florida is Open for business.
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