North Carolina State and Florida State Top 2021 Men's Recruiting Class Rankings; Ten More Americans Advance to French Open Second Round; Little Rock Challenger Underway

The spring version of the men's Tennis Recruiting Network recruiting class rankings were revealed today, with North Carolina State and Florida State sharing the top spot, the first time in 16 years of these rankings that a tie has occurred at No. 1. Florida State got more first place votes--10, than North Carolina State, which received six--but they both totaled 470. In third place was UCLA, followed by Columbia, Alabama, Illinois, Tennessee, Cornell, Michigan and Georgia. I am one of the 20 panelists who voted, which I've done twice a year, for men and for women, for 16 years now.

The full Top 25 list, plus more details on the players from North Carolina State and Florida State who make up these stellar classes is here.

Ten Americans joined the four who advanced on Sunday in the second round of the French Open with wins today. Nine more US players are on the schedule for Tuesday, when the first round concludes.

Tommy Paul went into extra innings to win his match with wild card Christopher O'Connell, after he looked to be well in control after the first two sets.

Nineteen-year-old qualifier Hailey Baptiste won her first match a slam, defeating Anna Blinkova of Russia 6-1, 6-4. Sebastian Korda defeated Pedro Martinez of Spain in his run to the fourth round at last fall's French Open, but this year, Martinez got the win beating last week's ATP Parma 250 champion 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.

Monday's French Open first round results featuring Americans:

Serena Williams[7] v Irina-Camelia Begu(ROU) 7-6(6), 6-2
Sofia Kenin[4] d. Jelena Ostapenko(LAT) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
Hailey Baptiste[Q] d. Anna Blinkova(RUS) 6-1, 6-4
Rebecca Peterson(SWE) d. Shelby Rogers 6-7(3), 7-6(8), 6-2
Madison Brengle d. Maria Osorio Serrano[Q](COL) 7-5, 6-4
Jessica Pegula[28] d. Lin Zhu(CHN) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
Pedro Martinez(ESP) d. Sebastian Korda 6-4, 6-2, 6-2
Tommy Paul d. Christopher O’Connell[WC](AUS) 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 4-6, 10-8
Cameron Norrie(GBR) d. Bjorn Fratangelo[Q] 7-5, 7-5(5), 6-2
Steve Johnson d. Frances Tiafoe 6-7(5), 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1
Taylor Fritz[30] d. Joao Sousa(POR) 6-4, 6-2, 6-4
Reilly Opelka[32] d. Andrej Martin(SVK) 6-3, 6-2, 6-4
John Isner[31] d. Sam Querrey 7-6(2), 6-3, 6-4

Tuesday's first round French Open matches featuring Americans:

Tennys Sandgren v Novak Djokovic[1](SRB)

Jenson Brooksby[Q] v Aslan Karatsev[24](RUS)

Bernard Pera v Ashleigh Barty[1](AUS)

Coco Gauff[24] v Aleksandra Krunic[Q](SRB)

Jennifer Brady[13] v Anastasia Sevastova(LAT)

Sloane Stephens v Carla Suarez Navarro(ESP)

Venus Williams v Ekaterina Alexandrova[32](RUS)

Ann Li v Margarita Gasparyan(RUS)

Varvara Lepchenko[Q] v Shuai Zhang(CHN)

Men's doubles begins on Tuesday, with 11 US men competing in that draw. Rajeev Ram(Illinois) is the only one seeded, with he and Joe Salisbury(Memphis) of Great Britain No. 3.

The ATP Challenger circuit resumes this week in the US, with a Challenger 80 in Little Rock Arkansas. Jason Jung(Michigan) of Taiwan is the top seed, while Michael Mmoh, who was in the draw as the second seed, withdrew. Americans qualifying for the main draw were 2019 Kalamazoo 18s champion Zachary Svajda and Stefan Kozlov. Canadian Alexis Galarneau(North Carolina State), who played the NCAAs last week in Lake Nona, reaching the round of 16, also qualified for the main draw.

Wild cards went to Ryan Harrison, Zane Khan and Oliver Crawford(Florida). Crawford plays Peter Polansky of Canada on Tuesday, while Harrison lost to Goncalo Oliveira of Portugal and Khan lost to No. 5 seed Mitchell Krueger. Jung also played his first round match today, beating Christian Harrison 6-1, 6-2. 

Here is a preview of the tournament from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Note that there is a mistake in Jung's first name.

Free live streaming, with Mike Cation providing commentary, is available here.