Defending Champion Quinn, Basavareddy and Hovde Lead San Diego J1 Acceptance Lists; Michigan Men Upset Top-ranked TCU in Fort Worth; UNC Remains No. 1 in Latest Women's D-I Rankings
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San Diego's Barnes Tennis Center will host this month's ITF J1 tournament for the second straight year |
The acceptances have been posted for the ITF Grade 1 spring tournament in California, for many years held at the USTA's Player Development West Center in Carson, but now scheduled for March 21-26 in San Diego.
Although it's early, more international players than usual have entered, especially in the girls competition. Fifteen US girls are on the initial acceptance list, including the only ITF Top 10 junior in either field, Australian Open semifinalist Liv Hovde, who is No. 8. Two other girls are in the top 20: No. 15 Johanne Christine Svendsen of Denmark and No. 20 Nikola Daubnerova of Slovakia. Daubnerova has played nearly all the events in South America this winter, so it wouldn't be a surprise if she competed in San Diego. It is a surprise that none of the top Canadians, all of whom played the tournament last year in San Diego and competed in the Grade A last week in Brazil, entered this year. Clervie Ngounoue, who has been playing Pro Circuit tournaments since the Australia Open, is not entered.
There are 21 Top 100 players in the girls field of 46 (2 special exempts, 8 wild cards and 8 qualifiers will make up the 64 draw), with the cutoff for the girls at 192.
None of the boys entered are in the Top 20, with Ethan Quinn, currently a redshirt freshman at Georgia, having the highest ITF ranking at 22. Quinn is the defending champion, with San Diego's J1 and Easter Bowl last year serving as breakout events for the 17-year-old Californian.
The hottest player in junior tennis right now, 16-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy, has entered, with the Brazil J1 and Banana Bowl champion now up to 25 in the rankings. Twenty-two US boys are on the entry list; notables missing are Ozan Colak and Leanid Boika. Twenty-four of the Top 100 boys are currently entered; the cutoff was 187. The top international boy entered is No. 29 Jakub Nicod of the Czech Republic.
The latest Division I team rankings were released today, with National Indoor champion TCU remaining No. 1 in the men's USTA/Tennis Channel rankings and moving ahead of last week's No. 1 Tennessee in the ITA rankings. Unfortunately for the Horned Frogs, the day of celebration didn't last long; No. 26 Michigan went to Fort Worth and took out the consensus No. 1 4-1 this afternoon.
Michigan won the doubles point in a tiebreaker at line 3, then got quick victories from Jacob Bickersteth at line 3 and Patrick Maloney at line 4 to go up 3-0. TCU got on the board with Jacob Fearnley's three-set win at line 5, but Michigan's Ondrej Styler closed out the upset with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win over Juan Carlos Aguilar at line 2.
It's the first time Michigan has ever defeated a No. 1-ranked team, with the rankings going back to 1996-97, according to this article on the Michigan website. Quotes from head coach Adam Steinberg are included in the recap.
The ITA rankings are now done by computer, the USTA/Tennis Channel rankings are down by a poll. There are quite a few discrepancies between the two methods right now, but as more matches are played they will converge.
The women's poll has Virginia at 6 and Stanford at 9, while the computer has Virginia 12 and Stanford 25. Oklahoma State is No. 7 according to the computer, while the poll has them at 16. Team Indoor champion North Carolina remains No. 1.
The men's poll has Middle Tennessee at 23, while the computer has the Blue-Gray champions at 15. Georgia is 12 in the poll and 22 in the computer rankings, Northwestern is 21 in the poll and 12 in the computer rankings.
The top 10s are below, with previous week's ranking in parentheses; click on the headings to see the entire lists:
USTA/Tennis Channel D-I Men's Team Top 10 March 2, 2022
1. TCU (1)3. Ohio State (3)
4. Baylor (4)
5. Florida (5)
6. Wake Forest (6)
7. South Carolina (7)
8. Stanford (8)
9. Texas (9)
10. Kentucky (12)
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