Ohio State Men Ascend to No. 1 in Rankings; Fiona Crawley of UNC and Spizzirri of Texas Top Singles Rankings; Hurd Grant Application Deadline Friday; Four US Girls Reach Quarterfinals at ITF J300 in Colombia

As I mentioned on Tuesday, the women's team rankings are not published this week due to the ITA National Indoor Championships this weekend, but the men's rankings are officially updated, with their National Indoor tournament beginning on February 17.

After No. 5 Kentucky defeated top-ranked Virginia in Charlottesville last Friday and No. 2 Ohio State blanked No. 6 Texas in Columbus Sunday, the rankings were expected to change, and they did. The rankings are still being determined by a poll of 12 coaches at this stage of the season, so the number of first place votes--9 for Ohio State and 3 for Kentucky--are part of the list below. Kentucky is now at No. 2, which is the highest ranking ever for the program, with the previous highest ranking for the Wildcats was No. 4, in March of 2013.

The first Division I individual rankings of 2023 were released today, with North Carolina's Fiona Crawley and Texas's Eliot Spizzirri in the top spots in singles. Crawley also is No. 1 in doubles, with Carson Tanguilig, while Spizzirri is No. 4, with Cleeve Harper.

The full lists of 125 ranked players in singles and 60 ranked teams in doubles, and the 25 ranked men's teams can be found by clicking on the headers below.

Men's Division I Team Top 10, February 8, 2023
1. Ohio State(9)
2. Kentucky(3)
3. TCU
4. Michigan
5. Virginia
6. Southern California
7. Texas
8. South Carolina
9. Wake Forest
10. Baylor

Singles:

1. Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

2. Nishesh Basavareddy, Stanford

3. Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State

4. Max Basing, Stanford

5. Ethan Quinn, Georgia

6. Garrett Johns, Duke

7. Andrew Fenty, Michigan

8. Philip Henning, Georgia

9. JJ Tracy, Ohio State

10. Henry von der Schulenburg, Harvard

Doubles:

1. Andrew Lutschaunig and JJ Tracy, Ohio State

2. Edoardo Graziani and Kevin Zhu, Penn

3. Toby Samuel and Connor Thomson, South Carolina

4. Cleeve Harper and Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

5. Jordan Chrysostom and Ryan Fishback, Virginia Tech

WOMEN:

Singles:

1. Fiona Crawley, North Carolina

2. Madison Sieg, Southern California

3. Connie Ma, Stanford

4. Daria Frayman, Princeton

5. Chloe Beck, Duke

6. Sarah Hamner, South Carolina

7. Carol Lee, Georgia Tech

8. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

9. Carson Tanguilig, North Carolina

10. Kylie Collins, LSU

Doubles:

1. Fiona Crawley and Carson Tanguilig, North Carolina

2. Elaine Chervinsky and Nathasha Subhash, Virginia

3. Jaedan Brown and Kari Miller, Michigan

4. Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen, Pepperdine

5. Nell Miller and Amelia Rajecki, NC State

An email was sent from Universal Tennis today reminding American players in college wishing pursue a professional tennis career of Friday's deadline for applying for the $100,000 Hurd grants. These grants will go to one American man and one American woman; for all the information and a link to the application, see the Universal Tennis Foundation website.

The girls quarterfinals at this week's ITF J300 in Colombia will feature four Americans, including top seed Iva Jovic, who continued her undefeated 2023 with another easy victory today in Barranquilla. The 15-year-old from Southern California, now 12-0 this year after winning both J300s in Costa Rica and Ecuador, defeated qualifier Ellie Blackford of Great Britain 6-1, 6-0, the same score as her second round win Tuesday. Jovic, whose last loss came in the semifinals of the J500 Orange Bowl in December, faces No. 11 seed Alexia Harmon in an all-US quarterfinal Thursday. Harmon defeated No. 6 seed Hephzibah Oluwadare of Great Britain 6-3, 6-2 today. Harmon lost to Jovic in the third round of the Orange Bowl 6-4, 6-3.

No. 5 seed Valeria Ray is also in the top half quarterfinal; after beating Victoria Osuigwe 7-6(3), 6-3 today, the Vanderbilt signee will face No. 13 seed Annelin Bakker of the Netherlands Thursday.

The only American in the bottom half is No. 9 seed Alanis Hamilton, who defeated No. 8 seed Yujin Kim of Korea 6-1, 6-3. Hamilton will play No. 2 seed Lucciana Perez Alarcon of Peru in the quarterfinals.

The only two US boys in the quarterfinals will be unseeded, after top seed Kaylan Bigun lost to Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-2. Qualifier Matthew Forbes defeated No. 13 seed Quang Duong in an all-US third round battle 6-0, 6-3 and will play unseeded Oliver Bonding of Great Britain in the quarterfinals. The winner of tonight's match between Stiles Brockett and Cyrus Mahjoob will be the second American in the boys quarterfinals; he will play Rottgering Thursday.