Crawley and Spizzirri Named ITA Players of the Year; Conference Awards Now Complete; Three Sweeps, Ten Titles for Americans on ITF Junior Circuit; ATP Feature on Austin Krajicek
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association's National Awards for 2023 were announced today, with North Carolina's Fiona Crawley and Texas's Eliot Spizzirri named Players of the Year.
2023 ITA Women's National Awards:
Wilson Coach of the Year: Brian Kalbas, North Carolina
National Assistant Coach of the Year: Jordan Szabo, Texas A&MArthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship: Natasha Subhash, Virginia
Cissy Leary Sportsmanship: Eryn Cayetano, Southern California
Rookie of the Year: Fangran Tian, UCLA
Most Improved Senior: Anika Yarlagadda, North Carolina
Senior Player of the Year: Chloe Beck, Duke
National Player of the Year: Fiona Crawley, North Carolina
2023 ITA Men's National Awards:
Wilson Coach of the Year: Andres Pedroso, Virginia
Assistant Coach of the Year: Matthew Gordon, Kentucky
Arthur Ashe Leadership: Ryan Fishback, Virginia Tech
Rafael Osuna Sportsmanship: Jonas Ziverts, Arizona
Rookie of the Year: Ethan Quinn, Georgia
Most Improved Senior: James Trotter, Ohio State
Senior Player of the Year: Eliot Spizzirri, Texas
National Player of the Year: Eliot Spizzirri, Texas
The ACC women's conference awards were announced last Friday, more than a month after the release for the ACC men. Now that all Power 5 plus the Ivy League have made their announcements, I've compiled the list of all awards in this Google document. Links to the releases are included, which will detail the All-conference teams. It's interesting to note that, although Brian Kalbas was named National Coach of the Year, which is customary as the coach of the NCAA team champion, Simon Earnshaw of NC State was given the ACC coach of the year award.
In addition to the Roland Garros girls doubles titles won by Clervie Ngounoue and Tyra Grant Saturday, American juniors claimed ten more titles on the ITF Junior Circuit last week.
Three players completed sweeps, with the J30 in Mexico City producing four American titles. Sixteen-year-old Nathan Gold, playing in just his second ITF Junior Circuit tournament, won both boys titles, reaching the final without dropping a set and beating No. 5 seed Santiago Valle-Saenz of Mexico 6-4, 6-4 in the final. Gold partnered with Diego Alvarez Gutierrez of Mexico in doubles, with the unseeded pair also winning all their matches in straight sets. They defeated No. 3 seeds Andres Blum and Alejandro Ochoa of Mexico 6-3, 6-3 in the final.
Alba Martinez won her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title and second doubles title in Mexico City, with the 16-year-old from Florida, seeded No. 7, beating No. 12 seed Fernanda Martinez Yepez of Mexico 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the final. Martinez and Daniela Chica, seeded No. 4, took the doubles title with a 3-6, 6-3, 10-6 win over No. 2 seeds Sia Cariov and Valeria Sanchez in the all-American final.
The third sweep came at the J60 in Guatemala, with 17-year-old Sahana Sanjeev taking the singles title as the No. 2 seed. Sanjeev defeated No. 5 seed Aleksandra Kyselova of Ukraine 1-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 for her second ITF Junior Circuit singles title. She and Kyselova won the doubles title, with the No. 2 seeds defeating No. 3 seeds Carlota Balseiro and Nina Chavez Vicente of Guatemala 7-5, 6-4 in the final.
Top seed Jordan Reznik won the boys singles title, his second on the ITF Junior Circuit, with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over No. 5 seed Abhinav Chunduru. Reznik didn't drop a set in his five wins.
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Jose Murariu won his fourth ITF Junior Circuit doubles title, with partner Marcos Castellano of Guatemala. The No. 3 seeds defeated the unseeded pair of Enrique Lana Almeida of Spain and Oswaldo Reyes Tirado of Mexico 6-3, 7-6(11) in the final.Cornell rising freshman Adhithya Ganesan won the singles title at the J100 in Poland, with the No. 2 seed defeating No. 7 seed Jan Klimas of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4 for his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title.
The tenth title was in boys doubles at the J30 in Congo. Seventeen-year-old Juan Carlos Portilla Morales won his first ITF Junior Circuit title with partner Hong Kiu Lau of Hong Kong. The No. 1 seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Yash Bahalkar and Sam Park of Great Britain 6-2, 6-4 in the final.
With Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) rising to No. 1 in the world in doubles after winning Roland Garros, the ATP website provided this feature on the 2008 Kalamazoo 18s champion and 2011 NCAA doubles champion. I spoke to Krajicek, who turns 33 on Friday, at the 2015 Champaign Challenger, right after he had cracked the Top 100 in singles, for this Tennis Recruiting Network article. It's instructive how much his progress in the rankings, first in singles, then in doubles, followed a similar path of steady improvement as he ticked off his goals one by one.
5 comments:
Serious question (not intending to be snarky) re: Crawley: has there been a time before when the ITA player of the year did not play 1 singles for their team during the NCAA tournament?
Agree. It’s an odd look for the school to slot a teammate above the ITA player of the year. Since the intent is to play your best player at 1, it seems like UNC rates Brantmeier more highly than the ITA does. Not to take anything away from a terrific season by Crawley in singles and doubles. The question that will likely never be answered publicly: did they change the lineup with NC State in mind. Obviously, #1 was an almost guaranteed loss vs State’s Shnaider. So why not have a better chance at the #2 spot instead of sacrificing her at #1. Brantmeier may have been a better matchup and competed better than most did against Shnaider.
I could be wrong, but think Laura Granville won POY in 2000 as a freshman while playing behind Marissa Irvin. She would go on to beat Irvin in the NCAA singles final that year.
Interesting, thanks Case. I don't know the deeper history of NCAA tennis, so I was curious if this'd happened before. I can see a possible rationale for it with a freshman if coach thought postseason pressure might demand more experience.
@Colin, yes, a very different situation w/ Granville a freshman and playing behind Irvin all season. Irvin was also around No. 80 in WTA during this same time. Amazingly, Georgia beat them in the team final.
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