Hunt Named to Succeed Diaz at Georgia; ITF J300 San Diego North American Regional Acceptances; W35 in Texas Only USTA Pro Circuit Tournament This Week; Few Changes in ITA Division I Top 10s; Former UNC Player Receives Two-Year Ban for Positive Marijuana Test

In a surprise to no one, Jamie Hunt will succeed Manny Diaz at the University of Georgia, becoming just the third men's head coach in program history. Hunt, who played under Diaz, has been the assistant, then associate head coach under Diaz since 2017. This quick, drama-free transition is refreshing and no doubt gratifying to all the Georgia players, staff and fans, who know the decades of excellence will continue under Hunt's leadership.

Hunt and Diaz discuss the transition in a video at the men's tennis page at georgiadogs.com.

The acceptances are out for the ITF J300 North American Regional Closed tournament next month in San Diego, with eight Top 50 boys and three Top 50 girls scheduled to compete in the March 18-23 event.

Because this tournament is open only to those in the United States and Canada, the fields are obviously less strong than those at the J300 at Indian Wells the week before. The boys cutoff for Indian Wells was 106 (a week later it's 159), in San Diego the cutoff is 233. The girls cutoff for Indian Wells was 130 (now 197), in San Diego the cutoff is 304. 

Missing from the boys acceptances is defending champion Kaylan Bigun; he is still entered at Indian Wells.

The Top 50 boys on the acceptance list are Cooper Woestendick, Alexander Razeghi, 2023 finalist Roy Horovitz, Maxwell Exsted, Matthew Forbes, Jagger Leach, Ian Mayew and Canadian Keegan Rice. The Top 50 girls are 2023 finalist Iva Jovic, Thea Frodin and Shannon Lam.

Currently there are just three girls and five boys from Canada in the main draw. 

Several of the girls playing the SoCal junior swing were or are competing this week at the USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Spring Texas; most are familiar with the venue, the Giammalva Tennis Academy, which was the host of last fall's ITF J300 Pan American Closed.

None of the juniors in qualifying advanced to the main draw, with Iva Jovic, Kate Fakih and Akasha Urhobo losing in match tiebreakers in the final round of qualifying today. Three Americans did advance to the main draw: twin sisters Allura and Maribella Zamarripa(Texas) and Hina Inoue.

Maria Mateas(Duke) is the top seed, with Vavarva Lepchenko the No. 2 seed. Wild cards were awarded to juniors Shannon Lam, Elizabeth Ionescu, Kristina Penickova, as well as Diae El Jardi(Rice) of Morocco. Ionescu lost to Lepchenko 6-3, 6-1 in one of the three first round matches today. Japan's Ena Koike received entry via the Junior Exempt program, based on her ITF junior Top 20 year-end ranking.

The latest ITA Division I Team computer rankings have been published, with some shuffling in the top 10, but with the No. 1 teams remaining the same: the Ohio State men and Oklahoma State women.  The Stanford women took over the No. 2 position from Michigan after their win over Texas, and Pepperdine moved up six spots to No. 7 after their wins over Auburn and Florida last weekend. 

The top 5 are same as last week in the men's Top 10, with Harvard moving up two spots to 6 after wins over Duke and Northwestern.

There were no individual rankings published this week.

Click on the headings for the list of Top 75 teams at the ITA's rankings page.

ITA Division I Men's Top Ten Team Rankings February 27, 2024:
1. Ohio State (1)
2. TCU (2)
3. Wake Forest (3)
4. Columbia (4)
5. Tennessee (5)
6. Harvard (8)
7. Kentucky (6)
8. Virginia (7)
9. Arizona (9)
10. Texas (10)

ITA Division I Women's Top Ten Team Rankings Feb 27, 2024:

1. Oklahoma State (1)

2. Stanford (3)

3. Michigan (2)

4. UNC (T7)

5. Virginia (9)

6. Texas (4)

7. Pepperdine (13)

8. USC (5)

9. Ohio State (T7)

10. NC State (6) 

Casey Kania, who was on the University of North Carolina roster as a freshman in 2021-22 and a sophomore in 2022-23, but is not currently listed, has been given a two-year ban by the International Tennis Integrity Agency for testing positive for marijuana at last August's Cary North Carolina Challenger. 

Kania and Benjamin Kittay received a wild card into the doubles draw and defeated the No. 2 seeds in Cary before falling in the quarterfinals.

As a resident of a state where recreational marijuana has been legal for more than five years, this strikes me as a strange thing for the ITIA to care about, but if they are going to hand down bans for it, people need to be aware of that.