My NCAA D-I Individuals Recap; Great Shot Podcast on All Things NCAA; Ekstrand Qualifies for Roland Garros Juniors; Rolls Wins ITF J300 Doubles Title; Basavareddy Advances to Little Rock Challenger Semis
I provided a deluge of NCAA Division I college tennis coverage at Zootennis from May 16 through May 25th, but if you want the abridged version of the biggest events on the collegiate calendar, please check out my recaps for the Tennis Recruiting Network. My article on the team championships was published last Thursday My coverage of the individual championships went up today, with details on the title runs of Miami's Alexa Noel and Alabama's Filip Planinsek in singles and the Georgia women's and Ohio State men's doubles championships.
In addition to those recaps, I joined the Great Shot Podcast recording session last night, which also included John Parsons and Chris Halioris, who also were in Stillwater. Alex Gruskin led the discussion, which lasted nearly two hours, so the podcast is in two parts. The first half is specific to the Stillwater competition, the second half to the big picture in D-I college tennis, which is changing dramatically with the transfer portal, NIL and the House Settlement, not to mention the decoupling of the team and individual championships, which begins this fall. I think the four of us provide diverse perspectives and opinions, and although no one knows what lies ahead, we all agree the ITA needs to fill its CEO position soon so that the governing body of college tennis has the leadership to address the many issues raised by all these changes, some of which are unique to tennis.
With another day of rain in Paris, the qualifying for the Roland Garros Junior Championships was not completed today as scheduled, although all Americans did finish their matches. Only one of the eight entered has advanced to the main draw: unseeded Monika Ekstrand. The 17-year-old from Florida defeated French wild card Seda Basillar 6-2, 6-4 in the final round of qualifying today, earning her first appearance in junior slam in her first attempt.
No 3 seed Shannon Lam lost to No. 16 seed Maria Golovina of Russia 6-3, 1-6, 6-3; Mia Slama lost to Yufei Ren of China 2-6, 6-2, 6-4; No. 7 seed Kate Fakih was defeated by Mia Pohankova of Slovakia 6-0, 6-4 and Christasha McNeil was beaten by Daria Shadchneva of Russia 6-4, 6-4. Lam and Slama both had to play two full matches today, with Slama going three sets in her first round win over No. 6 seed Mika Buchnik of Israel. Noah Johnston lost his first round match to No. 11 seed Lorenzo Angelini of Italy 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Angelini is one of eight boys who will play their final round qualifying matches Saturday, with the main draw beginning on Sunday. The ITF junior website's preview is here.
Katie Rolls won her third doubles title of the year, all J300s or above, at the Astrid Bowl in Belgium. Two of the titles have come with Jeline Vandromme of Belgium, including today's; the pair won the J500 in Offenbach Germany last month. The top seeds defeated the unseeded team of Victoria Barros of Brazil and Rose Marie Nijkamp of the Netherlands 6-4, 6-2 in the J300 final. Vandromme, the No. 2 seed in singles, is through to Saturday's final, where she'll play unseeded Tereza Krejcova of the Czech Republic. University of South Carolina rising freshman Atakan Karahan of Turkey, the No. 7 seed, will face qualifier Oskari Paldanius of Finland.
Nineteen-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy is the sole teenager advancing today at the ATP Challenger 75 in Little Rock Arkansas, after the Stanford rising junior defeated wild card Trevor Svajda(SMU) 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. It's Basavareddy's second win over Svajda this month; he had lost the previous two meetings with Svajda, in the semifinals of Kalamazoo 18s last year, and the final of the $25K in Calabasas California in March.
Basavareddy, who reached the final of Challenger last fall, will play Yuta Shimizu of Japan, who beat qualifier Rudy Quan, a rising UCLA freshman, 6-4, 6-3. No. 6 seed Mitchell Krueger defeated top seed Alexis Galarneau(NC State) of Canada 6-3, 6-1 to advance to the semifinals; his opponent has not yet been determined, with rain disrupting the quarterfinal between Brandon Holt(USC) and Abdullah Shelbayh(Florida) of Jordan at 1-1 in the third set.
Live streaming, with commentary from Mike Cation, can be found at the ATP Challenger TV page.
2 comments:
Just listened to part 2 of the Great Shot podcast - this was a great discussion for those of us who aren't as attuned to the big picture and history of college tennis, All-Americans, and the implications of the move of individuals to the Fall. As a parent of a kid in a smaller (not elite) D1 program I'm very concerned about the implications for such programs.
Thanks for a very enlightening discussion!
Also: hard disagree with Al and others on the podcast about allowing gambling on college tennis. Having seen the kinds of abuse and threats directed at pro players when they lose I don't think college players should be put at the same risk. Not to mention the inevitable risk of corruption similar to what has been documented at the Futures level - players throwing matches, people paying for inside information on injuries that might alter lineups, corrupt coaches, corrupt officials. See the story of Brad Bohannon in college baseball for a taste of what can happen.
All the stuff that looks like suspicious gamesmanship with lineup stacking becomes an order of magnitude higher in stakes when people can bet money on the match. Someone has a few surprising losses or says he rolled an ankle in practice ahead of a tight match and can't play, suddenly there are accusations and investigations and suspicion and abuse.
(I can imagine only one positive about allowing gambling on tennis - the sport would finally, FINALLY have to post consistently accurate scores!)
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