IMG Academy 14s Finals Videos; Seven Americans Advance in Australian Open Qualifying; Georgia Women and Texas Men Begin Season No. 1; Guilty Plea in Drunk Driving Crash that Killed Drew Hassenbein and Ethan Falkowitz

The videos of the IMG Academy International Championships boys and girls 14s can be found below. Due to all six 12s, 14s and 16s final being played at the same time, it wasn't possible to stay at any one match, which I was able to do for the ITF J300 finals the following day. The only remaining age group videos not yet processed is the 12s, which will be up later this week. See my YouTube channel for the ITF and 16s videos, if you missed them earlier.

Although rain delayed the start of Australian Open qualifying in Melbourne Monday, causing matches previously on the order of play to be postponed, all nine of the Americans who were scheduled did finish their matches. Seven of the nine won their first round matches, with the remaining 12 on Tuesday's schedule, which begins at 6 p.m. tonight in the eastern time zone of the United States. ESPN+ provides streams of all qualifying matches.

Monday's Australian Open first round qualifying results of Americans:

Hady Habib(LBN) d. Patrick Kypson 6-4, 7-6(6)

Christopher Eubanks[4] d. Hugo Grenier(FRA) 7-6(1), 7-5

Aleks Kovacevic[7] d. Andrea Collarini(ARG) 7-6(5), 6-4

Mackenzie McDonald[25] d. Alex Bolt(AUS) 6-2, 6-2

Mitchell Krueger d. Filip Jianu(ROU) 6-3, 6-4

Brandon Holt d. Gianluca Mager(ITA) 7-6(6), 6-2

Emina Bektas d. Arianne Hartono(NED) 6-2, 3-6, 6-1

Varvara Lepchenko[21] d. Hanna Chang 6-1, 6-3

Tuesday's Australian Open first round qualifying matches featuring Americans:

Ethan Quinn v Calvin Hemery(FRA)

Eliot Spizzirri v Alexander Blockx(BEL)

Emilio Nava v Tomas Barrios Vera(CHI)

Tristan Boyer[26] v Rei Sakamoto[WC](JPN)

Zachary Svajda v Enzo Couacaud(FRA)

Learner Tien[16] v Gregoire Barrere(FRA)

Alycia Parks[1] v Mirjam Bjorklund(SWE)

Sachia Vickery v Ana Konjuh(CRO)

Louisa Chirico v Kristina Mladenovic(FRA)

Usue Arconada v Priscilla Hon(AUS)

Robin Montgomery[11] v Polona Hercog(SLO)

Claire Liu v Ella Seidel[31](GER)

The first ITA team polls are out for Division I, with the 13 ranking chairs voting the 2024 finalists Georgia women and Texas men as No. 1 at the beginning of the 2025 season.  NCAA women's champion Texas A&M actually got the majority of first place votes, but Georgia, who got only three, ended up No. 1. The men's first place votes were split between No. 1 Texas and No. 2 TCU, but five different teams received women's first place votes.

I will not be listing all 25 teams for each ranking date, but because this is the first poll, I thought it made sense to do that today. See the ITA's  men's and women's articles for the list of teams that received votes but did not finish in the Top 25.

Division I Team Rankings January 6, 2025

Coaches Poll (first place votes in parentheses)

WOMEN: 

1. Georgia(3)

2. Texas A&M(7)

3. Stanford(1)

4. Oklahoma State(1)

5. UCLA

6. North Carolina

7. Texas

8. Michigan

9. Virginia

10. Pepperdine

11. Duke(1)

12. Auburn

13. California

14. NC State

15. Ohio State

16. Oklahoma

17. Southern California

18. Tennessee

19. Florida

20. South Carolina

21. Vanderbilt

22. Alabama

23. Miami

24. Florida State

25. Central Florida

MEN:

1. Texas(8)

2. TCU(5)

3. Ohio State

4. Wake Forest

5. Virginia

6. Arizona

7. Kentucky

8. Columbia

9. Florida State

10. Oklahoma

11. Mississippi State

12. Duke

13. Tennessee

14. Texas A&M

15. South Carolina

16. San Diego

17. Stanford

18. Arizona State

19. Alabama

20. UCLA

21. Harvard

22. NC State

23. Michigan State

24. Florida

25. Michigan

Over a year and a half after the tragic deaths of 14-year-old Roslyn high school tennis players Drew Hassenbein and Ethan Falkowitz, the driver of the truck that struck the car in which they were passengers has pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide and driving while intoxicated. Articles on his plea can be found here and here.