TCU Tops Men's 2025 Winter Recruiting Class Rankings; Jessup Wins J100 Title in New Zealand, Friedman Top Seed at ITF J300 in Ecuador; Cleveland ATP Challenger 75 Underway

Tennis Recruiting Network's winter recruiting class rankings for men's Division I were published today, with NCAA champion TCU taking the top spot in the voting, with their class of blue chip Americans Jagger Leach, Cooper Woestendick and Maximus Dussault. Woestendick has actually enrolled early and has played a few matches for the Horned Frogs this month, so technically he isn't eligible to be included, but with the cutoff for voting several weeks ago, last-minute additions are bound to happen occasionally. TCU was the unanimous choice of the 14 voters, one of whom is me.

TCU is followed, in order, by North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Columbia, Kentucky, Alabama, Penn, San Diego, Illinois and Texas. 

The Ivy League historically draws so many top recruits that it often has several schools in the top 10, and in fact is considered to be on the same level as the Power 4 for the two decades these rankings have been published. But mid-majors in the top 10 are less common, so San Diego stands out in this group.

The complete list, with notes on the conferences, school streaks and newcomers, can be found here.

The women's rankings will be out next Monday.

While the Australian Open Junior Championships and the US dominance at the ITF J300 in Barranquilla occupied most of my attention last week (not to mention Les Petits As), there were three ITF Junior Circuit events that produced American champions in New Zealand, Costa Rica and San Diego.

Sixteen-year-old Gabriel Jessup, a blue chip sophomore, won his first ITF Junior Circuit title at the J100 in Wellington New Zealand, coming through qualifying to beat 15-year-old Texan Mason Vaughan 6-4, 7-5 in his eighth match of the week. Jessup, who made the quarterfinals two weeks ago at the J100 in Christchurch as a qualifier is now up to 469 in the ITF junior rankings being unranked coming into this year.

Vaughan did get the better of Jessup in the doubles final, with partner Erik Schinnerer. The No. 6 seeds defeated the unseeded pair of Jessup and Noble Renfrow 6-3, 5-7, 11-9 in the all-USA final. 

No. 10 seed Janae Preston, who won the J100 title two weeks ago in Christchurch, reached the final, falling to top seed Aishi Das of New Zealand 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

At the J30 in San Diego, all the titles went to Americans. Unseeded 16-year-olds Kara Garcia and Katiana Gonzalez met in the girls singles final, with Garcia claiming her first ITF Junior Circuit title with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 victory in the final.  

Unseeded 17-year-old Andrew Li, who won the J30 in Claremont last year, picked up his second career ITF title when top seed Adrien Abarca retired after losing the first set 6-0. 

Unseeded Liam Alvarez and William Kleege won the boys doubles title, beating top seeds Chase Kelley and Russia's Maksim Nekrasov 5-7, 6-2, 10-7.  The girls doubles championship was won by No. 2 seeds Sydney Barnhart and Ellery Mendell, who beat unseeded Kylie Liu and Elna Zhao 6-3, 6-3.

American teams won both the doubles titles at the J60 in Costa Rica, but fell in the finals in singles.

No. 3 seeds Shaan Majeed and Sklar Phillips defeated Joseph Hernandez and China's Zheng Nan Huang 6-2, 4-6, 10-4 to take the boys doubles title. No. 3 seeds Calla McGill and Sena Yoon defeated sisters Aleksandra and Natasha Jerkunica 2-6, 7-6(5) 10-8 in the all-USA girls doubles final.

Phillips, unseeded in singles, lost in the single final to unseeded Caden Colburne of Canada 6-4, 7-6(5).  No. 5 seed Sarah Ye lost 6-3, 6-1 to qualifier Baotong Xu, who plays USTA events but represents China, in the girls singles final.

This week's ITF Junior Circuit events include a J300 in Ecuador and a J60 in San Diego.

Nearly all of the American juniors who flooded the draws for the J300 hard court events the past two weeks in Costa Rica and Colombia have returned home, with only five US girls and one US boy in the draws for the clay court tournament in Salinas.

Leena Friedman, who did play the past two J300s, is the No. 1 seed, with Ligaya Murray[8], Zaire Clarke, Adla Lopez and Shaya Jovanovic the other girls from the United States. Nicholas Mekhael, the lone US boy, plays No. 4 seed Valentin Gonzalez-Galino of Spain in the first round.

The San Diego J60 is full of Americans, of course, with Orange Bowl 16s finalist Ford McCollum the top boys seed and Kenzie Nguyen the No. 1 girls seed.

The ATP Challengers are back in the United States for 2025 with this week's 75 in Cleveland. The qualifying concluded today, with all six qualifiers having college ties: Filip Pieczonka(Tennessee) of Poland; Nathan Ponwith(Georgia, Arizona State); Alex Rybakov(TCU); Tristan McCormick(Notre Dame, Georgia); Trey Hilderbrand(Central Florida, Texas A&M) and Jackson Ross(Auburn, Texas San Antonio).

The top seed is Federico Agustin Gomez(Louisville) of Argentina, with the only seed without college ties No. 2 Radu Albot of Moldova.

Wild cards were awarded to Jenson Brooksby, who plays No. 8 seed JJ Wolf(Ohio State); Kentucky freshman Antoine Ghibaudo of France and UCLA freshman Kaylan Bigun. 

In first round matches completed this afternoon, No. 6 seed Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) defeated Ernesto Escobedo 6-4, 6-3 and Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State) defeated Aidan Mayo 6-3, 6-4. 

I didn't get a chance to post updates on the W75 in Vero Beach last week, with cold and rain causing issues throughout the week. But they did finish the tournament yesterday, with Solana Sierra of Argentina, the No. 2 seed, defeating unseeded Whitney Osuigwe 6-7(6), 6-4, 7-5 in a three-hour and 27-minute final. The 22-year-old Osuigwe, who has already made two finals this year, is up to 213 in the WTA rankings after falling to 456 last year. 

Top seeds Carmen Corley(Oklahoma) and Eva Vedder of the Netherlands won the doubles title, beating unseeded Julie Belgraver of France and Jasmijn Gimbrere of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-3 in the final.