ITA Division I Men's Team Indoor Championships Begin Friday at SMU and Baylor; Women Team Indoor All-Tournament Team Announced; Hance and Johnston Reach ITF J300 Paraguay Semifinals; Upsets Galore at J500 in Cairo

The above photo is from the elevator door of the Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex on the campus of SMU, one of the many details that the Mustangs head coach Grant Chen has introduced to increase the visibility of the ITA Men's Team Indoor, one of Division I's two major team championships. SMU is one of two sites for this year's tournament, with first round and quarterfinal matches also being played at Baylor, before those two teams move to SMU for the semifinals and finals.

Today was media day, and due to the winter storm in the midwest, I decided to move up my arrival date, which allowed me to spend most of the day at the beautiful Ruth & Ken Altshuler indoor courts. The six Turpin Stadium outdoor courts were rarely in use; with temperatures in the low 40s all day, even the abundant sunshine made a hit outside uncomfortable.

All eight teams practiced indoors for two hours, then were escorted to the third level, which features a lounge and suites, where the ITA staff took head shots, produced video introductions to use in the Cracked Racquets streaming and asked the "dating game" style questions to pairs of teammates for use on CR and social media. The coaches also did their interviews, the officials began to filter in, and the Electronic Line Calling company Play Replay also has staff onsite to assist in that addition to the competition. 

Friday's schedule for SMU, with Mark Bey providing commentary on the Cracked Racquets YouTube channel. All times Central:

Virginia[2] v Michigan[7] 9 am

Texas[3] v Texas A&M[6] noon

Wake Forest[1] v SMU[8] 3:30 pm

Kentucky[4] v NC State[5] 6:30 pm

Friday's schedule for Baylor, with Alex Gruskin providing commentary on the Cracked Racquets YouTube channel.

Ohio State[2] v Central Florida[7] 9 am
Columbia[3] v Stanford[6] noon
Duke[4] v San Diego[5] 3:30 pm
TCU[1] v Baylor[8] 6:30 pm

Links to live streams and live scoring for all eight matches can be found at the ITA's tournament page.

The women's ITA Team Indoor Championships All-Tournament Team was announced today, with champion Georgia getting the nod in four singles of the six singles spot and two doubles of the three doubles spots. Click on the link above to see their results in the tournament.

Women's D-I Team Indoor All Tournament Team:

Singles:

1. Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia

2. Nicole Khirin, Texas A&M

3. Angella Okutoyi, Auburn

4. Aysegul Mert, Georgia

5. Guillermina Grant, Georgia

6. Sofia Rojas, Georgia

Doubles:

1. Dasha Vidmanova and Mell Reasco, Georgia

2. Susanna Maltby and Carson Tanguilig, North Carolina

3. Aysegul Mert and Hayden Mulberry, Georgia

I'll be completely occupied with men's Team Indoor coverage tomorrow, so here's the latest from two important ITF junior circuit events, which are into their semifinal stages.

At the ITF J300 Asuncion Bowl in Paraguay, Keaton Hance and Noah Johnston are through to the semifinals. Johnston, the No. 5 seed, advanced when Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria retired down 1-0 in the first set. He will play No. 4 seed Yannick Theodor Alexandrescu of Romania, who beat No. 8 seed Yannik Alvarez of Puerto Rico 6-1, 6-4.

No. 6 Hance, who is now 12-1 in the last three J300 he's played in South America, defeated doubles partner Valentin Garay of Argentina, the No. 3 seed, 6-0, 6-2 to set up a meeting with wild card Romeo Arcuschin of Argentina. Arcuschin beat No. 2 seed and last week's Inka Bowl J300 champion Alejandro Arcila of Colombia 7-5, 6-2.

Hance is also through to the doubles finals, with Garay. The top seeds will face unseeded Thomas Miranda and Leonardo Storck Franca of Brazil for the title.

Thea Frodin, the No. 2 seed, lost in the quarterfinals today to unseeded Maia Ilinca Burcescu of Romania 6-2, 7-6(4), but is through to the doubles final, with partner Yoana Konstantinova of Bulgaria. The top seeds will face No. 4 seeds Anna Maria Fedotova of the Dominican Republic and Sol Ailin Larraya Guidi of Argentina in the final.

The highest seed still remaining at the J500 in Cairo is No. 3 seed Jacopo Vasami of Italy, with No. 7 seed Ludvig Hede of Sweden taking out top seed and J300 Cairo champion Alan Wazny of Poland 7-6(2), 0-6, 7-6(7) in today's quarterfinals to advance to a meeting with Vasami. In the bottom half, No. 9 seed Pierre Luigi Basile of Italy will play unseeded Savva Rybkin of Russia.

The four girls seeds in the semifinals are Nos. 9, 10, 11 and 12.
No. 9 seed Petra Konjikusic of Serbia defeated No. 1 seed Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-4 to advance against No. 10 seed Nellie Taraba Wallberg of Sweden. No. 11 seed Rada Zolotareva of Russia will face No. 12 seed Charo Esquiva Banuls of Spain in the bottom half semifinal.