Wake Forest Men Take Over No. 1 Spot in ITA Rankings; Cold Disrupts W50 in Spring Texas; Three Americans Reach Quarterfinals at Naples $15K; Penickova, Frodin, Hance and Johnston Advance to ITF J300 Quarterfinals in Brazil

The ITA's first computerized team rankings for the 2025 dual match season were released today, and is often the case, the Team Indoor Champions are in the top spot.

The Georgia women had been at No. 1 prior to their title in Evanston last week, but the Wake Forest men have supplanted TCU at No. 1, which is not a given with how the ranking algorithm works.

The Texas A&M women, who reached the Indoor final, are way down at 6, with semifinalist Oklahoma now at 16. I usually post only the Top 10, but with the first computer rankings, as with the first coaches poll, I'm listing the top 25.  The full rankings, which go to 75 now that the computer is involved, can be found by clicking on the heading.

Women's D-I Team Top 25
1. Georgia*
2. Virginia*
3. North Carolina*
4. Auburn*
5. Michigan*
6. Texas A&M*
7. Tennessee*
8. LSU*
9. Ohio State
10. Duke
11. Texas*
12. Oklahoma*
13. Texas Tech
14. NC State
15. Baylor
16. Oklahoma State*
17. Wisconsin
18. Southern California
19. Clemson
20. Central Florida
21. Alabama
22. Notre Dame
23. UCLA*
24. Yale
25. Pepperdine*

*Participated in women's Team Indoor

The women's top eight all played the Indoor, while three WTI teams--Stanford[34], Illinois[41] and Northwestern[47]--are outside the Top 25.

Men's D-I Team Top 25

1. Wake Forest*

2. TCU*

3. Ohio State*

4. Texas*

5. Virginia*

6. Stanford*

7. San Diego*

8. Columbia*

9. Texas A&M*

10. NC State*

11. Central Florida*

12. Michigan*

13. Harvard

14. Arizona

15. Duke*

16. Tennessee

17. Cal

18. Baylor*

19. Alabama

20. Illinois

21. Pepperdine

22. Oklahoma

23. Miami

24. Princeton

25. Southern California

*Participated in men's Team Indoor

The top 12 men's teams played the Indoor, with two teams participating in the Indoor, No. 28 Kentucky and No. 52 SMU, outside the Top 25.

The individual rankings were also updated, with NCAA fall champions Michael Zheng of Columbia and Dasha Vidmanova of Georgia retaining the No. 1 positions.

Men's D-I Singles Top 10

1. Michael Zheng, Columbia

2. Pedro Vives, TCU

3. Colton Smith, Arizona

4. Oliver Tarvet, San Diego

5. Carl Emil Overbeck, Cal

6. Ozan Baris, Michigan State

7. Timo Legout, Texas

8. Jay Friend, Arizona

9. DK Suresh, Wake Forest

10. Stefan Dostanic, Wake Forest

Men's D-I Doubles Top 5

1. Oliver Tarvet and Stian Klaassen, San Diego

2. Pedro Vives and Lui Maxted, TCU

3. Luciano Tacchi and Luca Pow, Wake Forest

4. Stefan Dostanic and DK Suresh, Wake Forest

5. Youcef Rihane and Alex Bulte, Florida State

Women's D-I Singles Top 10

1. Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia

2. DJ Bennett, Auburn

3. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

4. Julie Fliegner, Michigan

5. Elza Tomase, Tennessee

6. Valerie Glozman, Stanford

7. Maria Sholokhova, Wisconsin

8. Irina Balus, Duke

9. Luciana Perry, Ohio State

10. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

Women's D-I Doubles Top 5:

1. Elaine Chervinsky and Melodie Collard, Virginia

2. Maddy Zampardo and Gabriella Broadfoot, NC State

3. Susanna Maltby and Carson Tanguilig, North Carolina

4. Olivia Center and Kate Fakih, UCLA

5. Avelina Sayfetdinova and Mariia Hlahola, Texas Tech

Texas A&M senior Mary Stoiana, No. 3 in the latest rankings, has split her time between college and USTA Pro Circuit events so far this year. This week Stoiana is competing at the W50 in Spring Texas, at the Giammalva Racquet Club, the site of fall Pan American Closed ITF J300 the past two years. While we had fantastic weather in Spring (outside Houston) last October, the same cannot be said of this week's tournament, with the severe cold snap extending to southern Texas. (The wild chill was below zero when we left Dallas Wednesday). Despite all that Stoiana has posted her best professional result of the year, reaching the quarterfinals with a 6-0, 6-2 win over qualifier Madison Sieg(USC), a 2023 NCAA singles semifinalist. Stoiana had defeated No. 3 seed Selena Janicijevic of France 6-4, 6-0 in the first round.

Stephanie Myles posted an update on the weather issues at her Open Court website yesterday, but despite more sunshine today,  temperatures were barely 40 degrees F (Myles, a Canadian, uses the Celsius scale in her article) and only three of the five second round matches were played, after four retirements in the first round.

Top seed Taylah Preston of Australia will face Carol Zhao(Stanford) of Canada in the quarterfinals; Stoiana awaits the winner of the second round match between Whitney Osuigwe and Anastasia Tikhonova of Russia.  No. 2 seed Iva Jovic is playing 2024's two-time junior slam champion Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia, who is using one of her ITF junior accelerator program entries, in a second round match, with the quarterfinals also scheduled for Friday. 

The weather is much more pleasant for the men playing the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Naples Florida, the second consecutive week the Emilio Sanchez Academy has hosted a $15K for men.

Three Americans are through to the quarterfinals: No. 6 seed Cannon Kingsley, No. 7 seed Felix Corwin and qualifier Victor Lilov.  Kingsley received a walkover from top seed Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan, so he will not play Friday, awaiting the winner of the match between Corwin and unseeded Taha Baadi(Wake Forest, Kentucky) of Canada. Lilov will face unseeded Ignacio Monzon of Argentina in the quarterfinals.

Sixteen-year-old Jack Secord picked up his first ATP point yesterday in Naples, beating No. 3 seed Peter Bertrand(Georgia, South Florida) 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-4. Secord lost in the first round of qualifying in the two $15Ks in Florida earlier this month, but received a main draw entry this week via the ITF's junior reserved program.

The J300 warmup event to next week's J500 Banana Bowl in Brazil in Porto Alegre has reached the quarterfinal round, with two US boys and two US girls advancing.

Top seed Jack Kennedy lost today, to Ian Vertberger of Argentina, but No. 7 seed Keaton Hance and unseeded Noah Johnston both picked up straight-sets wins over Brazilian wild cards.  Hance defeated Vicente Freda 6-1, 6-4 and Johnston beat Leonardo Storck Franca 7-6(3), 6-4. 

Girls top seed Kaitlyn Rolls lost in the first round to Laima Vladson of Lithuania, but No. 2 seed Annika Pennickova and No. 4 seed Thea Frodin completed straight-sets victories today. Penickova defeated Ligaya Murray 6-3, 6-1 and Frodin beat Valentina Mediorreal Arias of Colombia 7-5, 6-4. If both win Friday, the Americans will meet in the semifinals.