Wake Forest Men, North Carolina Women Remain No. 1; New Faces Qualify for Tampa $15K; Ken Flach Passes Away

There are no changes at the top of this week's ITA Division I team rankings, with the North Carolina women and Wake Forest men still No. 1.  There was some shuffling in the Top 10, with Vanderbilt moving to No. 2 in the women's rankings, and Northwestern, which wasn't in the Top 25 in the initial poll back in January up to No. 5.  Ohio State, blanked by Georgia last week, fell from No. 2 to No. 4 in the men's rankings, while Stanford moved into the second spot.

There are no new individual rankings this week.

Women’s ITA Division I Top 10 March 13, 2018 (previous ranking of March 6 in parentheses)

1. North Carolina (1)

2. Vanderbilt (4)

3. Duke (3)

4. Pepperdine (2)

5. Northwestern (8)

6. Georgia Tech (5)

7. Illinois (6)

8. Georgia (7)

9. Texas Tech (9)

10. South Carolina (11)


Men’s ITA Division I Top 10 March 13, 2018 (previous ranking of March 6 in parentheses)

1. Wake Forest (1)

2. Stanford (3)

3. UCLA (4)

4. Ohio State (2)

5. North Carolina (8)

6. Texas A&M (5)

7. Illinois (6)

8. Michigan (7)

9. Columbia (11)

10. Texas (10)

The qualifying is complete at the $15,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit event in Tampa, with 16-year-olds Hailey Baptiste and Natasha Subhash and 15-year-old Jaleesa Leslie advancing to the main draw with wins today.  Baptiste and Leslie will be making their Pro Circuit main draw debuts Wednesday, with Baptiste facing No. 4 seed Quinn Gleason, the former Notre Dame standout, and Leslie playing Anca Cracuin of Canada. Subhash, who qualified last year in Tampa but lost in the first round, will play qualifier Emannuelle Salas of France.

Sad news today, when word of the death of Ken Flach was made public. The former Southern Illinois-Edwardsville star, six-time Grand Slam doubles champion, Olympic gold medalist and former Vanderbilt head coach passed away at the age of 54 from complications due to pneumonia.

The ATP published a lengthy obituary today, and Vanderbilt also released a statement focusing on Flach's contributions to the men's program there. Flach was inducted into the ITA College Tennis Hall of Fame, along with longtime doubles partner Robert Seguso, in 1998.

Amanda Anisimova lost 6-1, 7-6(2) to No. 5 seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in today's fourth round at the BNP Paribas Open in Indiana Wells.  Venus Williams, who beat sister Serena last night, defeated Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia 7-6(6), 6-4 tonight to move into the quarterfinals.  Sam Querrey[18] beat Yuki Bhambri of India 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the round of 16.

Danielle Collins and Jack Sock[8] have yet to take the court for their Tuesday evening matches. Querrey will play the winner of the Sock match with Feliciano Lopez of Spain.