Below are photos of the singles semifinalists and doubles finalists at the USTA Easter Bowl 16s and the ITF Easter Bowl in Indian Wells. My Tennis Recruiting Network recap of the 16s tournament is here; my recap of the ITF tournament is here.
Indian Wells Tennis Garden, main site of USTA 16 and ITF Easter Bowl
Chidimma Okpara, 16s semifinalist
Hibah Shaikh, 16s third place
India Houghton, 16s finalist
Anessa Lee, 16s champion
Chidimma Okpara and Amanda Chan, 16s doubles finalists
Allura and Maribella Zamarripa, 16s doubles champions
Logan Zapp, 16s semifinalist
Harsh Parikh, 16s third place
Max McKennon, 16s finalist
Keshav Chopra, 16s champion
Keshav Chopra and Coy Simon, 16s doubles finalists
Benjamin Koch and Welsh Hotard, 16s doubles champions
Emma Navarro, ITF semifinalist
Gabby Price, ITF semifinalist
Alexa Noel, ITF finalist
Katie Volynets, ITF champion
Kylie Collins and Savannah Broadus ITF doubles finalists
Caty McNally and Hailey Baptiste, ITF doubles champions
Cannon Kingsley, ITF semifinalist
Siem Woldeab, ITF semifinalist
Tristan Boyer, ITF finalist
Jenson Brooksby, ITF champion
Christian Alshon and Tyler Zink, ITF doubles finalists
Govind Nanda and Trey Hilderbrand, ITF doubles champions
13
comments:
Liviu
said...
Hi Colette. I discovered a few years ago Zoo Tennis. Incredible coverage of the junior and college tennis that few, if any on the US are doing. Thank you for bringing us a ton of information that otherwise would be lost, or very hard to find. You have been following Katie Volynets since she came on the USTA scene at the young age of 10-11 years old, as the became no 1 in USTA National Rankings in G12s back in 2014. Since then, Katie has reached the #1 spot in USTA National Rankings in G14s in 2015, in 2016 she reached the #1 spot in USTA National Rankings in G16s, and now, in 2018, she took over the #1 spot in USTA National Rankings in G18s. To your knowledge, as someone who has covered Junior tennis at the highest level for many years, is there anyone else, boy or girl, who managed to achieve the #1 ranking in the 12s, 14s, 16s, and 18s USTA National Rankings? As you can imagine, I am a big Katie Volynets fan, from the days when I first saw her play, here in the East Bay Area, in Northern California, at a local tournament in the area where we live. Any feedback would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
I'm not aware of anyone, (Jack Sock would be a guess) but I haven't tracked USTA rankings closely over the years, and the USTA doesn't provide any media information like that that I'm aware of. I hope the Northern California section is marking her accomplishments and she gets the recognition she deserves for all the work she and her coaches and family have done.
This should be making national news tomorrow. https://deadspin.com/arkansas-womens-tennis-team-schedules-six-straight-matc-1825475452/amp
Come on - SIX dual matches against the SAME opponent in ONE day!!!!
It’s about time ITA rules are changed to penalize schools like Arkansas, Tulsa and Baylor from padding their records. I’m certain there is under the table cash transactions going on here. Bring on the NCAA Investigation!
NCAA schools are allowed to pay visiting schools to come play them. There is nothing "under the table" required and nothing to investigate. Football teams are paid by bigger schools to come get routed every year. That's why a football team like Coastal Carolina or Troy State will be found playing an SEC school ... and it backfired on LSU last fall when Troy State beat them in Baton Rouge!
The Arkansas six-match fest does deserve some discussion. A few thoughts...
- let's not lose sight that the ridiculous .500 rule is what incenting these crazy schedule ideas in the first place. What was the point of that rule in the first place? That rule might make sense in D1 hoops where you have 300+ teams. Not in D1 tennis. Get rid of the .500 rule!
- there should be a limit on # of matches played instead of # of 'dates'. That is another loophole that allows this crazy consequence. If the limit on # of dates is driven by total taxation on a player's body, the # of matches is far more relevant than # of dates anyway
- I know these teams want to make the tournament but how does a coach get comfortable with this? One player played 11 matches on Sunday. She had to default down 0-4 in the 3rd set of her 11th match
- Tennessee State laid down at the end. They defaulted a match or this whole thing very well may have backfired on Arkansas. After winning the first 5 matches 4-0 without any close matches, they only won the last match 4-3 and with the benefit of a walkover
Weak stuff. Change the rules to protect these people from themselves.
Thank you, Colette. I briefly looked into the Rankings from the USTA page, but they have a lot of years missing for the National Rankings, including 2016 which is a recent year. Perhaps, in your travels and meetings with various USTA national factors, you will remember this topic and ask them in case they keep better records internally, than what is is available on the web :):) Thank you again.
I’m sure Erica Perkins will get right on it to protect the student athletes. Oh wait, she’s too concerned about which shirts her officials are wearing to worry about such minor details.
13 comments:
Hi Colette. I discovered a few years ago Zoo Tennis. Incredible coverage of the junior and college tennis that few, if any on the US are doing. Thank you for bringing us a ton of information that otherwise would be lost, or very hard to find. You have been following Katie Volynets since she came on the USTA scene at the young age of 10-11 years old, as the became no 1 in USTA National Rankings in G12s back in 2014. Since then, Katie has reached the #1 spot in USTA National Rankings in G14s in 2015, in 2016 she reached the #1 spot in USTA National Rankings in G16s, and now, in 2018, she took over the #1 spot in USTA National Rankings in G18s.
To your knowledge, as someone who has covered Junior tennis at the highest level for many years, is there anyone else, boy or girl, who managed to achieve the #1 ranking in the 12s, 14s, 16s, and 18s USTA National Rankings? As you can imagine, I am a big Katie Volynets fan, from the days when I first saw her play, here in the East Bay Area, in Northern California, at a local tournament in the area where we live. Any feedback would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
I'm not aware of anyone, (Jack Sock would be a guess) but I haven't tracked USTA rankings closely over the years, and the USTA doesn't provide any media information like that that I'm aware of. I hope the Northern California section is marking her accomplishments and she gets the recognition she deserves for all the work she and her coaches and family have done.
This should be making national news tomorrow. https://deadspin.com/arkansas-womens-tennis-team-schedules-six-straight-matc-1825475452/amp
Come on - SIX dual matches against the SAME opponent in ONE day!!!!
It’s about time ITA rules are changed to penalize schools like Arkansas, Tulsa and Baylor from padding their records. I’m certain there is under the table cash transactions going on here. Bring on the NCAA Investigation!
NCAA schools are allowed to pay visiting schools to come play them. There is nothing "under the table" required and nothing to investigate. Football teams are paid by bigger schools to come get routed every year. That's why a football team like Coastal Carolina or Troy State will be found playing an SEC school ... and it backfired on LSU last fall when Troy State beat them in Baton Rouge!
I believe Al Parker was ranking #1 in the 12s, 14s, 16s, & 18s.
The Arkansas six-match fest does deserve some discussion. A few thoughts...
- let's not lose sight that the ridiculous .500 rule is what incenting these crazy schedule ideas in the first place. What was the point of that rule in the first place? That rule might make sense in D1 hoops where you have 300+ teams. Not in D1 tennis. Get rid of the .500 rule!
- there should be a limit on # of matches played instead of # of 'dates'. That is another loophole that allows this crazy consequence. If the limit on # of dates is driven by total taxation on a player's body, the # of matches is far more relevant than # of dates anyway
- I know these teams want to make the tournament but how does a coach get comfortable with this? One player played 11 matches on Sunday. She had to default down 0-4 in the 3rd set of her 11th match
- Tennessee State laid down at the end. They defaulted a match or this whole thing very well may have backfired on Arkansas. After winning the first 5 matches 4-0 without any close matches, they only won the last match 4-3 and with the benefit of a walkover
Weak stuff. Change the rules to protect these people from themselves.
Thank you, Colette. I briefly looked into the Rankings from the USTA page, but they have a lot of years missing for the National Rankings, including 2016 which is a recent year. Perhaps, in your travels and meetings with various USTA national factors, you will remember this topic and ask them in case they keep better records internally, than what is is available on the web :):) Thank you again.
Go Bears -
What about the lip service the ITA and NCAA spew about looking out for the best interests of student athletes. Heads should roll over this.
Does anybody know whether or not Big Mike was the token Referee for the 6 duals? If so, he made a lot of cash for the day.
But LSU doesn’t play the same inept team SIX times in one day!
I’m sure Erica Perkins will get right on it to protect the student athletes. Oh wait, she’s too concerned about which shirts her officials are wearing to worry about such minor details.
Liviu:
I've since heard that CiCi Bellis and Kayla Day were also ranked No. 1 in all four USTA age divisions.
Thank you for the update, Colette. Katie is in good company, and hopefully, she will follow in their footsteps in the WTA world as time will progress.
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