Gibbons Set for Dartmouth; Nava, Brooksby, Subhash, Mandlik Reach WTT Semifinals; Redlicki Advances at ATP Challenger; Emory Women, Chicago Men Remain Atop Division III Rankings

While I was in Mobile last week, I had an opportunity to talk with Anders Gibbons about his college recruiting process and how he ended up committing to Dartmouth for this coming fall.  Being from Seattle, I wouldn't have expected he would end up on the East Coast, but he explained to me why that made sense for him in this article for the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Four juniors have advanced to semifinals in ITF World Tennis Tour events this week in California, with two of them, 17-year-olds Natasha Subhash and Elli Mandlik, advancing to meet each other.  Wild card Subhash, a Virginia recruit, defeated Sarah Lee(Michigan) 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 at the $15,000 tournament in Arcadia California, her first semifinal in a WTT event. Mandlik, who won last week's $15K in Carson California, continued her outstanding play on the Southern California hard courts, advancing with a 6-4, 4-0 ret. win over Hurricane Tyra Black.  Mandlik and Subhash have played twice in ITF Junior Circuit events, with Subhash winning both.  The other semifinal will feature No. 3 seed Pamela Montez(3) versus top seed Hanna Chang.

At the men's $15K in Arcadia, Emilio Nava reached his first WTT semifinal by defeating the No. 3 seed, 18-year-old Jaimee Floyd Angele of France 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-1.  The 17-year-old Southern Californian will face No. 8 seed Antoine Bellier of Switzerland next. Bellier is the only seed left, with the top half semifinal between qualifier Grey Hamilton(Ole Miss) and unseeded Alan Kohen of Argentina.

Kalamazoo 18s champion Jenson Brooksby has advanced to his third $25,000 semifinal since winning the Kalamazoo title last August, beating Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern) 6-2, 6-3 today at the WTT event in Bakersfield. The 18-year-old Brooksby, a wild card, will be looking for his first semifinal win Saturday when he takes on No. 7 seed Sekou Bangoura(Florida).  The bottom half semifinal features No. 4 seed Joao Menezes of Brazil against No. 2 seed Aleks Vukic(Illinois) of Australia.

Michael Redlicki has advanced to his second Challenger semifinal of the year at the ATP 80 tournament in Drummondville Canada. The unseeded left-hander, who played at Duke and Arkansas, picked up his third straight win over a seed this week, beating No. 3 seed Jurgen Zopp of Estonia 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.  Redlicki will play former Clemson star and No. 2 seed Yannick Maden of Germany in the semifinals.

The ITA released the latest Division III team rankings yesterday, with the Emory women and the Chicago men remaining in the top spots. Both won the ITA National Team Indoor titles.

ITA D-III Women’s Top 10 Team Rankings, March 14, 2019
(previous ranking in parentheses):

1. Emory University (1)
2. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (2)
3. Amherst College (3)
4. Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (4)
5. Williams College (5)
6. Middlebury College (6)
7. Wesleyan University (7)
8. Tufts University (8)
9. Univ. of Chicago (9)
10. Carnegie Mellon University (10)

ITA D-III Men’s Top 10 Team Rankings, March 14, 2019:

1. Univ. of Chicago (1)
2. Middlebury College (2)
3. Bowdoin College (3)
4. Emory University (4)
5. Williams College (5)
6. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (6)
7. Amherst College (7)
8. Wesleyan University (9)
9. Washington University-St. Louis (8)
10. Brandeis University (10)