College Coaches on Sudden End of Season; Feature on CMS Senior Parodi; A Look at Frozen ATP, WTA and ITF Junior Rankings of Top 100 Americans

The Tennis Recruiting Network published a roundtable today featuring eight head coaches, six from Division I and two from Division II, with the discussion centered on the circumstances and reactions of their teams when they heard the NCAA had canceled the spring national championships. As several said, I think it will take some time before we all realize how much is now missing from the sport come April and May, with no college tennis. But of course there is no other level of tennis either, so everyone who is part of tennis community is still coming to terms with the prospect of months without the sport.

The Division III tennis blog has been publishing reactions from players, parents and coaches, and Amy Bryant of Emory has a particularly detailed account of that day last week when everything changed for her team.

In keeping with the college reaction to the end of the spring tennis season, here is an article from the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps website about senior Nikolai Parodi, who was an All-American every year of his career, but did not get that final shot at a national championship.

Thai Kwiatkowski, the 2017 NCAA Division I singles champion while a senior at Virginia, is featured in this article about the overall impact of the current pandemic on sports teams, fans and athletes. Denis Kudla is also quoted in the article, which is centered on the Washington DC area.

With the ATP releasing their latest rankings today, I decided to look at where Americans in the Top 100 of the ATP, WTA and ITF Junior stand with no tennis being played until June. Unlike Tennis Recruiting Network, which is letting the results in its system roll off as normal, the ATP and WTA have frozen their rankings. (Tennis Recruiting Network uses head-to-head result, not points per round, so this has a different impact in that system). There has been no guidance from the ITF on their ranking decision, but I am assuming they will freeze their rankings too. How entries will be handled for the Junior Championships at Wimbledon, the next junior slam on the schedule, has not yet been addressed.

Americans in ATP Top 100
(current ranking/career high, bold if same):
John Isner 21/8
Taylor Fritz 24/24
Reilly Opelka 39/31
Sam Querrey 45/11
Tennys Sandgren 55/41
Tommy Paul 57/57
Steve Johnson 63/21
Frances Tiafoe 81/29

WTA Americans in WTA Top 100
(current ranking/career high, bold if same):
Sofia Kenin 4/4
Serena Williams 9/1
Madison Keys 13/7
Alison Riske 19/18
Amanda Anisimova 28/21
Sloane Stephens 37/3
Jennifer Brady 48/45
Danielle Collins 51/23
Coco Gauff 52/49
Bernarda Pera 60/60
Lauren Davis 62/26
Venus Williams 67/1
Taylor Townsend 73/61
Madison Brengle 79/35
Jessica Pegula 80/55
Christina McHale 88/24
Kristie Ahn 96/87

American boys in ITF Junior Top 100
(current ranking/career high, bold if same):
Martin Damm 5/4
Toby Kodat 18/5
Dali Blanch 30/24
Bruno Kuzuhara 51/45
Aidan Mayo 57/55
Alex Bernard 58/55
Max McKennon 62/61
Jack Anthrop 67/53
Benjamin Kittay 95/66

American girls in ITF Junior Top 100
(current ranking/career high, bold if same):
Robin Montgomery 5/5
Alexa Noel 7/4
Alexandra Yepifanova 23/14
Elvina Kalieva 26/26
Madison Sieg 49/44
Katrina Scott 60/38
Ellie Coleman 65/48
Savannah Broadus 67/26
India Houghton 87/73