Division I Appalachian State Drops Men's Tennis; World Team Tennis Selects Greenbrier as Site for Upcoming Season; Grand Slam Tennis Tours Offers New Pro Streaming Option; ITA Division II National Award Winners

Another day, another loss of a college tennis program, with Appalachian State, a Division I school in Boone North Carolina announcing it will discontinue three sports, including men's tennis.

The other two sports dropped--men's indoor track and field and men's soccer--leaves Appalachian State with 17 sports, which is three more than the number required to retain Division I status. The women's tennis team, one of ten sports for that gender at Appalachian State, is not impacted by today's announcement.

The Tennis Recruiting Network spoke with high school senior Christopher Johns, who had committed to East Carolina University before it dropped its men's tennis program last week, for this article. Johns will now be looking for another school, although with many seniors returning for a fifth year, that too has been complicated by recent pandemic-related events.

I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect there will be more recruits who will be scrambling to find a place on a team for 2020.

Stadium Court at the Greenbrier Resort (photo courtesy WTT)

World Team Tennis, which had announced earlier this month that it was looking for a single site where it could play its entire three-week season, has selected the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia for next's month competition.  A total of 63 matches will be played by the nine teams from July 12-30 to determine the four advancing to the playoffs, scheduled for August 1st and 2nd. CBS will be televising a match on July 19 and the final on August 2. CBS Sport Network will broadcast 13 other regular season matches, as well as both semifinals on August 1, while all the other matches will be available via streaming, with that schedule to be released later.

Unlike most of the tennis exhibitions happening now, fans will be allowed, with up to 500 fans allowed in the stadium court there, which seats 2500.  Among the players expected to compete are: Sofia Kenin, Sloane Stephens, Grigor Dimitrov, Sam Querrey, Bob and Mike Bryan(Stanford), Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee), Rajeev Ram(Illinois), Jean-Julien Rojer(UCLA) and Neal Skupski(LSU).

Today's complete announcement from World Team Tennis is here.

If you are hungry for tennis exhibitions NOT being contested in the Fast 4 format, Grand Slam Tennis Tours and Topnotch Management has put together live streaming of matches between pro players using regular scoring. Starting today, three matches were contested, with two in Orlando and one in Columbus Ohio. Dmitri Popko defeated Mackenzie McDonald 6-4, 6-3, JJ Wolf defeated former Ohio State teammate Mikael Torpegaard 6-4, 6-2 and Bjorn Fratangelo defeated Ulises Blanch 7-6(5), 6-1. Matches in various locations across the country are scheduled, and while there is no commentary, there is sound and a chair umpire, so following along is not difficult. Although you must sign up, there is no charge for accessing these streams, and this week's matches include all of the above players, as well as Ernesto Escobedo, Bradley Klahn, Jamie Loeb, Laura Siegemund, Jennifer Brady and Caroline Dolehide, among others.  For more information and to sign up to view the streams, click here.

Today's ITA virtual national awards ceremony for Division II produced the following winners:

Division II Men:
Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship: Jeremiah Sanchez, St. Mary’s University

ITA Player to Watch: Anish Sriniketh, St. Edward’s University

ITA Rookie of the Year:  Samuel Sippel, Azusa Pacific University

ITA Most Improved Senior: Bas Van Biezen, Southern New Hampshire University

ITA Senior Player of the Year: Chase Bartlett, St. Edward’s University

Division II Women:
Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship: Ashley Jonathan, Bellarmine University

ITA Player to Watch: Anna Novikova, University of Indianapolis

ITA Rookie of the Year: Ebba Rosberg, Concordia College NY

ITA Most Improved Senior: Kristyna Jurkova, Saint Leo University

ITA Senior Player of the Year: Kim Moosbacher, Oklahoma Baptist University

It's poignant that St. Edward's Anish Sriniketh will have to transfer to another school to be "watched," with St. Edward's eliminating their men's and women's tennis teams last month. St. Edward's senior Chase Barlett, who spearheaded the attempt to save the program, was named Senior Play of the Year. 

The ceremony is available on YouTube. The Division III virtual ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday at 11 a.m. EDT.