Monday, Stoiana, and Styler Named Players of the Year as Conference Awards Season Begins; Weiss Out at Clemson; 121st Ojai Underway; Roland Garros Men's Wild Card Down to Three

The Southeastern Conference announced its awards for both men and women, and the Big Ten released its men's awards for 2023 today. Below are the three major awards; click on the heading for the all-conference teams and other awards. The other conferences' announcements will come over the next several weeks, although it last year is any indication, the ACC will not release its awards until June. 

SEC Men
Player of the Year: Johannus Monday, Tennessee
Freshman of the Year: Ethan Quinn, Georgia
Coach of the Year: Manny Diaz, Georgia

SEC Women

Player of the Year: Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

Freshman of the Year: Carolina Gomez Alonso, Arkansas

Co-Coaches of the Year: Alison Ojeda, Tennessee and Mark Weaver, Texas A&M

Big Ten Men

Player of the Year: Ondrej Styler, Michigan

Freshman of the Year: Ozan Baris, Michigan State

Coach of the Year: Ty Tucker, Ohio State

In other college news, Clemson has announced the end of the coaching tenure of Robbie Weiss after four years heading up the men's program. The 1988 NCAA singles champion at Pepperdine, Weiss was men's assistant coach at the University of Alabama prior to taking the head coaching job at Clemson. Both the women's and men's head coaching positions are now open at Clemson. Neither Christy Striplin Lynch, who was ousted in November of last year, nor Weiss were hired by the current athletic director Graham Neff, who took over in December of 2021.

The annual Southern California tennis festival that is The Ojai is underway, with early Pac-12 tournament matches highlighting yesterday's action, and most of the other events beginning in earnest today.  

The first two rounds of the Men's Open are on today's schedule, with Karue Sell(UCLA) the top seed and Kent Hunter(Cal/LSU) the No. 2 seed. Top juniors competing are Rudy Quan, Alex Fuchs, a recent Ohio State signee, Saahith Jayaraman, a Duke recruit and UCLA red shirt freshman Emon van Loben Sels. All won their first round matches today. 

The Women's Open has a smaller draw and begins with two rounds Friday, with Chanel Simmonds the No. 1 seed and Columbia recruit Salma Farhat the No. 2 seed. 

Draws and results are here.

In addition to the Pac-12 tournament and the Opens, there are community college, CIF and junior events in the 121st edition of the tournament.

According to this tweet by Damian Kust, just three men remain in contention for the USTA Roland Garros wild card: Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M), Tristan Boyer(Stanford) and Mitchell Krueger. Kypson advanced to the quarterfinals at the Savannah Challenger 75 yesterday; Boyer defeated fellow qualifier Mateus Alves of Brazil 6-1, 6-4 today and No. 7 seed Krueger beat Alex Rybakov(TCU) 6-4, 1-6, 6-0. Krueger and Boyer play each other Friday, so one of them will be eliminated then; if Kypson loses to No. 4 seed Nicolas Kicker of Argentina in tomorrow's quarterfinal, the Boyer/Krueger winner could take the wild card if they reach the final. 

Free live streaming with Mike Cation providing commentary is available at the ATP Challenger website.

The women's Wild Card Challenge still has another week to go after this, but leader Caroline Dolehide and Emma Navarro(Virginia), who is in second place, are both in the quarterfinals of the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Charlottesville Virginia, so there's been no movement in that race. Top seed Diana Shnaider, the NC State freshman, defeated Ann Li 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 and will face No. 6 seed Ashlyn Krueger, who beat Gabriela Lee(Texas Tech) 6-2, 6-2. Dolehide, the No. 5 seed, plays qualifier Renata Zarazua of Mexico. In the bottom half, No. 3 seed Navarro plays No. 8 seed Kayla Day and qualifier Grace Min faces No. 7 seed Maria Carle(Georgia) of Argentina.