Tennis Recruiting Network's Tribute to David Filer; Texas Men and UNC Women Remain No. 1; Women's $25K in Jackson Underway; Shnaider Defeats Parks at WTA 500 in Charleston

Rhiannon Potkey at the Tennis Recruiting Network has written a beautiful article, published today, on 16-year-old David Filer, who died last month after a year-long battle with brain cancer. The inevitable grief and sadness that accompanies such a tragedy is lightened a bit by the perspective of David and his family, who have endured the unendurable. May his friends and family find solace in all that he contributed in his brief time with them, and with the junior tennis community. 

With my three weeks of onsite coverage of junior tennis in Southern California, I didn't have much time to cover college tennis here, but I'm back to monitoring results and rankings now, with the new ITA team and individual rankings for Division I published today. Texas, who beat former No. 1 TCU two weeks ago, remains at No. 1 in the men's rankings; undefeated North Carolina has solidified the top spot in the women's rankings, with the Tar Heels taking on No. 7 NC State on Thursday as the ACC regular season winds down. Click on the headings to go to the ITA ranking site, which is new. I was having trouble getting the full rankings in order when I hit the Load More Results button, so check the numbers next to the names carefully.

ITA Division I Men's Team Top Ten
1. Texas
2. TCU
3. Ohio State
4. Michigan
5. South Carolina
6. Kentucky
7. Georgia
8. Virginia
9. Tennessee
10. Southern California

Men's Singles Top 10

1. Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

2. Johannus Mondy, Tennessee

3. Ethan Quinn, Georgia

4. Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State

5. Melios Efstathiou, Wake Forest

6. Toby Samuel, South Carolina

7. Andres Martin, Georgia Tech

8. Ondrej Styler, Michigan

9. Arthur Fery, Stanford

10. Nishesh Basavareddy, Stanford

Men's Doubles Top 5

1. Toby Samuel and Connor Thomson, South Carolina

2. Pat Harper and Johannus Money, Tennessee

3. Eliot Spizzirri and Cleeve Harper, Texas

4. Jacob Fearnley and Luc Fomba, TCU

5. JJ Tracy and Andrew Lutschaunig, Ohio State

ITA Division I Women's Team Top Ten

1. North Carolina

2. Texas A&M

3. Michigan

4. Pepperdine

5. Georgia

6. Duke

7. NC State

8. Ohio State

9. Virginia

10. Iowa State

Women's Singles Top 10:

1. Fiona Crawley, North Carolina

2. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

3. Lea Ma, Georgia

4. Daria Frayman, Princeton

5. Chloe Beck, Duke

6. Madison Sieg, Southern California

7. Alexa Noel, Miami

8. Ayana Akli, South Carolina

9. Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia

10. Janice Tjen, Pepperdine

Women's Doubles Top 5:

1. Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen, Pepperdine

2. Kari Miller and Jaedan Brown, Michigan

3. Carson Branstine and Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

4. Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm, Cal

5. Veronica Miroshnichenko and Eva Marie, Loyala Marymount

Branstine announced last month that she is out for the season and is expecting to undergo hip surgery this month, so she will not be competing with Stoiana in doubles at the NCAAs in May.

The only USTA Pro Circuit event in the United States this week is a women's $25,000 tournament in Jackson Mississippi. With the forecast not good for Wednesday, nine main draw matches were played today, with the six of the seven scheduled for Wednesday featuring qualifiers, who made the main draw with victories today.

The qualifiers are Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech), Mccartney Kessler(Florida), junior Ena Koike of Japan, Maria Kononova(North Texas) of Russia, junior Kayla Cross of Canada, Ganna Poznikhirenko of Ukraine and Maribella Zamarippa(Texas). Yu Chen of China qualified but has withdrawn from her first round singles match and will be replaced by a lucky loser Wednesday morning. 

Wild cards were given to Allie Kiick, Allura Zamarippa(Texas), local eighth grader Briley Rhoden and ITF Top 40 junior Tatum Evans. Evans plays Kononova Wednesday, Zamarippa defeated No. 8 seed Fanny Stollar of Hungary 6-2, 6-4 today, while Kiick and Rhoden lost to Alexandra Vecic(Georgia) and Raveena Kingsley, respectively. 

The top seed is former NC State star Priska Nugroho of Indonesia, with Whitney Osuigwe the No. 2 seed.

At the WTA 500 Credit One Charleston Open, North Carolina State freshman Diana Shnaider of Russia defeated WTA No. 56 Alycia Parks 6-4, 6-3 to pick up her first professional tour win since the Australian Open. Shnaider, who has lost twice in dual match competition this year, to Miami's Alexa Noel and Georgia Tech's Carol Lee, plays again Wednesday, with No. 5 seed Veronika Kudermetova of Russia her opponent.  If she loses that match, she should be available to compete in the match Thursday versus No. 1 North Carolina. The Wolfpack take on No. 6 Duke Saturday.

UNC's Fiona Crawley, a wild card, lost to Alize Cornet of France Monday 6-0, 6-2.

2021 NCAA champion Emma Navarro(Virginia), who also received a wild card, lost 6-4, 6-3 to No. 9 seed Madison Keys in a first round match today. Jessica Pegula and Ons Jabeur of Tunisia are the top seeds.