UNC Women, Virginia Men Retain No. 1 Rankings; Year's First Rankings for D-II and D-III; Jovic Falls in Traralgon J300 Final; Schuman Advances to AO Juniors Final Round Qualifying; Three Former Trojans Reach Indian Wells Challenger Quarterfinals

The second Division I and the first Division II and Division III team rankings of the year were published today, with five of the six NCAA champions at the No. 1 spots.

Most of the teams haven't played enough top level competition to impact the rankings, with the top 9 in the D-I men's rankings staying the same, and Kentucky and Harvard trading the 10 and 11 positions for no reason I can come up with. 

But the women's D-I rankings have a host of changes, thanks to No. 2 Texas A&M losing two matches last weekend in California to both San Diego and Stanford. That dropped the Aggies to No. 10 in the poll, with Stanford moving to No. 2 and San Diego entering the Top 25 at 22. 

The only defending NCAA champion who is not No. 1 in the rankings is the Barry men, who are behing Valdosta State, who they beat in the semifinals last May. This is so outside the norm, that I would guess there are some major graduation losses for Barry and few for Valdosta State, but I don't follow Division II tennis closely enough to know for sure.

Below are the Top 10s; to see the Top 25 (D-I and D-II) and the Top 40(D-III), click on the headings below.

January 13, 2024
ITA Division I Men's Team Top 10
(previous ranking in parentheses)
1. Virginia (1)
2. Ohio State (2)
3. Texas (3)
4. TCU (4)
5. South Carolina (5)
6. Tennessee (6)
7. USC (7)
8. Duke (8)
9. Stanford (9)
10. Kentucky (11)

ITA Division I Women's Team Top 10

1. North Carolina (1)

2. Stanford (4)

3. Georgia (3)

4. Michigan (5)

5. Oklahoma State (6)

6. Texas (7)

7. Pepperdine (8)

8. NC State (9)

9. Florida (10)

10. Texas A&M (2)

ITA Division II Men's Team Top 10 

1. Valdosta State

2. Barry

3. Saint Leo

4. Flagler

5. West Florida

6. Columbus State

7. UI Indy

8. Wayne State

9. UT-Tyler

10. Wingate

ITA Division II Women's Team Top 10

1. Barry

2. Nova Southeastern

3. Lynn

4. Flagler

5. Saint Leo

6. West Alabama

7. Columbus State

8. Wayne State

9. Cameron

10. Wingate

ITA Division III Men's Team Top 10

1. Case Western

2. Middlebury

3. Tufts

4. Bowdoin

5. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

6. Emory

7. Williams

8. Washington-St. Louis

9. Denison

10. Sewanee

10. Chicago

ITA Division III Women's Team Top 10

1. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

2. Chicago

3. Pomona-Pitzer

4. Middlebury

5. Wesleyan 

6. Emory

7. Amherst

8. Johns Hopkins

9. Williams

10. MIT

The ITF J300 in Traralgon Australia concluded Wednesday with Emerson Jones of Australia and Rei Sakamoto of Japan taking the singles titles. Jones, the No. 2 seed, defeated No. 4 seed Iva Jovic 7-5, 6-1 for her third J300 singles title; Sakamoto, the No. 4 seed, beat No. 2 seed Nikolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway 6-4, 6-1 for his first J300 singles title.

Americans Max Exsted and Cooper Woestendick won the doubles title in Traralgon, beating Lorenzo Angelini and Daniele Rapagnetta of Italy 7-5, 6-4 in the final between unseeded teams. They are the second straight American team to win the Traralgon title; Cooper Williams and Learner Tien took it last year and went on to win the Australian Open boys doubles title the following week. 

The girls doubles champions are No. 7 seeds Mika Stojsavljevic of Great Britain and Wakana Sonobe of Japan, who beat top seeds Hannah Klugman and Mingge Xu of Great Britain 7-6(4), 6-3 in the final. 

The qualifying for the Australian Open Junior Championships, which is also taking place in Traralgon, concludes Thursday, with one American getting through the first round on Wednesday. No. 6 seed Aspen Schuman defeated I Wen Wan of Taiwan 7-6(1), 6-2 and will play No. 11 seed Junhan Zhang of China for a place in the main draw. The three other US girls, Maya Dutta, Olivia Center and Allie Bittner, lost in the opening round. Rohan Belday was in the qualifying draw when it was published, but didn't play in the first round of qualifying. 

Six Americans picked up victories in the women's and men's second round of singles Wednesday at the Australian Open, with seven more in action Thursday(tonight in the US):

Wednesday's second round results of Americans:

Coco Gauff[4] d. Caroline Dolehide 7-6(2), 6-2

Alycia Parks d. Leylah Fernandez[32](CAN) 7-5, 6-4

Amanda Anisimova d. Nadia Podoroska(ARG) 6-2, 6-3

Taylor Fritz[12] d. Hugo Gaston[LL](FRA) 6-0, 6-3, 6-1

Tomas Machac(CZE) d. Frances Tiafoe[17] 6-4, 6-4, 7-6(5)

Ben Shelton[16] d. Christopher O'Connell(AUS) 6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(5)

Andrey Rublev[5](RUS) d. Christopher Eubanks 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 

Karen Khanchanov[15](RUS) d. Aleks Kovacevic[Q] 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3

Sebastian Korda[29] d. Quentin Halys(FRA) 6-4, 6-4, 6-4

Thursday's second round matches featuring Americans:

Alex Michelsen v Jiri Lehecka(CZE)

Tommy Paul[14] v Jack Draper(GBR)

McCartney Kessler[WC] v Linda Noskova

Danielle Collins v Iga Swiatek[1](POL)

Sloane Stephens v Daria Kasatkina[14](RUS)

Jessica Pegula[5] v Clara Burel(FRA)

Emma Navarro[27] v Elisabetta Cocciaretto(ITA)

Three former USC Trojans advanced to Friday's quarterfinals at the Southern California Open ATP Challenger 50 in Indian Wells today: Daniel Cukierman of Israel, No. 3 seed Brandon Holt and Learner Tien.

Cukierman defeated former Ohio State standout James Trotter of Japan 6-4, 6-4; Holt, a wild card, beat Strong Kirchheimer (Northwestern) 6-3, 6-3 and they will play each other in the quarterfinals. Tien came from 4-0 down in the second set to defeat former Mississippi State star Giovanni Oradini of Italy 6-2, 7-6(1) and will play No. 4 seed Mitchell Krueger, who beat Benjamin Lock(Florida State) of Zimbabwe 6-4, 6-4. The four remaining second round matches, including Omni Kumar(Duke) versus Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford), will be played Thursday.

It was announced today that both Zachary Svajda and younger brother Trevor Svajda(SMU) have received main draw wild cards into next week's Southern California Open ATP Challenger 50 in Indian Wells.