San Diego ITF Photo Gallery; New Number 1 in D-I Men's Singles; Ole Miss Parts Ways with Men's Coach; First Round Upsets at Savannah Challenger, Teens Qualify in Charlotte NC; Pareja and Nava Lead USTA's Roland Garros Wild Card Race
A photo gallery from the ITF J300 last month in San Diego is now up the Tennis Recruiting Network. With this, and all the YouTube videos from the SoCal trip that are now posted, all that remains is an Easter Bowl photo gallery, which is coming soon.
Despite some major upsets in last weekend's conference tournaments, they didn't lead to many dramatic changes in the latest ITA Division I team rankings released today. Wake Forest and TCU remained No. 1 and No. 2 despite their losses in their conference semifinal matches; the Ohio State men, who finished the Big Ten regular season undefeated, dropped from 3 to 6, although the Buckeyes have not yet completed their season; they are hosting the Big Ten conference tournament, which begins Thursday. NC State men also dropped and are in danger of losing their first-three-rounds hosting spot, going from 5 to 8, and now subject to the calculation formula the NCAA will use to determine those positions after next week's ITA rankings are provided to them.
The Georgia women returned to the No. 1 spot after Texas A&M held it for just one week, with Georgia's win over the Aggies in the SEC conference final overriding their loss to A&M the previous week. North Carolina moved up and Duke fell after their loss to Virginia, with the Blue Devils trying to hold off the Ohio State women for that eighth spot, with the Buckeyes having their opportunities to make that move this week at the Big Ten conference tournament in Ojai.
I've gone from Top 10 to 16 due to the NCAA hosting implications; the full rankings can be found by clicking on the headings.
ITA Division I Rankings April 22, 2025
MEN:
(previous week's ranking in parentheses)
1. Wake Forest (1)
2. TCU (2)
3. Texas (4)
4. Virginia (6)
5. Stanford (8)
6. Ohio State (3)
7. San Diego (7)
8. NC State (5)
9. Columbia (9)
10. Arizona (11)
11. Cal (10)
12. Mississippi State (12)
13. South Carolina (13)
14. Central Florida (18)
15. Tennessee (14)
16. Duke (19)
There are new No. 1s in men's singles and doubles, with Michael Zheng dropping to No. 2 for the first time since winning the NCAA title in November. Texas freshman Timo Legout has moved to No. 1. NCAA champions Lui Maxted and Pedro Vives of TCU, who have not been able to play together due to Vives' injury, also dropped from the No. 1 spot this week. With no NCAA individual tournament this spring, these ranking have less interest than usual, when seeding would be at stake, although who qualifies for the men's ATP Accelerator program the women's ITF Accelerator is determined by May's final rankings.
MEN:
1. Timo Legout, Texas
2. Michael Zheng, Columbia
3. Oliver Tarvet, San Diego
4. Rafael Jodar, Virginia
5. Colton Smith, Arizona
6. Jay Friend, Arizona
7. Samir Banerjee, Stanford
8. Pedro Vives, TCU
9. DK Suresh, Wake Forest
10. Jack Pinnington Jones, TCU
1. Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez, Mississippi State
2. Pedro Vives and Lui Maxted, TCU
3. Lucas Andrade da Silva and Connor Thomson, South Carolina
4. Togan Tokac and Theo Papamalamis, Texas A&M
5. Oliver Tarvet and Stian Klaassen
WOMEN:
(previous week's rankings in parentheses)
1. Georgia (2)
2. Texas A&M (1)
3. Michigan (3)
4. Oklahoma (4)
5. North Carolina (8)
6. Virginia (7)
7. Auburn (6)
8. Duke (4)
9. Ohio State (9)
10. Tennessee (10)
11. NC State (12)
12. LSU (11)
13. Texas Tech (15)
14. Texas (14)
15. Vanderbilt (13)
16. UCLA (19)
Mary Stoiana has beaten Dasha Vidmanova in straight sets twice in the last two weeks, but it hasn't been enough to dislodge the Georgia senior and NCAA fall champion from the top spot. Alanis Hamilton and Reese Brantmeier of North Carolina got a win over No. 1 Elaine Chervinsky and Melodie Collard of Virginia in the ACC conference tournament final, and that moved them from 9 to 2.
1. Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia
2. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M
3. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina
4. DJ Bennett, Auburn
5. Julia Fliegner, Michigan
6. Elza Tomase, Tennessee
7. Celia-Belle Mohr, Vanderbilt
8. Valerie Glozman, Stanford
9. Maria Sholokhova, Wisconson
10. Luciana Perry, Ohio State
1. Elaine Chervinsky and Melodie Collard, Virginia
2. Alanis Hamilton and Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina
3. Mell Reasco and Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia
4. Mao Mushika and Jessica Alsola, Cal
5. Rose Marie Nijkamp and Anastasiya Komar, Oklahoma State
In other college tennis news, Ole Miss announced Monday the university and men's head coach Toby Hansson "have mutually agreed to part ways," after Hansson's 11 seasons as head coach. Hansson, who was assistant/associate head coach under Billy Chadwick for eight years, took over the head coaching position when Chadwick retired in 2014.
Next year, Ole Miss will also have a new women's head coach, after Mark Beyers announced his retirement earlier this month, effective at the end of this season. After eight years working under Beyers, associate head coach Grant Roberts will take over the program.
There are four USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this week, a women's W35 in Charlotte North Carolina, a women's W100 in Charlottesville Virginia, the final ATP Challenger 75 on green clay in Savannah Georgia and a men's M15 in Vero Beach Florida.
Tonight, I'm going to focus on the two that have begun their first round of play, which are the women's W35 in Charlotte and the Savannah Challenger.
In Charlotte, a trio of teenagers reached the main draw via qualifying, all of whom excelled in the Southern California junior swing: ITF J300 Indian Wells finalist Alexis Nguyen, Easter Bowl 18s champion Bella Payne and ITF J300 San Diego quarterfinalist and doubles champion Annika Penickova.
The 17-year-old Nguyen beat Kolie Allen(Ohio State) 6-2, 6-2 and will face Malaika Rapolu(Texas) in the first round; Payne, who had defeated No. 2 seed Kylie McKenzie in the first round of qualifying, beat ITF J300 San Diego champion Kristina Penickova, the ITF junior No. 3, 7-6(7), 2-6, 10-5; Annika Penickova beat No. 8 seed Lilian Poling(Boise St, Mississippi St) 7-6(4), 6-2. Payne will play Alicia Herrero Linana(Baylor) of Spain in the first round Wednesday, while Penickova will face Jada Robinson.
Other US players into the main draw via qualifying are NC State sophomore Maddy Zampardo, Oklahoma State graduate student Kylie Collins and Emma Burgic(Baylor).
Wild cards were awarded to 17-year-olds Maya Iyengar, Monika Ekstrand and Sara Shumate and 18-year-old Christasha McNeil. Ekstrand lost her first round match today 7-5, 6-2 to Mayu Crossley of Japan, the third time they've met on the USTA Pro Circuit this month, with Crossley taking the last two. McNeil lost to No. 8 seed Ayana Akli(Maryland, South Carolina) 6-3, 6-3. Shumate and Iyengar play Robin Anderson[4](UCLA) and Katerina Jokic(Georgia) of Serbia, respectively, Wednesday.
The top seed in Charlotte is Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico, with Gergana Topolova of Bulgaria the No. 2 seed. Akli and Anderson are the only seeded Americans.
In Savannah, No. 3 seed Emilio Nava decided to play a third week in a row and it didn't go well for him, with the 23-year-old Tallahassee finalist dropping his second straight match after winning 19 in a row. Former ITF junior No. 1 Joel Schwaertzler of Austria defeated Nava 6-3, 6-4. The Tallahassee champion, Chris Rodesch(Virginia) of Luxembourg, also lost his first round match today, going out to former Georgia Tech All-American Andres Martin, a wild card, 7-6(6), 3-6, 7-6(3).
Jenson Brooksby(Baylor) who won his first ATP title in Houston earlier this month, is finding the going much tougher in the Challengers, losing in the first round for the second straight week as a wild card. Brooksby, the No. 6 seed, lost to Geoffrey Blancaneaux of France 6-4, 6-3.
Americans who did advance to the second round are Martin, top seed Eliot Spizzirri(Texas), wild card Alfredo Perez(Florida) and qualifiers Patrick Maloney(Michigan) and Stefan Kozlov.
Perez, who made back-to-back Challenger quarterfinals in Mexico this month, beat qualifier Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, but it's good to see Kypson back in the Challenger mix after being out since January.
The latest standing in the USTA's Roland Garros wild card race were distributed today, with Nava and Julieta Pareja continuing to lead with two weeks remaining in the annual Challenge.
Ethan Quinn(Georgia) qualified for the Masters 1000 in Madrid today, and plays a fellow qualifier in the first round, so he will be moving up and can theoretically pass Nava with a deep run there.
Women's Standings:
(Player's current ranking in parentheses)
1. Julieta Pareja (335) -- 116
2. Caty McNally (287) -- 90
3. Varvara Lepchenko (120) -- 70
4. Louisa Chirico (151) -- 58
5. Whitney Osuigwe (179) -- 41
Men's Standings:
(Player's current ranking in parentheses)
1. Emilio Nava (132) -- 119
2. Colton Smith (161) -- 63
T3. Chris Eubanks (108) -- 50
T3. Ethan Quinn (119) -- 50
5. Alfredo Perez (416) -- 33
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