Pratt Commits to Northwestern; Easter Bowl ITF Acceptances; Nakashima Faces Sock in Indian Wells Challenger Semifinals; US Davis Cup Team in Action Tonight

Last month at a Midwest section Level 2 tournament, I had an opportunity to talk with five-star recruit Sydney Pratt about her commitment, for 2021, to Northwestern. When during her freshman year, Pratt was a three-star recruit on Tennis Recruiting Network, not the level that a Big Ten contender like Northwestern would normally consider. But determined to give herself the best chance to get to the level that would put her on the Wildcats' radar, Pratt switched coaches and the wins started coming. More on how she earned an offer from Northwestern last summer at this article for the Tennis Recruiting Network.

The Indian Wells Tennis Garden Easter Bowl Courts

The Easter Bowl ITF Grade B1 is coming up beginning on March 30th, with the acceptances posted today. As is usually the case, the same top Americans are playing there and at the Carson ITF Grade 1 the week before, although there are often unexpected wild cards that strengthen the Easter Bowl field.  2019 Easter Bowl finalists Robin Montgomery and Martin Damm have not entered, but there is a notable Easter Bowl entry that is not in the Carson field: Connie Ma.  Ma, who goes to regular school and seldom competes during the school year, made the final at Carson last year, playing that event because she was on Spring Break. I'm assuming her Spring Break is falling during Easter Bowl this year. Although she won't be seeded, she'll be the favorite, along with Alexandra Yepifanova and Elvina Kalieva. The top US boys entered are Dali Blanch, Bruno Kuzuhara, Alex Bernard and Aidan Mayo.

The Las Vegas $25,000 quarterfinals have been slotted into a late afternoon and evening schedule, but Robin Montgomery has completed her match and advanced to the women's semifinals. The 15-year-old Orange Bowl champion, currently No. 5 in the ITF World Junior rankings, defeated qualifier Emiliana Arango of Colombia 6-3, 6-2 and will play unseeded Katherine Sebov of Canada Saturday. This is Montgomery's third USTA Pro Circuit event; she reached the quarterfinals of a $15K in California last year.

In the men's $25,000 Las Vegas quarterfinals, former TCU stars Nick Chappell and Alex Rybakov have advanced, with No. 5 seed Chappell beating No. 2 seed Alex Sarkissian(Pepperdine) 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 and No. 8 seed Rybakov saving a match point in his 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-3 win over No. 4 seed Martin Redlicki(UCLA).

At the ATP Challenger 125 in Indian Wells, 18-year-old Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) has continued to build on his first ATP quarterfinal last month in Delray Beach, beating No. 14 seed Marcos Giron(UCLA) 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-2 to advance to Saturday's semifinals. Nakashima had trouble converting break points in the first half of the match, going 0 for 14, but he took control in the third set, earning three breaks and a chance to take on Jack Sock.  Sock defeated No. 11 seed Denis Kudla in another lengthy battle, with Sock taking a 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-4 decision. 

Unseeded Mitchell Krueger eliminated the last international player in the field, beating No. 9 seed Gregoire Barrere of France 6-4, 7-6(5). Krueger will face No. 5 seed Steve Johnson(USC), who beat Noah Rubin 6-3, 6-3. There has been nothing official announced yet, but Krueger is likely to have secured the second BNP Paribas Open main draw wild card, as he now has a quarterfinal and two semifinal finishes in the the previous three Challengers designated for the Road to Indian Wells.

The United States Davis Cup team takes on Uzbekistan in Hawaii tonight, with Reilly Opelka taking on Denis Istomin and Taylor Fritz playing Sanjar Fayziev in the first two singles matches. The Bryan brothers are playing their final Davis Cup match on Saturday, against Fayziev and Istomin, with reverse singles set for Sunday. Tommy Paul is also on the team. Tennis Channel is not covering the tie, with streaming at cbssports.com the only way to follow it.

Montgomery Reaches Quarterfinals at Las Vegas $25K; Seven US Men Advance to Indian Wells Challenger Quarterfinals; Seven Americans Make Semifinals ITF Grade 3 in Costa Rica

Robin Montgomery hasn't exhibited much rust after taking more than a month off after the Australian Open Junior Championships. The 15-year-old from Washington DC used a Junior Exempt entry for this week's $25,000 Oracle Pro Series tournament in Las Vegas and she has used it well, advancing to the quarterfinals. After beating No. 6 seed Gabriela Ce of Brazil 6-0, 6-2 in the first round Tuesday, Montgomery defeated fellow teen Alycia Parks 6-3, 6-0 today. Montgomery's quarterfinal opponent Emiliana Arango of Colombia, a qualifier, will undoubtedly be exhausted after she needed more than three hours to defeat Ellie Halbauer in a second round match.

ITF World Junior No. 1 Diane Parry of France has advanced to the quarterfinals, where she'll play qualifier Sophie Whittle(Gonzaga). Alexa Glatch is the third American to advance to the quarterfinals, after defeating qualifier Kayla Day 6-2, 6-3.

At the men's $25,000 tournament in Las Vegas, six Americans, all former collegians, have advanced to the quarterfinals. No. 4 seed Martin Redlicki(UCLA) will play No. 8 seed Alex Rybakov and No. 2 seed Alex Sarkissian(Pepperdine) will play No. 5 seed Nick Chappell(TCU). Justin Butsch(LSU), who beat No. 3 seed Jacob Grills of Australia 7-5, 7-5 today, will play wild card Alfredo Perez(Florida). The only two international players are in the top quarter, with Johannes Haerteis of Germany taking on 2018 NCAA champion at Wake Forest Petros Chrysochos of Cyprus, the No. 6 seed.

While six American quarterfinalists is good, seven is better, and that's what the ATP Challenger 125 in Indian Wells will feature Friday. Jack Sock plays Denis Kudla[11], Marcos Giron[14] faces Brandon Nakashima and Steve Johnson[5] meets Noah Rubin. Mitchell Krueger gets No. 9 seed Gregoire Barrere of France, who spoiled a fourth all-US quarterfinal when he defeated No. 8 seed Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(4). With so many Americans left, the second BNP Paribas Open wild card is still up for grabs.

The tournament announced yesterday that Madison Brengle had secured one of the wild cards given out via the Road to Indian Wells competition, and today they announced that Usue Arconada had earned the second, based on her performance in the Oracle Challenger Series events. The only American advancing to the women's WTA 125 quarterfinals in Indian Wells is No. 9 seed Jessica Pegula, who is already in the main draw of the BNP Paribas Open. Pegula defeated Shelby Rogers 7-6(4), 6-2.

An American is assured of winning the boys singles title at the ITF Grade 3 in Costa Rica, with all four semifinalists from the United States. Top seed Max McKennon, who eliminated the only non-US player today, will face No. 5 seed Ozan Colak in the top half and in the bottom half, No. 3 seed Samir Banerjee will play 14-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy. Basvareddy, the 2019 Junior Orange Bowl champion, defeated No. 2 seed Victor Lilov 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 today.

No. 6 seed Nahia Berecoechea of France prevented an all-US girls pair of semifinals, taking out top seed Sofia Rojas 7-6(5), 6-1. Berecoechea will play unseeded Elise Wagle, who beat No. 3 seed Nevena Carton 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. In the bottom half, No. 5 seed Dakota Fordham takes on No. 2 seed Jenna DeFalco.

Nakashima Earns Another Top 100 Win at Indian Wells Challenger; A Look at Oracle Pro Series; Khan Reaches Quarterfinals at Grade 1 in Thailand; Plenty of Americans in ITF Grade 3 Costa Rica Quarterfinals; Bears, Firecrackers Win USTA National Spring Team Championships

Brandon Nakashima has had an impressive three weeks, starting with a quarterfinal appearance in his first ATP event last month in Delray Beach, where he posted his first two ATP Top 100 victories. Today the 18-year-old from San Diego, earned his third Top 100 win, defeating No. 7 seed and ATP No. 87 Yuichi Sugita of Japan 6-3, 6-2 in the second round of the ATP Challenger 125 at Indian Wells. Nakashima, who was competing for the University of Virginia at this time last year, will face No. 10 seed Salvatore Caruso of Italy in Thursday's third round.

Nakashima is one of ten American men to advance to the round of 16, with just four of them seeded. In addition to Nakashima, they include Jack Sock, Denis Kudla[11], Marcos Giron[14], Frances Tiafoe[8], Steve Johnson[5], Sebastian Korda, Mitchell Krueger, Raymond Sarmiento and Noah Rubin. Korda and Krueger as well as Sarmiento and Rubin meet for a spot in the quarterfinals Thursday. The tournament announced last night that Giron has clinched one of the two main draw wild cards into next week's BNP Paribas Open next week in Indian Wells based on his performances in the Oracle Challenger Series. Another wild card is still available for an American man based on his performance in the Series.

American women have had less success at the WTA 125 event at Indian Wells, with just three advancing to the round of 16 so far: Bernarda Pera[3], Jessica Pegula[9] and Kristie Ahn[14]. Shelby Rogers plays her second round match tonight. Two main draw BNP Paribas Open wild cards have yet to be distributed to the top two American women in the series. The two leaders, Madison Brengle and Coco Vandeweghe, lost their opening matches this week.

In addition to its Challenger Series, Oracle has introduced its Pro Series, which is generally lower level events held primarily on college campuses. Joel Drucker has posted an article on the Pro Series at tennis.com today, with comments from Jamie Loeb, SMU men's head coach Grant Chen, Tim Smyczek and Jim Courier.

I was surprised to see Zane Khan in a junior tournament this week, but the 2018 Kalamazoo 16s and Orange Bowl finalist advanced through qualifying at the Grade 1 in Thailand and is now into the quarterfinals. Khan, who turned 18 last month and had only played in ITF World Tennis Tour tournaments in Mexico and the United States this year, will face No. 6 seed Mans Dahlberg of Sweden Thursday.

At the ITF Grade 3 in Costa Rica this week, top seed Max McKennon, who won last week's Grade 3 in El Salvador, leads a host of Americans into Thursday's quarterfinals. McKennon will play unseeded Julian Lozano of Costa Rica, while four, and possibly six, other American boys will play each other. No. 5 seed Ozan Colak plays Braden Shick and No. 2 seed Victor Lilov meets 2019 Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion Nishesh Basavareddy. No. 3 seed Samir Banerjee is awaiting his opponent, which will be either American Spencer Brachman or Colombia's William Yovanny Ribero Duarte.

Six US girls have reached the quarterfinals, including top seed Sofia Rojas, who faces No. 6 seed Nahia Berecoechea of France. Americans Nevena Carton[3] and Elise Wagle make up one quarterfinal, with another all-US contest between No. 8 seed Nicole Kiefer and No. 2 seed Jenna DeFalco, last week's winner in El Salvador. No. 5 seed Dakota Fordham plays No. 4 seed Sara Valentina Cruz Bonilla of El Salvador.

This is the first March in 15 years that I haven't been to Mobile Alabama for a junior tournament, but the USTA National Spring Team Championships went on without me and the winning teams were determined on Tuesday. In the boys championship match, the Bears defeated the Panthers 5-2 and in the girls championship match, the Firecrackers defeated the Sharks 5-2. Daniel Caballero Valcarcel coached the Bears, and Stewart Russell coached the Firecrackers. Below are screenshots of the results of the finals. 

February Aces; Georgia Jumps into Top Ten in New ITA D-I Rankings; Las Vegas Men's and Women's $25K Qualifying Complete

After a quiet January, activity increased substantially in February, and I wasn't able to feature all of the former collegiate players who won titles during the month. Team Indoor champions, Challenger winners and 12 others who had notable performances last month are featured in my monthly column for the Tennis Recruiting Network.

This week's ITA rankings are the full complement, and there is just one change at the number 1 position in the six categories. Ashley Lahey of Pepperdine returned to No. 1 in women's singles after briefly losing that spot to NCAA champion Estela Perez-Somarriba of Miami. There were some notable moves in the team rankings, with the Georgia men moving up 25 spots from No. 35 to No. 10 based on their wins over Tennessee and Ohio State last weekend. In the women's rankings, Ohio State moves up to No. 2 after its win over Florida State on Sunday night. I don't have any official confirmation, but I have to believe that is the highest ranking ever for the women's program. Click on the heading to go to the full list at the ITA website.

ITA Division I Men’s Team Top 10, March 3
(previous ranking in parentheses)

1. USC (1)
2. North Carolina (2)
3. Texas (4)
4. Michigan (5)
5. Ohio State (3)
6. Florida (6)
7. NC State (9)
8. TCU (12)
9. Columbia (7)
10. Georgia (35)

USC's Daniel Cukierman, photo courtesy Scott Gerber ©2020

Men’s Singles
1. Daniel Cukierman, USC (1)
2. Yuya Ito, Texas (2)
3. Valentin Vacherot, Texas A&M (3)
4. Keegan Smith, UCLA (8)
5. Sam Riffice, Florida (4)
6. Christian Sigsgaard, Texas (6)
7. Alexandre Rotsaert, Stanford (5)
8. Richard Ciamarra, Notre Dame (10)
9. William Blumberg, North Carolina (11)
10. Oliver Crawford, Florida (18)

Men’s Doubles
1. Matej Vocel and Dominik Kellovsky, Oklahoma State (1)
2. Andrew Fenty and Mattias Siimar, Michigan (2)
3. Robert Cash and John McNally, Ohio State (3)
4. Mac Kiger and Simon Soendergaard, North Carolina, (4)
5. Riley Smith and Daniel Cukierman, USC (19)

ITA Division I Women’s Team Top 10, March 3

1. North Carolina (1)
2. Ohio State (5)
3. UCLA (8)
4. Florida State (2)
5. NC State (3)
6. Texas (4)
7. Georgia (9)
8. Georgia Tech (10)
9. Stanford (6)
10. Virginia (13)

Women’s Singles
1. Ashley Lahey, Pepperdine (2)
2. Estela Perez-Somarriba, Miami (1)
3. Alexa Graham, North Carolina (5)
4. Anna Turati, Texas (3)
5. Sara Daavettila, North Carolina (5)
6. Cameron Morra, North Carolina (4)
7. Kelly Chen, Duke (7)
8. Abigail Forbes (8)
9. Elysia Bolton (12)
10. Natasha Subhash, Virginia (15)

Women’s Doubles
1. Elysia Bolton and Jada Hart, UCLA (1)
2. Alana Smith and Anna Rogers, NC State (2)
3. Jessie Gong and Samantha Martinelli, Yale (3)
4. Sara Daavettila and Alexa Graham, North Carolina (4)
5. Ayumi Miyamoto and Lisa Marie Rioux, Oklahoma St (6)

In addition to the ATP and WTA Oracle Challenger Series events this week at Indian Wells, the USTA Pro Circuit has a joint event in Las Vegas, part of the Oracle Pro Series.

Qualifying for both was completed today, with some first round matches also played. In the men's event, American qualifiers are Toby Boyer(Nebraska), Spencer Papa(Oklahoma), Texas recruit Micah Braswell and Mousheg Hovhannisyan(Pepperdine). Wild cards were awarded to Errol Smith(Loyola Marymount), Chris Wettengel (Minnesota), Alfredo Perez(Florida) and Reese Stalder(TCU). Johannes Haerteis of Germany is the top seed and Alex Sarkissian(Pepperdine) is the No. 2 seed.

In the women's event, American qualifiers are Pamela Montez(UCLA), Sofia Sewing(Miami), Emina Bektas(Michigan), Sophie Whittle (Gonzaga) and Kayla Day. Wild cards went to Hurricane Tyra Black, Texas recruit Peyton Stearns, Baylor recruit Audrey Boch-Collins, and Allura Zamarripa.  Robin Montgomery received entry via the ITF's Junior Exempt program and defeated No. 6 seed Gabriela Ce of Brazil 6-0, 6-2 this afternoon. This is only the fourth pro-level tournament for the 15-year-old Orange Bowl champion, who hasn't played since the Australian Open Junior Championships.

The top seed in Las Vegas is Mariam Bolkvadze of Georgia, with Robin Anderson(UCLA) the No. 2 seed.

Fruhvirtova and Landaluce Take Tennis Europe Super Category Titles in Stockholm; Former Collegians Claim WTA and ATP Doubles Titles; Oracle Challenger Series Underway at Indian Wells

Brenda Fruhvirtova is just a month away from her 13th birthday and the opportunity to compete in ITF Junior World Tennis Tour events, but in the meantime, she is dominating 14-and-under Tennis Europe tournaments. The Les Petits As champion defended her title last week in Stockholm Sweden, beating No. 3 seed Daria Shadchneva of Russia 7-6(3), 6-3 in the final of the Kungens Kanna & Drottningens Pris tournament. Even though she won this tournament last year, and was demonstrably the best player in the field, she wasn't seeded, just as she wasn't seeded when she won Les Petits As last month. Fortunately for the tournament, the best match was not early in the event, as it might have been, with Fruhvirtova losing only six games in her first five matches. Shadchneva wasn't as dominant, but she didn't lose a set in advancing to the final.

Martin Landaluce, photo by Richard van Loon, 2020 Les Petits As

Spain's Martin Landaluce, who won the Super Category event in Moscow early this year and reached the quarterfinals at Les Petits As, losing to American Alexander Razeghi, won the boys title. The No. 2 seed defeated top seed Atakan Karahan of Turkey 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 in the final. Landaluce, 14, also won the doubles title, with Karahan. The girls doubles title went to Eddie Herr 12s champions Mira Andreeva and Alina Korneeva of Russia.

For more on the finals, see this article from Tennis Europe.

At the Open Super 12 Auray in France, another major event on the Tennis Europe calendar, this one for the 12s division, American qualifier Tyra Grant lost in the final to Hannah Klugman of Great Britain 6-4, 6-3. The boys final was an all-French affair, with Antonin Witz defeating Luka Nikolic 6-0, 2-6, 7-6(8).

With everything going on Sunday, I didn't have an opportunity to mention the results of the WTA and ATP events over the weekend. In his first ATP 500 final, Taylor Fritz lost to Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2 in Acapulco.  Qualifier Leylah Fernandez, the 17-year-old Canadian who won the French Open girls title last year, lost in the Acapulco women's  final to Great Britain's Heather Watson 6-4, 6-7(8), 6-1.

In the women's doubles in Acapulco, former USC star Giuliana Olmos of Mexico and former Arizona State star Desirae Krawczyk took the title, with the No. 2 seeds beating Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine and Sharon Fichman of Canada 6-3, 7-6(5) in the final. The 26-year-old Krawczyk has three WTA doubles titles, two with Olmos, which are the former USC star's only titles. Olmos is the first Mexican to claim a title at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco.

The unseeded team of former LSU star Michael Venus of New Zealand and former Baylor star John Peers of Australia won the doubles title at the ATP 500 event in Dubai, beating Venus's former partner Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Oliver Marach of Austria, the No. 4 seeds, 6-3, 6-2 in the final. It's the first title for Venus and Peers after getting together for the 2020 season. Venus has 11 ATP titles now and Peers has won 21. For more on their partnership, see this article at the ATP website.

The Oracle Road to Indian Wells ends this week with a WTA 125 event and an ATP Challenger 125, both at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, which will host the BNP Paribas Open next week.  Wild cards into the main draw of the event are available to the top two American finishers in the Oracle Challenger Series, which began last fall in New Haven and continued through Houston and Newport Beach. Marcos Giron and Thai Kwiatkowski, the winners of Houston and Newport Beach, are 1 and 2 in the men's standings going into this week's Challenger, while Newport women's champion Madison Brengle and Houston finalist Coco Vandeweghe currently hold the top two women's spots.

Qualifying, just four players for both men and women, was completed today, with Gage Brymer(UCLA) and Sem Verbeek(Pacific) of the Netherlands advancing to the men's main draw, and Asia Muhammad and Danielle Lao(USC) advancing to the women's main draw.

Men's wild cards went to American collegians Govind Nanda(UCLA), Keegan Smith(UCLA) and Brandon Holt(USC), as well as top seed Ugo Humbert of France and No. 4 seed Radu Albot of Moldova. Unseeded Americans winning their opening round matches today are Jack Sock, Michael Redlicki, Kwiatkowski, Michael Mmoh, Sebastian Korda, Mitchell Krueger, Noah Rubin, Mackenzie McDonald and Raymond Sarmiento.

Wild cards in the women's event went to Vandeweghe, Claire Liu, Hailey Baptiste and Jamie Loeb. Sachia Vickery, who beat Caty McNally 6-2, 6-3, is the only American woman to post a first round win today. Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic is the top seed.

The tournament website has match recaps, and links to free live streaming can be found here.

Wolf Wins Columbus Challenger; CMS Dethrones Emory to Claim Women's D-III Indoor Title; Barry Women, Columbus State Men Earn Division II Indoor Titles; Georgia Blanks Ohio State to Earn Diaz Place in History

JJ Wolf won his fourth ATP Challenger title today in Columbus, defending his title at the Ohio State Varsity Tennis Center, although later in the year than the tournament was last year. No. 6 seed Wolf, who turned 21 in December, defeated No. 5 seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-4, 6-2, to collect his third  Challenger title since last November. Istomin, a 33-year-old who has been as high as 33 in the ATP rankings in his career, wasn't able to find a way to keep the ball away from Wolf's forehand, and Wolf faced only one break point in the match, which he saved. With this ATP 80 Challenger title Wolf will move to a new ATP career high of 144.

Maxime Cressy(UCLA) fell just short of back-to-back Challenger titles, falling to former Texas A&M star Arthur Rinderknech of France 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in the Calgary ATP 90 Challenger. Cressy, the No. 10 seed, was in trouble from the start, with a first serve percentage of 55 and 16 double faults, but he managed to fight off the first ten break points he faced, while converting the only one No. 8 seed Rinderknech gave him. But once Rinderknech converted on break point No. 11 to take a 4-2 lead, he was not about to give up that precious advantage and took the match on his second match point. Cressy had beaten Rinderknech 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4 last week in the Drummondville Challenger final, so this has the makings of a compelling rivalry, with Cressy just 22 and Rinderknech 24. Rinderknech will move into the ATP Top 200 for the first time at 160, just ahead of Cressy, who moves up to 164.

No. 3 seeds Nathan Pasha(Georgia) and Max Schnur(Columbia) won the doubles title in Calgary, defeating unseeded Harry Bourchier of Australia and Filip Peliwo of Canada 7-6(4), 6-3 in the final.

The ITA Women's Division III Team Indoor Championships final match went down to the wire, with top seeds Claremont-Mudd-Scripps beating No. 2 seed and defending champion Emory 5-4. The Athenas won two of the three doubles points, and got singles victories at lines 1, 2 and 6 to end Emory's streak of consecutive titles at three. Freshman Justine Leong defeated defending NCAA champion Ysabel Gonzalez Rico at line 1 6-3, 6-3, for a key point, but it was senior Catherine Allen who closed out the win with the match tied at 4-4. Emory's Defne Olcay served for their match at 5-4 in the final set at line 2 (I think; live scoring was buggy and there was no sound on the stream), but Allen broke, held and broke in the last three games for a 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 win.  For more on the match, see the CMS website.  Results from the third, fifth and seventh place matches are at the ITA tournament site, and a photo gallery from the weekend is also available.

At the inaugural ITA Division II Men's Team Indoor Championships, No. 2 seed Columbus State defeated top seed Barry 4-0, with the doubles point and singles points at lines 1, 2 and 3.

The Barry women, also seeded No. 1, took the women's first edition of the Division II Team Indoor Championships, beating surprise finalist and No. 6 seed Hawaii Pacific 4-0. The Buccaneers won the doubles point and got wins at lines 1, 4 and 6 in singles.

Manny Diaz and Dan Magill

A lot of interesting results in college tennis today, with the ninth-ranked North Carolina State taking down No. 4 Texas 4-3, and No. 12 TCU beating No. 8 Stanford 4-1 in men's Division I action; in women's play, No. 13 Virginia beat No. 3 North Carolina State 4-3 and in a four-hour plus match televised on Tennis Channel, No. 6 Ohio State defeated No. 2 Florida State 4-3, with Kolie Allen coming back to beat Sasha Hill 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 at line 4 for the Buckeyes clinching point.

But the biggest result of the day was from Athens, for two reasons. The Georgia men, who have had a disappointing couple of years by their lofty standards, followed up their 4-2 win Friday over No. 10 Tennessee with a 4-0 victory over No. 3 Ohio State today, which puts them squarely back in the category of national contender. Currently No. 35 in the rankings, the Bulldogs should move up substantially in the next several weeks after these two impressive wins.  The second reason today will long be remembered by the Georgia faithful is that head coach Manny Diaz has now passed the late Dan Magill in victories, with the Ohio State win number 707 for Diaz. Magill, who made Georgia into a mecca of college tennis, coached Georgia from 1955 until Diaz took over for him in 1989. Diaz is now the winningest coach in SEC men's tennis history, and certainly will add to that total this season. For more on this milestone, see the Georgia website.