General college chat 2024/25

LordBrownof · Futures level

RE: General college chat 2024/25

Lambda · ATP qualifying

Lambda wrote:
At the Indoor Nationals, Isabelle was the only bright spot in a flat Virginia team as top seeds Georgia were dominant in doubles and the other 5 singles matches. Virginia were probably feeling the effects of two long and emotionally exhausting matches in the previous 2 rounds. Isabelle has certainly impressed this weekend and should have made a claim to move up the order for the remaining indoor matches (if there are any). They have this coming weekend off before starting conference play with a couple of matches the following weekend.

Georgia (1) d. Virginia (5) 4-0
3. Isabelle Lacy (UVA) vs Mell Reasco (UGA) 7-6(5) *2-1 unf

Georgia went on to win the title 4-1 over NCAA champions Texas A&M, in a rematch of the NCAA final, the match fittingly being clinched by their No1 Vidmanova with a straight sets win over Stoiana. Vidmanova has looked a class above this week, but thats what makes her Number 1 and NcAA singles champion.

Lambda · ATP qualifying

And so we move on to the men. The seedings and draw were released last night. 7 of the 8 first round matches have teams with British representation.

At the primary host site, Southern Methodist (SMU), Dallas, Texas we have 3 teams with British representation.

Numbers are seedings
Wake Forest (Robertson, Pow, [Thursfield]) [1] v SMU [8]
Kentucky (Rankin) [4] v NC State [5]

Wake should progress through this quarter but who they would play in the QF to do so is up for question. NC State have had the trickier schedule by far so far this semester which could give them the edge in what is otherwise too close to call.

Texas A&M [6] v Texas [3]
Michigan [7] v Virginia (Hopper) [2]

The quarter with the least British representation and only if we can still claim James ( British on his ITA and ATP profiles, but as USA on ITF). I thought Texas and Virginia would be seeded the other way around but perhaps it doesn't matter as both will be favourites to go through. Michigan is a potential banana skin for Virginia to open with. Texas v Virginia would easily be the match of the QF should it happen, as Texas looks to get revenge for their defeat at Virginia a couple of weeks ago. Texas will see it as a revenge match and be feeling confident from their win over TCU last week, so I'd favour Texas to progress from this quarter.

At the secondary hosts, Baylor (Waco, Texas), we have 6 of the 8 teams with British representation.

TCU (Pinnington, Maxted, [Swan]) [1] v Baylor (Koenig, Bowden) [8]
Duke (Brown) [4] v San Diego (Tarvet) [5]

A rematch of TCU v Baylor that was held on the same courts earlier this season and TCU came out 4-1 winners. TCU will have to play better than last weekend if they are going to get to the final. Duke will be favourites against outdoor San Diego, in what is San Diego's first appearance at the National Indoors for a long time, if ever. Usually colleges never pass up an opportunity to big up these kind of facts but USD have been silent on whether or when they last qualified. Doubtful that Oscar Brown will play as he isn't in Duke's regular doubles or singles lineups.

Stanford (Basing) [6] v Columbia [3]
Central Florida [7] v Ohio State (Jansen) [2]

Stanford blew Oklahoma away in their qualifying match, winning every set, but all too frequently in recent years don't play to their full potential, so the question, as always, is which Stanford will show up. It's not a gimme for Columbia as it is with some of the other higher ranked teams. UCF are building their team as they prepare to become the long term hosts of the NCAAs and Ohio State should be too strong for them.

There will have to be a big upset for their to be anything other than a TCU v Ohio State semi final from this site.

As with the women last week play starts Friday, QF on Saturday, SF Monday and F on Tuesday. Losers from R1 and QF play consolation matches on Saturday and Sunday to guarantee all teams 3 matches.

Lambda · ATP qualifying

Whoa, what is happening!? Upset pending?

If Ohio State are to win their R1 match they'll have to do so from a losing position in singles. After Ohio State won the doubles point with a couple of breadsticks you worried for UCF.

But UCF have come back fighting winning 4 of the 1st sets in singles with Aidan Kim, Will Jansen, Jack Anthrop and Bryce Nakashima all dropping their opening sets for Ohio State. Jansen is up a double break and serving for the 2nd set to start the fightback for the Buckeyes.

Still a lot of tennis to be played in this one though.

-- Edited by Lambda on Friday 14th of February 2025 04:44:52 PM

Lambda · ATP qualifying

Lambda wrote:
There will have to be a big upset for their to be anything other than a TCU v Ohio State semi final from this site.

Well, that didn't age very well.

The upset of upsets as the defending champions are dumped out in R1 by UCF 4-2. Wow.

Jansen on court 3 did get the 2nd set but lost the 3rd against the Moroccan Benchakroun. Ohio State also extended the matches to a 3rd set on 2 of the other 3 courts they lost the 1st set. Jack Anthrop looked odds on to put the Buckeyes 1 win away from victory being a break up at 4-2 in the 3rd, but UCF won the remaining 4 games to put them a win away from victory. Li on court 6 had 3 match points for a straight sets win for Ohio State but rolled his ankle on the 1st of those match points. He continued on, but could only hobble around the court and it was his losing the 3rd set that clinched the upset for UCF. The remaining singles match was on serve in the 3rd set, so without Li's injury and he taking his match points, the tie could have gone either way.

Virginia won their match against Michigan at the other site 4-2. James Hopper was the only singles match not to finish with his teammates clinching the match when he was serving with match points, 7-6(7) 5-2 *40-0.

Lambda · ATP qualifying

A great 1st day for the National Indoors full of upsets. In TCU's half of the draw the 2nd, 3rd and 4th seeds all fell.

In the 2nd match of the day Stanford (6) defeated Columbia (3) 4-1. Max Basing helped Stanford win the doubles point and then went on to win his singles playing at 2, defeating Koltzen 6 & 5. Texas defeated Texas A&M in the 2nd match in the other half of the draw.

Then in a near 4 hour crazy battle San Diego (5) defeated Duke (4) 4-3. They nearly blew it with Team match points on 2 courts over an hour earlier. USD got the advantage by winning the doubles point. Tarvet defeated Cooper Williams 2 & 4 to put USD to within 1 singles win of victory. At the same time his doubles team mate was serving for the match but lost 4 straight games to lose the match and put the score at 3-3. On the final court in play, USD had match points at 5-4 in the 2nd set. But Duke saved them and took it to a tie-break. USD stormed to a 5-0 lead, but in an unbelievable comeback Duke won 7 straight points to take the match to a 3rd set. It was a crazy final set with everything you could imagine. Both players had break leads, their was cramping, malfunctioning scoreboard, numerous challenges on line calls many of which were overruled by the electronic line calling (which they are trialling), coaches trying to get the opponents penalised for overrules* or time violations. Ultimately, USD won the match on back to back over-ruled line calls by the electronic line calling. Wild. USD now have a programme history best 8-0 start to the season.

The lengthy delay to the match starting didn't affect TCU who were the only team at Baylor to defeat their lower ranked opponents, by the same 4-1 scoreline that they defeated Baylor a few weeks ago. I didn't see any of this because by this time it was 2am and way past my bed time. Maxted got a singles win.

Over in the other site, NC State caused the only "upset" defeating Kentucky, Matt Ranking losing his match playing at 6. Wake Forest took a routine 4-0 win over hosts SMU. Luca was first to finish singles returning to winnings with a 2 & 1 win playing at 6 (he's dropped down a position with the arrival of Charlie). Charlie was unfinished playing at 3, leading by a set and 4-1.

Quarter-finals
UCF v Stanford
TCU v San Diego

Virginia v Texas
Wake Forest v NC State

*For those that don't know, in college tennis players call their own lines. Umpires over-rule the player's call if they judge it to be wrong. Players are allowed 1 over-rule then subsequent over-rules are penalised a point, then game, then default. They are trialling electronic line calling at these championships. Player's still call their own lines, but are allowed 3 unsuccessful challenges a set where the ELC will confirm or over-rule the call. Umpires are given discretion with ELC as to whether an over-turned point is an over-rule for the purposes of the penalty system.

LordBrownof · Futures level

That looks like a pretty good win for Oliver Tarvet. Cooper Williams was JWR3 last year and had some excellent results.

Lambda · ATP qualifying

There were numerous other matches away from the men's National Indoors yesterday.

Sofia Johnson got back to winning ways as she won 2 & 2 to help ODU get a 4-3 win over Power 4 conference opponents Kansas.

In their last match before conference play, NC State women got a fabulous 5-2 win against 6th ranked Michigan. I wasn't expecting this as Michigan have been strong and only narrowly lost in the QF of the National Indoors last week. Kristina got a 6-3 3-6 6-3 win over Sartz-Lunde playing at 5 (Sartz-Lunde was who beat Isabelle a couple of weeks ago). NC State seem to have now settled on their line-up now and it sees Kristina playing at 5 and Mia Slama replacing Gabia at 6. Unfortunately this means that Gabia and Jasmine play neither singles or doubles. In the summer I thought Gabia might be the one to miss out on a singles place but her performance in the fall season I think earned her a place as a starter and I've not seen anything prior to Gabia being dropped to see why Slama should have moved above her. I'm also a little surprised that Kristina doesn't play above Gabby Broadfoot, but there is little to separate them in all honesty.

But the performance of the day goes to Hannah Read of San Diego who went toe-to-toe against USC's Emma Charney (46) although went down in straight sets. Hannah started the year playing at 5, she was moved up to 4 last week and with USD not playing either their top 2 here due to injury, played at 2 today. Hannah fought back from 0-3* in the first set, but lost it 7-5. In the 2nd she went behind 2-5* but fought back to lead 6-5*. She had 2 set points at 6-5 40-30* and should have won the deciding point to take the set but, having sent Charney wide, at the net with an open court sent her volley just long. Facing 4 match points in the tie-break she somehow saved one of them playing great defence and then coming up with a cross-court winner after Charney had sent her from side-to-side-to-side. But that was it. Grace Piper won her match easily playing at 1 against USD's usual No 3 1 & 0. Playing at 3, Immi Haddad got the 7th and final point for USC in a 3rd set tie-break. With USD defaulting a singles point due to no available player, USC won 7-0.

Lambda · ATP qualifying

TCU d. San Diego 4-2
In the doubles, the top 2 teams met with Lui & Pedro defeating the top ranked team of Ollie & Stian seconds after JPJ+ had won their doubles. Lui & Pedro are now 12-0 against ranked teams and 7-0 against top 10 teams.

TCU go into singles 1 up and needing 3 singles.
In the all British match up on the top court, Ollie claimed the honours over JPJ in straight sets. It wasn't that JPJ played badly, Ollie just played better. That put USD up 2-1.
Pedro Vives levelled for TCU closing his match on 2 on his 5th or 6th match point and then TCU ran away with a couple of 3rd sets, including Lui on 3 to give TCU the win.

1. #2 Lui Maxted / Pedro Vives (TCU) def. #1 Oliver Tarvet / Stian Klaassen (USD): 6-3
2. Jack Pinnington / Cooper Woestendick (TCU) def. Savriyan Danilov / Iiro Vasa (USD): 6-3

1. #2 Oliver Tarvet (USD) def. #18 Jack Pinnington (TCU): 6-4, 6-2
3. #9 Lui Maxted (TCU) def. Iiro Vasa (USD): 6-4, 3-6, 6-1

Stanford d. Central Florida 4-0
UCF had an emotional hangover after their shock win over Ohio State. Max Basing won his singles 0 & 4.

Texas d. Virginia 4-1
The match scoreline is an injustice to Virginia. There was little to split these top 5 ranked teams. Virginia won the doubles. 5 singles courts went to 3 sets, and when Texas went 3-1 up, it was still anybodies with the remaining 3 courts in play all going to a 3rd set tie-break. Texas won the first of those tie-breaks to leave the tie-breaks on courts 1 & 2 unfinished.
James Hopper lost to in-form PY Bailly 6-4 1-6 6-3.

Wake Forest d. NC State 4-2
NC State showed they are better than their 19 ranking implies. After Wake got the doubles, the singles were tightly contested with Wake getting their 3 singles wins from 2 tie-break sets on 1 and 3 sets on courts 5 & 6. They are going to get a lot of points this season with Tacchi and Luca at 5 & 6. Charlie is competitive in his matches but finding it difficult to get the wins.
3. #110 Luca Staeheli (NCSU) def. #98 Charlie Robertson (WF) 6-3, 7-6 (5)
6. Luca Pow (WF) def. Jules Leroux (NCSU) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4

Lambda · ATP qualifying

The semi-finals take place on Monday at SMU.

Texas v Wake Forest
TCU v Stanford

Both matches are too close to call and will be fascinating watches, although they are 9.30pm and 12.30am starts so I will not be watching much. And the final on Tuesday is a 12.30am start so I definitely won't be watching that live.

TCU beat Stanford on the SMU courts 7-0 a few weeks ago for their only loss this season. But the match was much closer than the scoreline suggests and Stanford have shown all the signs of being a top 5 team since then, while TCU have looked a little vulnerable. With the remaining matches to be played at SMU in Dallas, the TCU boys will have the benefit of being able to sleep in their own beds and be well rested.

Lambda · ATP qualifying

Congratulations to Claire Pollard on achieving 600 wins as a college coach, the 9th women's tennis coach and 4th active women's tennis coach to have achieved the milestone.

Claire, from Surrey, started her coaching career as head coach at Mississippi State University in 1991 and was then head coach of men's and women's tennis at Lamar between 1994 and 1998 before becoming Head Coach of women's tennis at Northwestern in 1999, where she is now in her 27th season. She coached Northwestern to 15 out of 16 Big Ten Conference Championship titles between 1999 and 2014 and National Team Indoor Champions in 2009 and 2010. She was the 2008 National Head Coach of the Year and is a 5 time Big Ten coach of the year.

Prior to coaching she attended Mississippi State University where with fellow Brit, Jackie Holden, she won the NCAA Doubles championship in 1989, earning invitations to play Wimbledon and US Open. Claire and Jackie are MSU's most successful doubles players and were inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2020.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Lambda wrote:
The semi-finals take place on Monday at SMU.

Texas v Wake Forest
TCU v Stanford

Both matches are too close to call and will be fascinating watches, although they are 9.30pm and 12.30am starts so I will not be watching much. And the final on Tuesday is a 12.30am start so I definitely won't be watching that live.

TCU beat Stanford on the SMU courts 7-0 a few weeks ago for their only loss this season. But the match was much closer than the scoreline suggests and Stanford have shown all the signs of being a top 5 team since then, while TCU have looked a little vulnerable. With the remaining matches to be played at SMU in Dallas, the TCU boys will have the benefit of being able to sleep in their own beds and be well rested.

So, remind us which Brits are in these matches? I think I can see the following:

Texas (no one) v Wake Forest (where is Wake Forest?! Charlie Robertson, Luca Pow, Harry Thursfield?)

TCU (JPJ, Lui Maxted, Swan - who is Swan?) v Stanford (Max Basing)

Lambda · ATP qualifying

Ha, the one time I didn't even think to include the Brits on the teams!
You've got them correct.

Wake Forest University is in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, hence Luca getting wild cards in the Winston-Salem ATP and ITF tourneys there last year. Charlie can expect such privileges this year, it's usually part of the recruiting.

Swan is Luke Swan, Katie's brother. I list him although he is a walk on, non-playing member of the team who was recruited for his humour, fun and motivational skills to help the team relax to perform to the best of their abilities. TCU's team camaraderie is often quoted as a key factor in them winning the NCAAs last year and Luke played a big part in that and why the coach says he was their MVP. He's always making funny videos for social media. I say recruited, he was already at TCU having walked away from tennis but realised during his first year that he was missing it. He spent time travelling with Katie being her hitting partner to get experience and hounded TCU's coach for a try out and eventually it was JPJ who persuaded the coach to give Luke a try out. Within 3 days of a 2 week try out he was on the team such was the impression he made.

Lambda · ATP qualifying

It's 2-2 between Wake Forest and Texas. This has an hour to go yet, so I'm off to bed.

Luca won. Charlie is up a set but down a break and looking like heading to a 3rd. 1 of the other matches has just gone to a 3rd and DK Suresh and Gorzny are in a 3rd set tie-break.

Lambda · ATP qualifying

The final of the mens National Team Indoor Championships will be between the TCU Horned Frogs and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. It will be TCUs 4th consecutive National Indoors final.

Wake Forest d. Texas 4-3
3. No. 121 Pierre-Yves Bailly (TEX) def. No. 98 Charlie Robertson (WFU) 6(4)-7, 6-3, 6-1
6. Luca Pow (WFU) def. Sebastian Eriksson (TEX) 6-2, 7-5

TCU d. Stanford 4-0
It was a close doubles taking an hour to play with Jack+ losing 5-7, Lui+ winning 7-5 against Max+ and the third and deciding doubles won by TCU in a 9-7 tie break.
1. #18 Jack Pinnington (TCU) vs. #31 Samir Banerjee (Stanford): 6-4, 4-5, unfinished
2. #6 Pedro Vives (TCU) def. #114 Max Basing (Stanford): 6-4, 6-3
3. #9 Lui Maxted (TCU) vs. Kyle Kang (Stanford): 6-4, 1-6, 1-1, unfinished

Final
The expected match ups in the final featuring our guys are
1. #2 Lui Maxted / Pedro Vives (TCU) Vs #30 DK Suresh / Stefan Dostanic (WFU)
2. Jack Pinnington / Cooper Woestendick (TCU) Vs #3 Luciano Tacchi / Luca Pow (WFU)

1. #18 Jack Pinnington (TCU) Vs #17 Stefan Dostanic (WFU)
3. #9 Lui Maxted (TCU) vs #98 Charlie Robertson (WFU)
6. Luca Pow (WFU) Vs Albert Pedrico (TCU)