Week 43 - ITF ($10K) - El Kantaoui, Tunisia Hard

Oakland2002 · All-time great

RE: Week 43 - ITF ($10K) - El Kantaoui, Tunisia Hard

Spectator · All-time great

Actually, to my surprise, I just had a wee look at the standings, and at least according to one system, the Ivy League is ranked 4th among athletic conferences for tennis in the US (not sure if that's for men or for women or for both). They have some good coaches, too: when I was looking at the Stanford people, I noticed that Laura Granville (ex-Stanford star and winner of two WTA doubles titles) is now the head coach at Princeton.

Sorry re: hijacking ... all the best to Mirabelle!

Oakland2002 · All-time great

One last comment on the relative strengths of the different conferences in ladies college tennis.

Looking at the most recent rankings, the top 100 is dominated by four conferences the PAC 12, ACC, SEC and Big 12

In terms of base lining the level of the top 20 players ie the best players you would be tested against at the national championship finals their mean junior combined rank is 370.55 (ie Elizabeth Maloney is playing at the average standard these girls played at at their peak as a junior) range 9-1621
What do good American players think of college tennis?
There are 9 foreign players in the top 20.
5 players had junior ranks under 100, only 1 is an American (and only just 99!)

Who would you get to hit with day in day out, one college Stanford has 3 players in the top 20, (4 in 100), Florida 2(5), Virginia 3 (3), Cal 2(5), Miami 2(4), vandy 2(5), UNC 1(2), USC1(4), Texas AM 1(3), Georgia (6). Really these would be the places you would want to be if you had serious aspirations of pursuing a professional singles career after college.

There are 2 Ivy League players in the top 100 ranked 67 and 98, average junior rank 1,534. One from Dartmouth the other at Harvard.
So the drop off in talent level outside the top 4 conferences is very step.

There is one real standout player presently ranked 1 with junior CH of 9 she is Canadian and at Stanford so probably opted to put a Stanford degree in the bank although only 19 if she wants to play pro should quit and go now, McEnroe (J) did just that. There are two other girls who ranked at a similar level to Emily at their peak in world juniors (27) both overseas and from the eastern block.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Mirabelle+ made the final of the doubles today of the delayed tournament, but ended up runners-up:

Semifinal

Mathilda MALM (SWE) / Mirabelle NJOZE (GBR) 7-6(4) 4-4 Retired Margarita LAZAREVA (RUS) / Yana SIZIKOVA (RUS) [1]

Final

Daiana NEGREANU (ROU) / Kyra SHROFF (IND) [2] 6-2 6-4 Mathilda MALM (SWE) / Mirabelle NJOZE (GBR)

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Oakland2002 wrote:
Interesting isn't it. Not many women progress on to the top echelons of the professional game via the college route but the opportunities open to Emily if she really is that academic and an elite lacrosse player as a two sport elite athlete at somewhere like Stanford (although Duke would be a better fit if she really is that good at Lacrosse) make going to the right college a very strong option.

Her tennis probably puts her at a level where she would be very well looked after academically and the option to walk on at the very least in a second sport too good to miss and very much encouraged and facilitated at Stanford. Not saying they are ten a penny but to be considered a two sport athlete there takes a bit more than playing a couple of sports for the school more a question of dominating state championships. As an institution the Olympic medal hall of alumni compares favourably with a mid sized European country (2012 Australia or Yorkshire)

Two of their best recent professional athletes were duel sport with Tyler Gaffney being drafted by the Pirates (baseball) coming back to play football and then getting picked up as a running back in the NFL. Toby Gehart was even more impressive playing full baseball seasons forgoing the baseball draft coming second in the Heisman trophy ( best college footballer nationally!) and then getting drafted in the second round to the Minnesota Vikings, he did a difficult degree and was being tutored and examined individually in the days running upto the Heisman presentation a national event with saturated media coverage following the candidates around town in the run up, or Toby's case a bit more limited and a sorry I've got some tests to do.

Thinking on a slightly different level though to have a few very good but academic tennis players who are committed to tennis going to somewhere like Stanford doing a full degree and then potential try the tour would if they were to comeback potentially give them an excellent all round tennis and business education which could bring a new level of professionalism to UKs tennis administration. The most powerful women in the NFL who grew up emersed in football as Mr Jones daughter (Dallas Cowboys) did just that and is now a major contributor to what remains a VERY fiscally sound family business. Lots and lots of options!

And Emily takes your advice........has signed for Stanford today! Well done Miss Arbuthnot, that's a terrific achievement.