Auburn v Illinois women's match being streamed at 9pm tonight - Georgie Axon and Alannah Griffin should be playing

http://auburntige.rs/2k5Kxji 

May the Emily As rule !

I think as much as anything, it is the fact that the players on the tour are having longer careers now, even on the women's side, making the path to success longer and harder.  The structure of points and spread of tournaments on the women's side also make the jump from 25K to 60K very hard.  I think a lot of the top girls going to college are hoping to avoid several years in the lower levels and be able to get through them really quickly when they leave, maybe having built up a ranking in the holidays or events local to their colleges.  There's also the financial aspect of a longer road to the top now, although I'm sure Emily Appleton would have been helped by the LTA in this regard (although maybe not given that Jay C struggled to get help).  Plus its very attractive to the youngsters to grow up and grow their game out of the limelight of being one of the UK's next great hopes with all the public scrutiny that entails.  I've heard another of our top girls is also being heavily recruited and seriously considering this route (no names as i have not seen it anywhere publicly) and with Jack Draper heading off too I think you are right that this now seems the way to go.

-- Edited by The Optimist on Saturday 4th of February 2017 08:56:04 AM

And that's even assuming they stick it through 4 years to get a degree.

The credit system is so flexible that you can do 1 year or 2 years or whatever, and then bank your credits for later in life and finish your degree of then, if you want to. i.e. you're not making a firm four year commitment.

My hope, more importantly, is that the chance of going to college, or the great opportunity it presents, will make our players (and others, but British ones in particular as it seemed a real problem here) at least stay in education long enough to give themselves the chance.

If it stops them dropping out at age 15 or 16, then I think US college tennis will have done them a huge benefit, even if they never end up going.

Latest college rankings.  These are based on results in the college system only, hence Cam's lowly position - he has hardly played within the college system this academic year.

Women

57 - Holly Hutchinson - Old Dominion

59 - Emily Arbuthnott - Stanford

88 - Pardis Kianoush - Alabama-Birmingham

120 - Alannah Griffin - Auburn

Dubs

23 - Sabrina Federici - Texas Tech

24 - Emily Smith - Vanderbilt

31 - Georgie Axon - Auburn

37 - Alannah Griffin - Auburn

Men

32 - Julian Cash - Oklahoma State

35 - Cameron Norrie - Texas Christian

74 - Jack Findel-Hawkins - North Florida

78 - Vinny Gillespie - Drake

97 - Ryan Peniston - Memphis

Dubs

2 - Jack Findell-Hawkins - North Florida

4 - Jathan Malik - Michigan

5 - Julian Cash - Oklahoma State

9 - Tommy Bennett - Rice

34 - Alex Gasson - Denver

Emily Arb in dubs is W6 / L2 but the strength of the opponents is taken into account as far as ranking points are concerned.  Seems to be paired regularly with Taylor Davidson and they are playing at #1 in the lineup so they will get quality opponents as the season rolls on and I've no doubt they'll be ranked before too long.