US College Signings 2017 (and general college tennis chat)

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

RE: US College Signings 2017 (and general college tennis chat)

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

America's way of helping their own college tennis players transition to the main tour

http://www.flotennis.com/article/53315-oracle-ita-announce-100-000-u-s-tennis-grants?utm_campaign=BNPParibas&utm_medium=SocialMedia&utm_source=Twitter&utm_content=Article&utm_term=100kGrant#.WMkFxBh0ei4

Oakland2002 · All-time great

It's amazing, personally that money I feel should be spent on facilitating equity and diversity of access of Americans to tennis scholarships the reality is it just facilitates the scouring of the rest of the world for good junior players some on the cusp but most good players but well off being able to make a living from playing professional tennis. The coaches could still be paid reasonably well and indeed that should be related to diverse recruitment specifically focusing on growing local talent in the public schools system that way one would be growing the game.

There is a place I feel, and this is a personal view, for allowing a quota of overseas players in the power conferences to allow some consolidation and bring the standard to a level closer to that found on the futures tour but it gets ridiculous when more than 50% of players are not qualified to play for the US in DC.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Added Ellen C-T, Louie M, Chelsea-May S and Hannah W to those going Stateside.

steven · Tennis legend

I was all set to go to watch my first college tennis match today (VCU's tennis center is less than half an hour's walk away and their women's team is playing Oklahoma, which has a British assistant coach and one British player on their 'roster') but they moved the venue to Norfolk (33 hours walk away - no thanks!) at the last moment for some unknown reason.

A great pity because VCU (who play in the Atlantic 10 conference, whatever than means) don't play than many matches at home ... and even fewer matches against teams with Brits in them.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Latest rankings:

Women

89 - Holly Hutchinson - Old Dominion

95 - Emily Arbuthnott - Stanford

Dubs

8 - Emily SMith - Vanderbilt

36 - Sabrina Federici- Texas Tech

41 - Kim Schmider - Indiana-Bloomington

54 - Georgie Axon - Auburn

56 - Emily Arbuthnott - Stanford

80 - Zoe Douglas - Iowa

80 - Elise Van Heuvelen - Iowa

So in the women's dubs we've lost Alannah Griffin and gained Emily Arbuthnott, Zoe Douglas and Elise Van Heuvelen

Men:

3 - Cameron Norrie - Texas Christian

23 - Julian Cash - Oklahoma State

58 - Jack Findel-Hawkins - North Florida

61 - Vinny Gillespie - Drake

75 - Andrew Watson - Memphis

91 - Jathan Malik - Michigan

Dubs

2 - Julian Cash - Oklahoma State

3 - Jack Findel-hawkins - North Florida

5 - Jathan Malik - Michigan

28 - Tommy Bennett - Rice

61 - Sebastian Rey - Tulane

64 - Ricky Hernandez-Tong - New Mexico

So in the men we've gained Jathan Malik and lost Sebastian Rey and Ewan Moore and in the men's dubs we've gained Ricky Hernandez-Tong and lost Alex Gasson

Spectator · All-time great

Hugely impressive from Julian Cash - sustained high rankings. Good work from Jack Findel-Hawkins and others, too. Will be very interesting to see what happens after they finish university. But I am mystified by Ms Arbuthnott's fall in rankings. I went to the Stanford site and looked - and over the weekend she won two more matches. In fact, as far as I can tell, she hasn't lost a match in match competition all year (though she would have, at Florida, in all likelihood, had it been completed). I see that the last two teams they played were lower/un-ranked, and she plays in the 5th position ... so maybe it's a computer algorithm thing? But it certainly doesn't feel remotely accurate.

I also checked one thing that seemed odd and it turned out to be accurate - Cornell University suddenly soaring into the top 20 last week. Couldn't work that one out at all - until it emerged that they had had a run in which they beat Tennessee, Penn State, Clemson, Wisconsin, Indiana and Oklahoma. Would not have seen that coming.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Wow.. that is quite a run from Cornell !! Regarding Emily's ranking, it's much harder to get ranked if you are playing low in the lineup. The algorithm awards points on a sliding scale depending on the rank of the person you beat; from loads of points for beating player ranked #1 down to a nominal amount for beating an unranked player. The points you receive for each individual win are calculated according to the opponent's ranking at the time of each rankings run as opposed to their rank at the time you beat them. At each rankings run only the best x wins are taken into account, with x gradually becoming a higher number as the season progresses. There is also a points penalty for every loss. The system is designed so that rankings can move around a lot during the season so it reflects if a team / player has a sudden good run. Although Stanford has ranked players from top to bottom, very few other teams do and so Emily's chances of getting a really big points haul from a win is restricted.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Who are the two ahead of Cam?

Spectator · All-time great

Mikael Torpegaard and Petros Chrysochos. We've certainly encountered Torpegaard, who seems to be a fine player. On the other hand, I was reading something the other day where a fairly prominent person - Stephen Amitraj? Martin Blackman? - named Cameron Norrie as the best current player in the university system.

And thanks, Optimist, for explaining re: Ms Arbuthnott.

-- Edited by Spectator on Wednesday 22nd of March 2017 06:51:23 PM

skibbarriz · Strong Club Player

Just here to say i found those posts at the top really interesting. Nice work. And that new grant for college players can only be a good thing.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

A bit of dead mans shoes at Stanford for Emily I feel, but the quality of week in week out practice in a deep roster for me significantly outweighs the more rapid assault on rankings of being a big fish in a small pond over the longer term. The No 1 and 2 last year where shared between three juniors (Davidson and Doyle) and Carol Zhao who has left early for the WTA, a strong freshman intake of which Lord and Lampl at 5 and 6 went 23-12 and 28-5! respectively. The level of competition on the west coast is high Cal, USC, and UCLA are all powerhouses.

I also feel there is an expectation from both students and team that they play their full 4 years of eligibility. PAC 12 championships are in late April followed by Nationals so the season is flying by. It will be interesting to see how much ITF tennis Emily can get in and where!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

The Mouratoglou claims to be (and probably is) the top European academy for placement of players into the US college system. (No British players there, I don't think)

But I remember somebody was asking about scholarships some time back. This shows the percentages normally given:

www.mouratoglou.com/tennis-student-usa.html

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Stanford ladies are now beating up the PAC 12!

I think they have won 6 on the trot, panned Arizona State 4-0 on Friday. They I think now have an understanding of quite how good a recruit Emily is for the reigning national champions she has won the clincher in 4 of their wins.

All 6 girls have national rankings much stronger on paper than that that won last year as the lowest ranked team for sometime to take the tittle? Ever? To have Emily playing 5 is brutal for their opponents. Hopefully now she has got her eye in and aclimitised to Palo Alto I think she will show her true pedigree in the NCAA singles.

Stanford had a tough start and got caught cold loosing early doors to number 1 Florida but it's looking like an exciting April and May for the Cardinal!!

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Monday 27th of March 2017 09:17:23 PM

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Emily played 4 on Sunday and dished out bakery products as Stanfords hottest player won 12 straight. Stanford are now seeded national at No.5, the team beating Hawai 4-0 on the farm on Sunday.