Jaquelyn Ogunwale (Miami) got her 4th win of the week as Miami made a strong statement defeating #23 Notre Dame 4-0 without dropping a doubles or singles set. That win will put them into the top 75 in next week's rankings. Having only played 7 matches all year, Miami are currently in the middle of a stretch playing 7 matches in 10 days, ending with a trip to Florida State on Wednesday.
Eva Shaw (Florida State) is now 5-1 at No 1 singles after another straight sets win yesterday and 9-0 in doubles with her partner. But it wasn't enough as Florida State had a shocking 3-4 home loss to Louisville. Millie Bissett lost her singles at No 3. As FSU are still to play the top teams there are still lots of ranking points up for grabs, but if they can't win against Louisville at home, then it is difficult to see how they will beat NC State, Stanford, Cal, Duke or UNC. Qualification for the NCAA regionals looks a distant hope for them at this point.
Grace Piper (USC) showed the fighting spirit that a No 1 Senior should display as she won a hard fought match 7-6(6) 5-7 7-5 yesterday to get the clinch point that gave USC a 4-3 win. USC travelled to Seattle to play Washington in their opening Big Ten conference match, their first away trip and first indoor match of the year. Not having played indoors showed with several players struggling to adapt to indoor tennis. USC have a very strong doubles, and are yet to lose the doubles point this year. After doubles, they lost 5 1st sets in singles, with Grace at No 1 singles the only 1st set for USC. Immi Haddad struggled at No 4 singles, playing her team mate from last year who played above her in the USC line-up and she lost 1 & 3. Down 1-3 USC won the remaining 3 singles matches, including Grace's to take the dual.
Alicia Dudeney and Talia Neilson-Gatenby both got straight sets singles wins for Florida as Florida won 4-0 at Mississippi State. Florida appear to have recruited another player to bolster their depleted roster after being down to 6 available players.
Charlie Robertson was absent from Wake Forest's line-up. Don't know if he was injured or has been given some time off. But it shows his value to the team when the coach says "It was nice to get Stef (Dostanic) back out there without Charlie in the lineup". Missing players don't normally get mentioned, let alone be put in the same sentence as the team's No 1 returning. Luca did what he does, win at doubles and singles. You wouldn't expect anything else would you? Wake Forest won 4-0 against Miami.
TCU opened their Big12 conference campaign with a 4-2 win at Central Florida. TCU were missing Lui's doubles partner, so JPJ and partner moved to No 1 doubles and Lui with an alternative parter was at No 2 doubles. It made no difference as they both won to give TCU the doubles point. JPJ won in 3 sets against #85 Yassine Dlimi and Lui, moving up to No 2 singles in the absence of Pedro Vives, halted his recent losing streak with a straight sets win.
The match report for Ohio State says "Aidan Kim and Will Jansen played one of their better matches of the season on court one." I wonder if they meant to say one of their best matches, as it doesn't sound particularly flattering the way it is written. Will played No 3 singles and was a set and a break down but fought back to 5-5 in the 2nd set when Ohio State won and his match was abandoned.
Charlie Robertson was absent from Wake Forest's line-up. Don't know if he was injured or has been given some time off. But it shows his value to the team when the coach says "It was nice to get Stef (Dostanic) back out there without Charlie in the lineup". Missing players don't normally get mentioned, let alone be put in the same sentence as the team's No 1 returning. Luca did what he does, win at doubles and singles. You wouldn't expect anything else would you? Wake Forest won 4-0 against Miami.
TCU opened their Big12 conference campaign with a 4-2 win at Central Florida. TCU were missing Lui's doubles partner, so JPJ and partner moved to No 1 doubles and Lui with an alternative parter was at No 2 doubles. It made no difference as they both won to give TCU the doubles point. JPJ won in 3 sets against #85 Yassine Dlimi and Lui, moving up to No 2 singles in the absence of Pedro Vives, halted his recent losing streak with a straight sets win.
The match report for Ohio State says "Aidan Kim and Will Jansen played one of their better matches of the season on court one." I wonder if they meant to say one of their best matches, as it doesn't sound particularly flattering the way it is written. Will played No 3 singles and was a set and a break down but fought back to 5-5 in the 2nd set when Ohio State won and his match was abandoned.
Charlie was playing the ITF15 up in Canada (although he had to retire half-way through yesterday's QF match)
I see that Bronte Murgett was appointed as Assistant Coach at Virginia Tech women at the beginning of the season, explaining her absence from the pro tour. She joins Megan Forster (Graduated Colorado 2022, Grad student North Florida 2023) who was also appointed Assistant Coach for Virginia Tech women in the summer after a year as student assistant coach for VT women's tennis and administration for VT men's tennis.
I see that Bronte Murgett was appointed as Assistant Coach at Virginia Tech women at the beginning of the season, explaining her absence from the pro tour. She joins Megan Forster (Graduated Colorado 2022, Grad student North Florida 2023) who was also appointed Assistant Coach for Virginia Tech women in the summer after a year as student assistant coach for VT women's tennis and administration for VT men's tennis.
Bronte's lovely - all the very best in your new role
Great win for #8 Ollie Tarvet (San Diego) tonight defeating NCAA Champion #1 Michael Zheng (Columbia) 5-7 7-5 6-3 after being *0-3 in the final set. But Columbia won the dual 4-3.
Men's singles rankings have little change. Ollie retains his top 10 ranking despite not playing much through injury since the last rankings. PJ continues to make progress towards the top 10 as he plays catch up after skipping the fall season. Lui's recent losses hurt his ranking as he drops to 20. 7. (8) Oliver Tarvet (San Diego, position 1) 15. (20) Jack Pinnington-Jones (TCU, position 1) 20. (15) Lui Maxted (TCU, position 3) 40. (46) Jamie Connel (Florida State, position 2) 54. (57) Connor Thomson (South Carolina, position 3) 76. (71) Max Basing (Stanford, position 2) 83. (75) Roan Jones (Alabama, position 2) 102. (102) Alex Okonkwo (Tulsa, position 1) 113. (90) Henry Jefferson (Florida, position 4) 112. (94) Raffaello Papajcik (Denver, position 2)
Lui+ retain the No 1 spot over Ollie+. Luca+ move back to No 3. Very healthy looking doubles rankings with 7 Brits in 6 teams in the top 20. 1 (1) Lui Maxted (/Vives)[TCU] 2 (2) Oliver Tarvet (/Klaassen)[San Diego] 3 (6) Luca Pow (/Tacchi)[Wake Forest] 10 (13) Billy Blaydes/Will Nolan [Auburn] 15 (26) Connor Thomson(/da Silva)[South Carolina] 18 (19) Henry Jefferson (/Nirundorn)[Florida] 22 (38) James Hopper(/Rice)[Virginia] 26 (23) Freddy Blaydes(/Ratiu)[Georgia] 40 (50) Charlie Robertson (/Suresh)[Wake Forest]
In women's singles we have a couple of new entrants Alicia and Eva enter the top 125. Lots more ranking points available to them both over the next month, especially Eva, but it will be tough against much higher ranked opponents. Eva gets her toughest test yet tonight when she will play May's NCAA champion, Alexa Noel.
13. (10) Sofia Johnson (Old Dominion, Senior, position 1) 46. (47) Grace Piper (Southern California, Senior, position 1) 82. (73) Immi Haddad (Southern California, Sophomore, position 4) 91. (126+) Alicia Dudeney (Florida, Senior, position 2) 112. (126+) Eva Shaw (Florida State, Sophomore, position 1) 114. (104) Isabelle Lacy (Virginia, Freshman, position 4)
Grace+ move into the top 5 doubles teams. Hannah Rylatt+ jumps into the top 30 from outside the top 90 after a strong run including some highly ranked wins and is our 2nd highest ranked doubles with Dudeney/Gailis not an active partnership in the spring season. 5 (8) Grace Piper (/Fairclough)[Southern California] 6 (6) Alicia Dudeney (/Gailis)[Florida]* 30 (91+) Hannah Rylatt (/Lincer)[Central Florida] 54 (67) Hannah Smith (/Goncharov)[DePaul] 58 (46) Savannah Dada-Mascoll (/Romanichen)[Appalachian State] 60 (91+) Alicia Dudeney (/Spee)[Florida] 62 (91+) Given Roach (/Cruz)[Georgia Tech] 67 (28) Lily Hutchings (/Berlanga)[Tulsa] 77 (42) Jojo Bach (/McCarty)[Montana State] 89 (84) Eva Shaw (/Romero)[Florida State]
Not a good day for the Horned Frog Brits but TCU still won 4-2 against Arizona. 1: #4 Colton Smith (UA) def. #15 Jack Pinnington (TCU): 6-1, 6-2 2: #8 Jay Friend (UA) def. #20 Lui Maxted (TCU): 6-0, 6-2
Wake Forest defeated Notre Dame 4-2, but lost their first doubles point of the year. Charlie lost his doubles and didn't play singles. Luca was unfinished in doubles and won singles. 4. Luca Pow (WFU) def. Peter Nad (ND) 6-4, 6-4
Ohio State defeated Winconsin 4-0. Will Jansen is forming a formidable partnership with Aidan Kim winning 6-1 3. Will Jansen (OSU) def. Tomas Zlatohlavek (WIS) 6-2, 6-1
San Diego defeated Harvard 5-2 in their final non-conference match 1. #7 Oliver Tarvet (USD) def. #27 Daniel Milavsky (HAR) 7-6 (7-3), 6-1
Stanford defeated Virginia Tech 4-0 with Max Basing playing at No 1 singles 1. No. 76 Max Basing (STAN) d. Maxime St. Hilaire (VT), 6-1, 6-4
Women NC State have a big weekend playing away to both their top 10 neighbours in the Research Triangle. Against Duke NC State lost 3-4. Jasmine Conway was brought in to No2 doubles lost 5-7. Kristina P+ was beaten by Liv Hovde and Emma Jackson 1- as NC State surprisingly lost doubles. This was their 1st loss in conference play. 5. #66 Shavit Kimchi (DU) def. Kristina Paskauskas (NCSU) 5-7, 6-3, 6-1
Florida lost 2-4 to Missouri. A bad loss I didn't see coming after making great strides of late. But Liss is looking strong winning doubles 6-1 and winning her last 4 singles matches for the loss of only 10 games. 2. #91 Alicia Dudeney (UF) def. Inah Canete (MIZ) 6-3, 6-1 3. Lailaa Bashir (MIZ) def. Talia Neilson-Gatenby (UF) 7-5, 7-6
Florida State got their 2nd win this week defeating SMU 4-3 following a 4-3 win over Miami on Wednesday. Eva+ had a comeback win in doubles to maintain their unbeaten record. Millie Skelton was missing from SMU's line up. 1. #112 Eva Shaw (FSU) def. Sophie Llewellyn (SMU) 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 4. Arianna Stavropoulos (SMU) def. Millie Bissett (FSU) 6-4, 6-4
Georgia Tech defeated Syracuse 4-2. GT swept doubles. GT missing their No 3, gave Kylie an opportunity in singles. She made a good case in the 1st set in asking why have i been benched this year, using her experience as a No2 to play tennis that was worthy of a higher court than No 6. But then errors started to creep into her game in the 2nd, perhaps a result of not playing singles for a while, and what should have been an easy 2 set win turned into a 3 set unfinished match. 3: Serafima Shastova (SU) def. Given Roach (GT) 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 6: Kylie Bilchev (GT) vs. Monika Wojcik (SU) 6-2, 4-6, 2-3, unfinished
ODU defeated South Alabama 4-1 1. #13 Sofia Johnson (ODU) def. Delien Kleinhans (USA) 6-2, 6-1
San Diego defeated Portland 4-1 in their opening conference match. Hannah Read clinching the match with a win over fellow Brit Alaia Rubio Perez. Portland's all British No 1 doubles team of Pethybridge and Perez was in a tight battle with the No 23 duo of San Diego before the match went unfinished. I'm beginning to think San Diego is a dangerous place to play tennis after seeing 2 of the men's team on crutches last week and the women's team not being able to field a full singles line-up on multiple occasions this season, including in this match. 1. Claudia de las Heras (USD) vs. Sally Pethybridge (POR) 6-3, 5-7, 1-1, unfinished 2. Hannah Read (USD) def. Alaia Rubio Perez (POR) 7-6 (7-4), 6-1
Isabelle Lacy lost her doubles match for Virginia against California, and didn't play singles.
Alabama def Kentucky 4-3. Alabama's 3rd conference win will move them up to 12th in the table
S2: Jack Loutit (UK) def Roan Jones (UA) 6-1 6-7 6-3 S5: Matt Rankin (UK) def Matic Kriznik (UA) 6-1 6-7 6-4
Women 5 Brits involved in USC/Michigan State, but USC were too strong for MSU as they win 4-0. USC go 3-0 in the conference. Tomorrow they play conference leaders, Michigan.
Men Wake Forest go 26-0 (8-0 conference) with a 4-1 win at Louisville. Charlie Robertson wins doubles 7-5 and singles 4 & 1 at No 3 Luca Pow loses doubles 3-6 and wins singles 4 & 3 at No 4
Women Georgia Tech win 4-0 against Boston College Kylie Bilchev wins singles 1 & 0 at No 6 Given Roach is unfinished a set up at No 3
Florida lose 2-5 at home to Vanderbilt Talia Neilsen-Gatenby retired at 2-6 0-3 at No 3 against #44 Bridget Stammel. She came into the match with strapping on her upper leg. I think she's been playing with the issue for some time. Alicia Dudeney won 1-6 6-0 [10-8] at No 2 against #56 Valeria Ray. As Vanderbilt had already clinched the dual, a MTB was played instead of a 3rd set. Talia's retirement adds to Florida's injury problems. They are already playing a recently added walk on at No 6, who appears to be uncompetitive at this level.
Virginia women are playing Stanford now - Isabelle just levelled at 1 set each. NC State women will start at UNC shortly. USC women will play at home to Michigan later tonight TCU men are in play against Arizona State and have just won the doubles point.
Wake Forest retained their unbeaten status (28-0) with wins over Clemson and Georgia Tech. Charlie won both doubles at No 1 with Suresh, and at No 3 singles was unfinished 3-0 up in the 3rd against Clemson and won against Georgia Tech. Luca won his doubles and singles against Clemson and his singles at No 5 against GT. with just 2 weekends left of their regular season they will be the No 1 ranked team going into the Conference Championships and NCAAs. The ACC regular season title will likely come down to a final weekend showdown against NC State, who are also unbeaten in ACC play.
TCU headed to the mountains, to play BYU and Utah and have some fun in the snow, without their No 1 and 2 singles. JPJ playing pro and Pedro injured. Lui repartnered for doubles and played at No 3 doubles and No 1 singles. Against Utah, he lost doubles and won singles, against BYU he won doubles and was down 0-3 in the 3rd for singles. TCU remain 2nd in the rankings and were always going to win the 9 team men's Big 12 conference with their main competitors having moved conferences last summer. Max Relic (Utah) lost his singles at No 4.
Ollie Tarvet surprisingly lost doubles in San Diego's sole match of the weekend but won singles 2 &2 as USD staged a comeback to win 4-3 against Loyola Marymount. They stay 7th in the rankings and as by far the strongest team in the WCC conference should win that easily with 5 of their 7 matches remaining.
Virginia had two 4-1 wins against Louisville and Notre Dame. Isabelle at No 3 singles against Louisville won and at No 4 singles against Notre Dame was unfinished 3-1 in the 3rd. She lost an early break in the 1st which she couldn't recover, but won the 2nd easily 6-2. They remain 5th in the rankings and are 4th in the ACC table. Their remaining 3 matches are against the bottom 3 teams in the ACC. Unfortunately, they don't have 1st place Duke or 3rd place UNC on their ACC schedule this year leaving moving up the table out of their hands and for all 3 of these teams leaving valuable ranking points on the table. Very unwise move by the ACC to handicap their teams in the rankings.
NC State remain unbeaten at home with a 4-0 win over Clemson and 4-3 over Georgia Tech. Against Clemson, Jasmine Conway, who appears to have got a regular place at No 2 doubles, replacing Mia Slama to concentrate on singles, won. Kristina Paskauskas+ defeated Annabelle Davis+ at No 3 doubles. KP also won at No 5 singles, while Annabelle was unfinished against Maddy Zampardo at No 3 singles.
In the match with Georgia Tech, there were Brits on all doubles courts. Kylie Bilchev (GT) lost against the No 2 ranked duo from NCST, Jasmine+ defeated Given Roach + at No 2 and KP+ was first to win at No 3 doubles. GT, for some reason like to play out all doubles, even when the doubles point is won in 2. In singles, just Given at No 4 and KP at No 5 both lost. Unfortunately for Gabia, Mia Slama at NC State No 6 is putting in some clutch performances, leaving Gabia at No 7 singles unable to get playing opportunities.
NC State will fall 1 to No 12 in the rankings and are at No 6 in the ACC table. They are in Florida next weekend against struggling Florida State and Miami and a difficult final weekend at home to Cal and Stanford. Clemson fall to 35 in the rankings and are 12th in the 17 team women's ACC. GT will be 26 in the rankings and 8th in the ACC.
Florida State and Miami hosted Cal and Stanford in a difficult weekend for them. Florida State lost both matches. Against a strong Cal side, Eva at No 1 singles was unfinished against #37 Mushika 6-2 3-6 3-1. Millie Bissett, moved back up to No 2 singles, lost 3 & 4 against the #115. On Sunday against Stanford, both Eva and Millie were outclassed by Glozman (2 & 2) and Ma (1 & 1) at No 1 and 2 singles respectively. FSU are currently projected to be 75 in the rankings and are 10th in the ACC.
Jaquelyn Ogunwale ( Miami) frustrated Connie Ma (Stanford) in the first set at No 2 singles on Friday, but couldn't sustain it in the 2nd as she loses 6-7(6) 0-6. Miami's match against Cal was suspended after 1 game of doubles and they'll try again this morning. Miami are currently projected to be 71 in the rankings and are 9th in the ACC table.
Talia returned for Florida after last weekend's retirement but still with her leg strapped and got a 3 set win at No 3 singles as Florida defeated Arkansas 6-1. The ever reliable Alicia Dudeney, who's having a strong spring season got a straight sets win. However, on Sundays she was missing from Florida's line up against top 10 Oklahoma. With other players out with long term injuries, this meant Florida had to forfeit 1 doubles and 1 singles, and with an uncompetitive walk on at No 5 singles were effectively playing with 4 singles, and at least 2 of them carrying injuries. With Florida having lost doubles, forfeited No 6 singles and a guaranteed loss at No 5, Oklahoma only needed 1 other singles win to win the dual, which they naturally did. In Liss's absence, Talia was moved to No 2 singles and won the 1st set 7-5 against No 19 Julia Garcia Ruiz. She trailed 0-4 in the 2nd when the dual was won. I wonder if Talia's injury is why she can't sustain strong 1st sets into the 2nd, which has been a consistent theme over the last couple of months.
Florida fall to 34 in the rankings and are 11th in the 16 team women's SEC.
Sophia Johnson won both her singles as ODU continue unbeaten in the Sun Belt conference and remain at 41 in the rankings.
Hannah Read, moved to No 2 singles in an injury hit San Diego team, won doubles with a bagel and singles 1 & 1 as San Diego win 4-0 against Loyola Marymount. They are ranked 56 and are 2nd in early WCC play. Having been without their No 1 for most of the season, you wonder where they could have been ranked with a full strength squad.
Hannah Rylatt ( Central Florida) continues her strong doubles with 1 unfinished leading 5-2 and 1 win. At No 5 singles she lost 1 and was unfinished at 1 set all in the other. UCF move up to 17 in the rankings and top the 16 team women's Big 12 conference.
Holly Fischer lost No1 doubles and No 1 singles as Harvard opened their Ivy League schedule against Dartmouth. Holly is 5-4 in singles for the season, 4-4 at No 1 singles. Harvard is around 160 in the rankings.