British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Lambda · ATP level

RE: General college chat 2024/25

Lambda · ATP level

JonH comes home wrote:

Good to see what looks like 6 or even 7 men still in for finals weekend. Outside the USA itself, GB must be up there with the most represented? Is each team an 8 player squad, so maybe 64 players - and we have 6 or 7? Thats decent.

In the submitted line-ups for the finals, of the 83 players listed, GB is the next best represented after USA along with Spain.

Number of players submitted for finals (number played L16)
USA 37 (22)
GBR 8 (6)
Spain 6 (6)
Canada 3 (2)
Switzerland 3 (2)

Luke Swan (TCU) and Harry Thursfield (Wake Forest) are the 2 other GB players on the line-ups.

Interestingly, although 22 Americans played the L16 for the 8 teams that have qualified for the finals, most of them were for Columbia, Stanford and UCLA. Take those 3 teams out and the number of Americans that played the L16 from the other 5 finals teams is only 7.

There are 25 nations represented in total
Argentina, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, GBR, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Peru, Slovakia, South Korea,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, USA

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Thanks Lambda, and its good to see the number of Brits is so relatively high. I wonder, do the American schools send scouts out here to watch players or is it all done via videos ?

Lambda · ATP level

From interviews I've heard with coaches about recruitment, videos, UTR, wtn all play their part but from many of those I've heard interviewed most player identification is done by them talking to their network of trusted connections they have built and with either the head coach, assistant coach or both doing scouting trips. I can't remember any talking about scouts per se identifying players. I think with budgets of tennis programmes being so tight I'm not sure many would be able to afford scouts.

Lambda · ATP level

Grace Piper signs off her college journey with her memories
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJkgrC9BWXT/

Lambda · ATP level

NCCA Championships, Men's QF

As I'm not a US cable subscriber I can only scoreboard watch this weekend.

Wake Forest (1) defeated Columbia (8) 4-1
Not as straight forward as the score suggests.
Wake Forest led after doubles, with Luca Pow and Tacchi securing the point at No 3 after Charlie Robertson lost his first doubles with Dostanic at No 2

Singles was a fight. All 6 singles matches went to 3 sets
Luca won at No 6, 6-3 4-6 6-1
At No 4 Charlie was the last to go to a 3rd set but then raced through the set to get the clinch point to send Wake Forest to the semis, 7-6(5) 3-6 6-1

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Well done Charlie and Luca and the team.

Lambda · ATP level

Stanford (4) defeated Mississippi State (12) 4-3
Max Basing won No3 singles 3-6 6-2 7-6(5)
Another clinch for "heroic" Max who in the deciding set of the deciding match saved 6 match points coming back from 4-5 *0-40 and 5-6 *30-40.

Stanford play Wake Forest in the 1st semi final.

The defending champions dig deep to survive a scare.
TCU (2) defeated Virginia (7) 4-3
Lui Maxted (with Vives) at No 1 and JPJ (with Woestendick) at No 2 both won doubles for TCU to put them 1-0

Virginia took the lead with wins at No 1 & 2 singles.
JPJ losing to the current boys US Open champion Rafa Jodar (Virginia) 4 & 3 at No1.
TCU quickly retook the lead with wins at No 3 and No 5.
Lui winning 4 & 5 at No 3
The remaining 2 courts were in a 3rd set and TCU were down a break on both and looking on their way out.
They lost No 4, but came back to win No 6.

The final QF is just underway 2hrs 30 behind schedule such are the battles here today

Lambda · ATP level

Texas (3) defeated UCLA 4-1
Giacomo Revelli lost a tight No 1 doubles in a tie break and was unfinished 1 set apiece at No 6 singles.

After all that highly competitive tennis there were no upsets in either the women's or men's QFs and in the men's we are left with the top 4 seeds.
Men's SF
Wake Forest (1) v Stanford (4)
Texas (3) v TCU (2)

Wake Forest beat Stanford in the regular season, but both teams will play different line ups here to then.
TCU and Texas have 1 home win each over each other this year.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

So weve got Luca and Charlie versus Max and their respective teams in one semi, and Lui and JPJ and their team in the other?

Lambda · ATP level

NCAA Championships, Mens SF

SF1: Wake Forest (1) d. Stanford (4) 4-2
SF2: TCU (2) d. Texas (3) 4-2

F: (1) Wake Forest [Robertson, Pow] v (2) TCU [Pinnington-Jones, Maxted]

Wake ForestSF
Wake Forest's match was played indoors.
2. No. 26 Dostanic/Robertson (WFU) def. No. 47 Kang/von der Schulenburg (STAN) 6-3
3. No. 18 Pow/Tacchi (WFU) def. No. 48 Banerjee/Razeghi (STAN) 6-4

4. No. 73 Henry von der Schulenburg (STAN) def. Charlie Robertson (WFU) 6-2, 6-3
6. Luca Pow (WFU) def. Alex Razeghi (STAN) 6-1, 6-4

TCU
Played outdoors I believe
1. No 2 Maxted/Vives (TCU) Def. No 10 Legout/Brown 6-3
2 No 32 Pinnington-Jones/Woestndick (TCU) v. No.66 Gorzny/Braswell (Tex) 4-5*
TCU won No 3 to lead 1-0

1. No 8. Jack Pinnington-Jones (TCU) led No 1. Timo Legout (Tex) 4-6 6-3 4-3 *40-15 unfinished.
3. No. 37 Lui Maxted (TCU) Def. No. 54 Pierre-Yves Bailly (Tex) 6-3 6-0
It can't be stated enough how much of a very good win for Lui that is against PY who has been very impressive this spring, losing only 2 matches since January and winning most in dominant straight sets.
A shame for JPJ that he didn't finish as a win over the No 1 player would be huge for his ranking, should that mean anything to him.
For the 2nd night running TCU won the dual with a huge comeback at No 6 singles. This time it was a different player as last nights hero Duncan Chan was spent. Roger Pascual came back from *1-3 behind in the decider to win 6-3.

It will be a fascinating final. Wake Forest on paper will be favourites but TCU always find a way in these big matches. I cannot say which way it will go.

The women's final will also be between the top 2 seeds Georgia and Texas A&M in a repeat of last year's final. Georgia will be favourites having only dropped 1 point in the entire championships from regionals. Texas A&M have been pushed in every match.

-- Edited by Lambda on Sunday 18th of May 2025 04:49:33 AM

Lambda · ATP level

The men's final will be a repeat of the National Indoors final, that Wake Forest won 4-3.

Wake Forest's line up will be the same as then with the exception of swapping Charlie and Xilas who played 3 and 4 then and will play 4 and 3 tonight.
TCU played Duncan Chan at 4 then, but he is submitted at 7 in the line up for these championships, so their 5 and 6 at the National Indoors will play 4 and 5 with either Pascual or Chan playing 6.
So that means that the top 2 match ups in singles will be the same with Jack matching up against Dostanic. Dostanic won that match at the national indoors with a very high level set of tennis in the deciding set.
Lui played Charlie at the indoors, but will play former Team Bath player Xilas this time.
Charlie will play blue chip freshman Woestendick, who has lost both his matches this week.
Luca will play either Chan or Pascual. It will be some story if TCU have another comeback clinch at No 6 against the wall that is Luca.

No 1 doubles will have the NCAA champions Maxted and Vives against Suresh, widely regarded as the best doubles player in men's college tennis, and partner.
Jack/Woestendick should play Charlie/Dostanic at No 2 doubles
Pow/Tacchi should win No 3 doubles
I'd have to favour Wake Forest in doubles at 2 and 3.

Who takes the title I think will come down to who wins doubles and 1 and 2 singles. I see the bottom 4 singles being split 2-2.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Thanks Lambda - good luck to Luca, Charlie, Lui and Jack - looks like it will be a very competitive final!

Lambda · ATP level

NCAA Championships, men's final
(1) Wake Forest v (2) TCU
Wake Forest take doubles at 2 and 3 as I expected.
Robertson/Dostanic (WFU) beating Pinnington/Woestendick (TCU) 6-3
Pow/Tacchi winning 6-2
WFU 1 TCU 0

In singles, Wake Forest take 4 1st sets on 1, 2, 5 and 6. TCU win 1st sets on 3 and 4. Bottom 4 split 2-2, but not in the way I expected.
1. JPJ 4-6
3. Lui 6-1
4. Charlie 3-6
6. Luca 6-3

Lambda · ATP level

1. JPJ loses to Dostanic 3-6 1-6
WFU 2 TCU 0

The TCU fight back begins. 2, 4, 5 and 6 go to a 3rd set
TCU flip 5 and 6 win 2nd set 1-6 and then 2 winning 2nd set 6-3
WFU flip 4 (Charlie) winning 2nd set 6-2
Lui on serve on 3, recovering a break 5-5

-- Edited by Lambda on Monday 19th of May 2025 03:41:44 AM