6 of the 15 US Open National Playoff Sectionals have been completed with all 6 men’s singles winners and 5 of the 6 women’s singles winners having college ties. The New England sectional is scheduled to wrap up today while the Midwest will wrap up tomorrow. To view all current winners you can check out this sheet which also lists any college ties and this link has more details about the USONP.
Evan King (Michigan ’13) and Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee ’11) each won ITF Pro Circuit Futures singles titles on Sunday while Dennis Nevolo (Illinois ’12) and Nick Chappell (TCU ’15) came up short.
King won his fourth career Futures singles title, and first this year, with a 6-2, 7-6(1) win over #603 Sho Katayama in the finals of the Tokyo, Japan F7 Futures. King broke Katayama at love to start the match and then broke him at love again to go up 5-2 before serving out the opening set. There were no breaks in the second set but King cruised through the tiebreak by going up 6-0 before winning it 7-1. King entered the tournament with a new career high singles ranking of 367 so when these points are added in next week he will have another career high.
Congratulations to two-time champion @TennysSandgren pic.twitter.com/WaJuj84vBhC’ville Futures (@cvllefutures) June 12, 2016
Sandgren won his tenth career Futures singles title, and first this year, by repeating as champion at the $25K Charlottesville, Virginia USA F17 Futures with a 6-3, 6-3 win over 2012 Illinois graduate Dennis Nevolo. Sandgren broke Nevolo from 15-40 to go up 4-2 in the opening set and then he served the set out from 40-15 to take the set 6-3. Sandgren broke Nevolo in a one-deuce game to go up 2-1 in the second and he made the break lead hold up and took it in one hour and thirteen minutes. Nevolo was making his first appearance in a Futures final since winning the Irvine USA F26 back in September 2014. This week marked the fourth time this year that Nevolo had made it to at least the semifinals at a Futures event while Sandgren was making his second finals appearance of the year (L to Shapovalov in Memphis in April). Sandgren, currently ranked 307, was ranked as high as 183 back in 2013 before a hip injury wiped out most of 2014. Nevolo, currently ranked 480, achieved a career high singles ranking of 345 in late 2014.
Chappell was seeking his first career singles title but came up short to the same guy for the second week in a row. Chappell, who entered the week with a career high ranking of 823, fell to #573 Edan Leshem 6-2, 6-1 in one hour and fourteen minutes in the finals of the $10K Akko, Israel, F10 Futures. Leshem broke Chappell in a two-deuce game to go up 2-0 in the first and then broke him from 15-40 to go up 5-1. Chappell broke back from 30-40 to pull within 5-2 but Leshem broke back in a one-deuce game to take the set 6-2. Leshem won the first five games of the second set before Chappell fought off three match points to hold in a three-deuce game for 1-5. Leshem served it out from 40-30 to get the 6-2, 6-1 win. Chappell’s points from last week’s final were just added in so he now has another career high ranking of 721.
Other Notable Performances on the Tour
- Emilio Gomez (USC ’13) made the semifinals at the $75K+H Hoff Open Challenger in Moscow before retiring with a neck injury while trailing #83 Mikhail Kukushkin 6-1, 2-1. The semifinal finish evened his career best result at the Challenger level (Manta & Salinas, Ecuador 2014; Rio 2013)
- Dennis Novikov (UCLA ’13) qualified for the main draw at the ATP 250 Ricoh Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands before falling to #68 Dudi Sela 7-5, 6-7, 7-6(5). It was Novikov’s fifth career main draw appearance at an ATP-level event and the fourth time that he came through qualies to get there (2015 Indian Wells, 2016 Delray Beach, 2016 Miami)
- James McGee (NC State ’08) came through the qualies at the $64K+H Open Sopra-Steria De Lyon (France) Challenger and defeated the #1 seed, #108 Taro Daniel, 7-6, 6-0 in the opening round before falling in the second round.
- Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia Rising Sr) made it to his first career Futures semifinal in Charlottesville before falling to Tennys Sandgren 6-4, 6-4.
- Jarryd Chaplin (Tennessee ’14) made it to his first career Futures semifinal in Israel before falling to Nick Chappell 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.
- Alexandar Lazarov (Wake Forest Commit) made it to his second Futures semifinal in the last month before falling to #314 Dimitar Kuzmanov 6-2, 6-4 at the $10K Plovdiv, Bulgaria, F4 Futures.
- Yuya Ito (Texas Commit) made it to his second Futures semifinal in the last month before falling to Evan King 7-6(4), 6-4 in Tokyo.
- Nik Scholtz (Ole Miss ’15) made the semifinals at the $10K Antalya, Turkey, F23 Futures before falling to the eventual champ #394 Marc Sieber 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(4) in a match where Scholtz led 2-0 in the third set.
- Maxime Tabatruong (UCLA ’13) made the semifinals at the $25K Heulva, Spain, F16 Futures before falling to the eventual champion, Joao Domingues, 7-5, 6-1.
16-year old Carson Haskins won the Edwardsville Open to earn a main draw wild card into the July Futures event in Edwardsville, Illinois. Haskins defeated Illinois State rising senior Dylan Steffens 6-4, 6-1 in the final. Steffens and Harvard rising sophomore Michael Peters won the doubles title with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Illinois rising sophomore Asher Hirsch and Illinois commit Kristopher Ortega so they’ll earn a wild card into the main draw of the doubles portion of the Edwardsville Futures.
What I have seen over the years is that many of the players that get a top ranking that are touted as traditional high school players go to a big time tennis program, then crash and burn when they get there, because they can't handle the travel and time demands while maintaining their tennis, because they didn't learn to do it as a junior. Stayed in their section way too much. Look at the Stanford recruits/team over the last several years to see this.
Jack Sock is always used as the poster child for a high school tennis player which is hilarious. Never practiced with the team and showed up to a few matches because he was never around. Independent study through their high school is what some players do, they are absent most of the school year. He did not play HS tennis like we think of a typical HS players – being part of the team everyday, etc.
Also BC,4/5 star ranked players can negotiate with their high school coaches; those guys won't play all the regular season matches. In our state, I think players had to play 1/3 or 40% of regular season matches to qualify for regional and state playoffs though most guys still played at least half.Also some states allow hybrid players to play on state teams (players who go to school half day on campus/half virtual). Coaches know not to schedule important varsity matches on Fridays and Mondays.
The 16 year-old that I saw play over the weekend, Carson Haskins, is a two-time Missouri state champion and he won the ASICS Easter Bowl Boys 16 championship last April. I know the high school season is pretty short (2 months or so) so it's not that big of a time commitment.
It varies but Jack Sock was a 4 time state champion in Kansas. I don't usually think of Kansas as the pinnacle of tennis but he shows that good players are where they are. A high school state champion can be very good.
Martin Joyce who was a blue chip TRN #4 for the class of 2015 and an Ohio State recruit played high school tennis all 4 years. At least 6 of the blue chips from grad class of 2014/15 (25%) played high school tennis, and a higher % of 4 and 5 star juniors play high school tennis. There are strong teams in the South, Midwest, CA, Texas, and Florida. New Balance now even sponsors a singles championship at Harvard during the summer for tournament level players who also play for their high school team.The guy who won it last year was a blue chip from California. Not all top players are homeschooled…
What is a state singles champion in high school? I know very few states that have tennis championships at the state level and certainly the best juniors wouldn't be playing in them anyway cause they don't play high school tennis. Our state doesn't have a state champion, although the catholic schools have some kind of playoffs.
I heard about that as well – waiting to see a release from Charlotte with the announcement.
The two finalists in the Midwest US Open Playoffs Martin Joyce and Eddie Grabill were high school teammates at Hillsdale Central in Illinois and both were former state singles champions-one in 2014, the other in 2015.
Jeremy Feldman to UNC-Charlotte