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New Rankings Out With Little Change; Buckeyes Win a Pair; UCLA Blanks Grand Canyon; Aussie Open Update

by | Jan 19, 2017 | Blog | 2 comments

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The new ITA rankings came out on Wednesday with no change in the women’s rankings and only a few minor changes on the men’s side. As I mentioned in my post yesterday the only ranked women’s teams to play a dual-match so far have been Georgia Tech and South Carolina with both winning over the weekend. On the men’s side Cal and Georgia had been tied for fifth but now Cal is in sole position of fifth while Georgia fell back to sixth – I guess the national ranking committee wasn’t impressed with Georgia going 9-11 in singles over the weekend at the MLK Invitational. TCU and UCLA had been ranked seventh and eighth respectively but now both are tied for seventh – TCU hasn’t played at all while UCLA had a pair of guys make the semis at the Sherwood Cup. The only other change was Texas Tech falling from 23rd to out of the poll after a loss at Central Florida while Columbia and South Florida moved up a spot and Duke went from receiving votes to ranked 25th.

The ITA also put out a release that explained some of the changes to the rankings this year most notably is that once the computers kick-in they’ll only publish the top 50 instead of the top 75. 

 

 

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There was some dual-match action on Wednesday after a slow day on Tuesday. Ohio State opened up its season with a 7-0 win over Toledo and a 4-0 win over Cleveland State. Mikael Torpegaard dropped just two games in his two singles wins at No. 1 while Kyle Seelig only dropped one game in his two wins at No. 4. Newcomer JJ Wolf made his debut against Cleveland State and clinched the match with a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 2. Ohio State will be back in action next Tuesday when they host Butler and Xavier. 
 

 
Billy Martin’s UCLA Bruins opened up their 2017 campaign with a 7-0 win over Grand Canyon at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center. Gage Brymer, Martin Redlicki, and Austin Rapp cruised in straight sets at No. 1, No. 2, and No. 6 while Max Cressy won in two close sets at No. 5. January admit Evan Zhu and junior Logan Staggs won in third set supertiebreaks. The Bruins normal home, The LA Tennis Center, is unavailable this year due to the construction of the Mo Ostin Basketball Center which is taking place mere feet away from the back three courts. UCLA returns to the court on Saturday to host UC Santa Barbara. 
 

 
The Ole Miss women went to 2-0 yesterday but it wasn’t easy as they escaped a trip to Hawaii with a 4-3 win over the the host Rainbow Warriors. The Lady Rebs won the doubles point with 6-4 wins at No. 2 and No. 3 and then they won five opening sets in singles. Hawaii’s Petra Melounova won in straight sets at No. 2 while Ole Miss picked up straight set wins from Tea Jandric and Alexa Bortles at No. 5 and No. 6 to make it 3-1. Hawaii’s Cindy Nguyen came back from a set down to win 6-2 in the third at No. 1 plus the other two remaining matches were deep in the third. Ole Miss freshman Anna Vrbenska would manage to get a late break to go up 5-4 in the third in her match at No. 3 and then she would hold on the deciding 40/40 point to clinch the team. Hawaii made the final score 4-3 after Roxanne Resma won 7-5 in the third at No. 4. 
 
Other Dual-Match Action:
 
  • St. John’s defeated Stetson 6-1 in a match played at FAU – Adolfo Blanco clinched the W at No. 6.
  • The Kentucky women opened up their season by going on the road and defeating Marshall 4-0 with Akvile Parainskait clinching at No. 2.
  • The Wyoming women opened up their season with a 7-0 road win over D2’s Central Oklahoma. 
  • The Tulane women won a pair of matches on Wednesday defeating McNeese State 4-1 and New Orleans 4-0.  

 

 
Here are some other coaches talking about this past week and what’s coming up. 
 

 
 
Pro Circuit Results 
 
 
After a great opening round the three men with college ties went down in the second round with Noah Rubin and Steve Johnson losing to some tough competition while John Isner was upset 9-7 in the fifth against Mischa Zverev. Isner had two match points in the fourth set but couldn’t convert. 
 
Australian Open Men’s Singles
R1: [19] John Isner (Georgia ’07) def. Konstantin Kravchuk 6-3, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1
R1: [Q] Noah Rubin (Wake Forest ’15*) def. [Q} Bjorn Fratangelo 6-7(4), 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
R1: Steve Johnson (USC ’12) def. Federico Delbonis 6-3, 6-4, 6-4
R2: Mischa Zverev def. [19] John Isner (Georgia ’07) 6-7(4), 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(7), 9-7
R2: [17] Roger Federer def. [Q] Noah Rubin (Wake Forest ’15*) 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(3)
R2: [4] Stan Wawrinka def. Steve Johnson (USC ’12) 6-3, 6-4, 6-4
 
 
Australian Open Women’s Singles
R1: Nicole Gibbs (Stanford ’13*) def. [25] Timea Babos 7-6(3), 6-4
R1: Irina Falconi (Georgia Tech ’10*) def. Xinyun Han 6-1, 7-5
R1: [Q} Jennifer Brady (UCLA ’15*) def. [LL} Maryna Zanevska 6-3, 6-2
R2: Nicole Gibbs (Stanford ’13*) def. Irina Falconi (Georgia Tech ’10*) 6-4, 6-1
R2: [Q] Jennifer Brady (UCLA ’15*) def. Heather Watson 2-6, 7-6(3), 10-8
R3: Nicole Gibbs (Stanford ’13*) vs. [2] Serena Williams
R3: Q] Jennifer Brady (UCLA ’15*) vs. [14] Elena Vesnina
 
* didn’t stay at school for all four years

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 Comments

  1. 181
    181 on Thu March 19, 2020 at 5:52 pm

    Bobby, do you know if the match between GA and GA Tech in Atlanta tomorrow will be livestreamed?. I looked at both websites, but did not see it mentioned.

  2. 3
    3 on Thu March 19, 2020 at 5:52 pm

    I don't believe GT is live streaming this year – not sure of the reason yet. If I get a response from my contact at GT I'll let you know what he says.