Tuesday was the final day of the ITA Regional Championships with the doubles final played in both the Northeast and Southern while the Atlantic wrapped up play in singles. Columbia’s Jack Mingjie Lin and William Matheson won an all-Columbia doubles final in the Northeast Regional with a 6-4, 7-6(5) win over top seeds Victor Pham and Jackie Tang. Ole Miss’s Zvonimir Babic and Filip Kraljevic won the doubles title at the Southern Regional with a 6-4, 6-4 win over the top seeded team of Mississippi State’s Trevor Foshey and Niclas Braun. Virginia’s Aswin Lizen won the singles title at the Atlantic Regional after defeating Penn State’s Christos Antonopoulos 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals and Virginia Tech’s Alexandre Ribeiro 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 in the finals.
There were seven schools that swept singles and doubles titles over the past two weeks with three of them on the women’s side (Kentucky, Ole Miss, Oklahoma State) and the other four on the men’s side (Arizona State, Columbia, Georgia, Minnesota). There were an additional three schools on the women’s side that had players in both the singles and doubles finals (Idaho, Texas, Virginia) while there were an additional five on the men’s side (Cal, Michigan, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Virginia).
Six regionals had teammates play in the singles final, Georgia (M), Michigan (M), Mississippi State (M), Pepperdine (W), Texas (W), Stanford (W), while seven had teammates in the doubles final (Dartmouth (W), Kentucky (W), North Carolina (W), Northwestern (W), Ole Miss (W), Virginia (W), Columbia (M).
Arizona State’s Benjamin Hannestad and BYU’s Sean Hill were the only unseeded players to win a singles title while Texas Tech’s Jackson Cobb and Alex Sendegeya, Dartmouth’s Abigail Chiu and Julia Schroeder, and FIU’s Ulyana Grib and Maryna Veksler were the only unseeded teams to win a doubles title.
Singles Title Breakdown by Seed
#1: 5 titles
#2: 5 titles
#3/#4 – 2 titles
#5-#8: 5 titles
#9-#16: 4 titles
#17-#32: 1 title
Unseeded: 2 titles
Doubles Title Breakdown by Seed
#1: 5 titles
#2: 5 titles
#3/#4 – 6 titles
#5-#8: 4 titles
#9-#16: 1 title
Unseeded: 3 titles
Men’s Regional Winners (click to enlarge)
Christopher Eubanks will forgo his senior year of eligibility and turn professional immediately #ThankYouChris https://t.co/TGLK55Bxck pic.twitter.com/aCekkaqSYL
— GT Men’s Tennis (@GT_MTEN) October 23, 2017
Chris Eubanks announced on Monday that he was foregoing his final year of eligibility at Georgia Tech and turning pro. Eubanks won 143 matches (90 singles/53 dubs) in his three years at Georgia Tech and was twice named ACC Player of the Year. Eubanks currently has an ATP singles ranking of 309, which is a career high, and he has already won one pro singles title which came back in June at the Winston-Salem Futures. Eubanks also has an ATP doubles ranking of 264, which is also a career high, and so far this year he’s won two doubles titles with one at the Futures-level and other at the Challenger-level.
Below were some quotes from GT’s release
“I can’t possibly put into words how thankful I am for my time at Georgia Tech,” Eubanks said. “I can truly say that I’ve been extremely blessed to have had the opportunity to play at an institute such as this. It has been a great three years and I’ve made friendships and relationships that will last a lifetime. I’m incredibly excited for what’s ahead and ready to embark on this new journey in my life.”
“At Georgia Tech we know and believe you can be an outstanding athlete, an incredible student and also be a person of high integrity. Chris embodied all three of these values,” head coach Kenny Thorne said. “We always focus on the process of getting better every day and that was what Chris did during his time at Georgia Tech. We are extremely grateful for the way he represented Georgia Tech and for the recognition he brought to our program. But I’m most proud of him for the high character he displayed on our team and that is not just nice words for a press release… I mean that. He is now pursuing a professional dream that became more of a reality with the success he had over the summer. Chris will always be part of our Georgia Tech family and we wish him the best. We will be cheering for him many years to come.”
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Over the last month or so there have been some assistant coaching hires that I wanted to make mention of.
Penn named David DiLucia as the new men’s assistant coach. DiLucia, who was a five-time All-American at Notre Dame in the early 90s, had previously served as a National Coach for the USTA plus he coached several pro players including the Bryan Brothers and Lindsay Davenport. DiLucia replaces Brian Ward who is now the women’s assistant at Minnesota.
Sacramento State named Taylor Hollander as the new women’s assistant coach. Hollander, who was the women’s assistant at UNC Greensboro last season, replaces Eric Roberson who was not retained after the head coaching position turned over.
UNC Greensboro named Katie Hoch as the new women’s assistant coach. Hoch, who was a volunteer assistant at East Carolina last year, replaces Taylor Hollander who left to become the Sacramento State women’s assistant.
VCU named Anthony Rossi as the new men’s assistant coach. Rossi, who was an All-American at Kentucky in 2013, had been on the coaching staff at Kentucky for the past three seasons as a volunteer assistant and then a graduate assistant. Rossi replaces Houston Barrick who took the head coaching position at Richmond.
Boise State named Pierre Tafelski as the new men’s assistant coach. Tafelski, who had been the men’s head coach at Longwood for the past two seasons, replaces Greg Ouellette who departed after one season.
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