Pretty decent schedule of matches for a Thursday with Duke making the 10 mile trip to Chapel Hill to face North Carolina plus at least 2 of the matches in the SEC should be competitive. I have the live scoring links below so follow along when they get underway.
#6 Duke (19-3) at #16 North Carolina (16-8) – 3pm est – Live Scoring – North Carolina leads the overall series by a wide margin (89-38) but Duke has won 4 of the last 5 so for North Carolina’s sake it’s a good thing that Brayden Schnur came back last week. The Tar Heels went 4-3 in Schnur’s absense but upon his return they were able to beat both Boston College and Notre Dame last weekend. Duke also beat BC and Notre Dame last weekend so both teams are currently riding 2 match winning streaks.
Duke is 16-6 in doubles however they just recently changed doubles pairings after dropping 3 in a row. Duke switched up its #1 and #2 teams by pairing Nicolas Alvarez with Jason Tahir and Josh Levine with Raphael Hemmeler. Previously Alvarez and Hemmeler have been teamed up as had Tahir and Levine. North Carolina is 18-6 in doubles and they’ve won the point the last 3 times out.
FYI, the number beside the player’s school is the player’s Universal Tennis Rating as of April 9th. For more details about UTR check out their website.
Projected Singles Lineup:
1. #11 Nicolas Alvarez (DU 14.44) vs. #15 Brayden Schnur (UNC 14.49)
2. #42 Jason Tahir (DU 13.86) vs. #24 Ronnie Schneider (UNC 14.20)
3. #58 Raphael Hemmeler (DU 14.37) vs. #71 Brett Clark (UNC 13.77)
4. Bruno Semenzato (DU 13.96) vs. Jack Murray (UNC 14.06)
5. Josh Levine (DU 12.74) vs. Oystein Steiro (UNC 13.48)
6. TJ Pura (DU 13.45) vs. #109 Robert Kelly (UNC 13.52)
Others who could play: Esben Hess-Olesen (UNC 13.47), Chris Mengel (DU 13.64)
Dual-match singles records:
1. Alvarez 12-4 (won 3 of last 5) vs. Schnur 3-5 (split last 2)
2. Tahir 9-10 (won 3 of last 4) vs. Schneider 13-7 (won 2 in a row)
3. Hemmeler 17-3 (won 7 in a row) vs. Clark 15-4 (won 3 in a row)
4. Semenzato 11-5 (won 4 of last 5) vs. Murray 14-4 (won 6 of last 7)
5. Levine 10-8 (lost 4 of last 5) vs. Steiro 11-9 (split last 4)
6. Pura 11-3 (won 6 of last 7) vs. Kelly 17-3 (split last 4)
When I look through these singles match-ups I don’t see too many clear cut favorites. Alvarez has more matches under his belt but Schnur did take a 6-0 set last weekend over Quentin Monaghan. Tahir doesn’t have the best record but every one of his losses was to a ranked player while Schneider did ok as a fill-in at #1 for Schnur though he did take a few beatings. Both Clark and Hemmeler have been playing very good and Clark owns a 3-0 H2H over Hemmeler throughout their college careers. Both Semenzato and Murray have been playing well though I think Murray has been playing a little better lately. Both Levine and Steiro have been so-so this year with each having taken some bad losses score-wise (6-1 6-1 etc.). Both Pura and Kelly have been playing good though I think Kelly is just a hair better.
Tough one to predict but I’ll take Duke in doubles and in singles at 1, 3, and 5 and UNC in singles at 2, 4, and 6. Prediction: Duke 4-3
Other notable Thursday matches:
#7 Texas A&M (17-3) at #24 LSU (16-5) – 4pm est – Live Scoring – LSU has been playing some good tennis this year and has just missed out on a big upset twice in the last two weeks against top 20 opponents Florida and Ole Miss. Texas A&M has been playing really well lately winning 5 of its last 6 matches by a 4-0 score. Texas A&M has always been an excellent home team but an average road team but this year the Aggies have played very well away from home. LSU will challenge Texas A&M in a few spots (1, 4, 6) but the Aggies are too strong this year to lose this one. Prediction: Texas A&M 4-1
Projected Lineups:
1. #60 Jeremy Efferding (aTm 14.25) vs. #121 Chris Simpson (LSU 13.71)
2. #64 Shane Vinsant (aTm 14.27) vs. #76 Jordan Daigle (LSU 13.29)
3. Arthur Rinderknech (aTm 14.24) vs. Boris Arias (LSU 13.51)
4. #55 Harrison Adams (aTm 13.62) vs. Tam Trinh (LSU 12.95)
5. #78 A.J. Catanzariti (aTm 14.23) vs. Andrew Korinek (LSU 13.28)
6. Jordi Arconada (aTm 13.36) vs. Justin Butsch (LSU 13.60)
#71 Arkansas (11-13) at #8 Georgia (17-3) – 5pm est – Live Scoring & Blog – I don’t see Georgia having any issues in this one despite having to shift one of its doubles teams due to senior Eric Diaz undergoing an emergency appendectomy earlier this week. I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least one Georgia starter sit out today to give Peter Bertran (13.56) or Andy Martinez (12.58) some playing time. Prediction: Georgia 4-0.
Projected Lineups:
1. #93 Giammarco Micolani (ARK 13.49) vs. #34 Austin Smith (UGA 14.21)
2. William Albanese (ARK 12.41) vs. #27 Wayne Montgomery (UGA 14.50)
3. Santiago Munoz (ARK 12.86) vs. #25 Nathan Pasha (UGA 14.27)
4. Jovan Parlic (ARK 12.84) vs. Ben Wagland (UGA 13.29)
5. Johan Den Toom (ARK 12.73) vs. Nick Wood (UGA 13.83)
6. David Herrerias (ARK 12.63) vs. Paul Oosterbaan (UGA 13.67)
#14 Ole Miss (15-6) at #47 South Carolina (12-13) – 5pm est – Live Scoring – This is a match Ole Miss can’t afford to lose because a loss could potentially knock it out of the top 16. The difference between #16 and #17 come tournament time is the difference between hosting a regional or going on the road. A year ago South Carolina ran through Ole Miss 4-2 in Columbia with the biggest surprise coming at #1 singles as Andrew Adams beat Nik Scholtz 6-3, 6-2. However these teams did meet earlier this year in Gainesville during the Kickoff Weekend and Ole Miss scratched out a 4-2 win (box score below). The only repeat singles match-ups will come at 4 and 5.
South Carolina has been in a tailspin for the last month dropping 5 straight conference matches and 10 of its last 14 matches overall. During that 14 match stretch while South Carolina has been getting hammered on the road they have been competitive at home going 4-2 Ole Miss has been shaky on the road going just 1-3 in conference play and the 1 win was a huge come from behind win over LSU that saw Nik Scholtz fight off multiple match points.
South Carolina is 15-10 in doubles but just 2-8 in the SEC while Ole Miss is 12-9 in doubles and 7-3 in the SEC.
If you just looked at the team’s rankings and records you’d think this one would be blowout city but I think this will be a very tightly contested match. Ole Miss also goes to #8 Georgia on Saturday so it’s possible they could be looking ahead to that one too. Ole Miss’s strength all year has been its top 3 and I think they’ll likely need to sweep those spots plus either win doubles or win at #6 singles to take this one. I think that may be too tall an order so I’m going to go with the upset here and take South Carolina in doubles and in singles at 3, 4, and 5. Prediction: South Carolina 4-3
Projected Lineups:
1. #16 Nik Scholtz (OM 14.08) vs. Andrew Adams (SC 13.40)
2. #84 Stefan Lindmark (OM 14.18) vs. Kyle Koch (SC 13.77)
3. Gustav Hansson (OM 13.75) vs. Thiago Pinheiro (SC 13.44)
4. William Kallberg (OM 13.25) vs. Andrew Schafer (SC 13.55)
5. Zvonimir Babic (OM 12.85) vs. Harrison O’Keefe (SC 13.37)
6. Vinod Gowda (OM 12.96) vs. Sam Swank (SC 12.31)
Others who could play: Ricardo Jorge (OM 13.13), Thomas Mayronne (SC 12.70)
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (3,5,6,2,1)
Daily Top 10 (4/9 – 9am)
| Rank | School | Points | Previous |
| 1 | Oklahoma | 84.20 | 1 |
| 2 | Baylor | 74.86 | 2 |
| 3 | Illinois | 69.58 | 3 |
| 4 | Virginia | 64.87 | 4 |
| 5 | Texas A&M | 62.34 | 7 |
| 6 | Duke | 61.94 | 6 |
| 7 | USC | 61.45 | 5 |
| 8 | Georgia | 60.16 | 8 |
| 9 | Texas | 58.00 | 9 |
| 10 | TCU | 56.56 | 10 |
TCU came up .87 points after adding in its win over #44 SMU.
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