by Bobby Knight | Dec 3, 2016 | Blog
The singles final is all set in Waco and it’ll be a pair of recent college graduates meeting as Jared Hiltzik squares off against Ryan Shane. Hiltzik (14.57) dropped the opening set 6-1 to recent Tulane graduate Dominik Koepfe (14.31) but the recent Illinois graduate was able to turn the tide in the second and third sets. Hiltzik came back from 0/40 down to hold for 2-1 in the second and fought off another break point to hold for 4-3. Hiltzik then converted his only break point opportunity of the set when he broke Koepfer from 30/40 to go ahead 5-3 and then he served out the set from 40/15 to take it 6-3. In the third set Hiltzik got a huge hold for 3-3...
by Bobby Knight | Oct 19, 2016 | Blog
13 players with college ties won pro events last week with another 15 finishing as runner-up. Wil Spencer (Georgia ’12) won his third career Futures singles title with a straight set win over Illinois junior Aron Hiltzik at the $25K USA F31 Futures in Houston. Spencer broke Hiltzik from 15/40 to take the first set 6-4 and then after falling behind 3-1 in the second Spencer reeled off five straight games to close it out 6-4, 6-3 in 1 hour and 18 minutes. Spencer is expected to rise from 730 to around 585 in next week’s rankings while Hiltzik will shoot up from 1580 to around 885.Rhyne Williams (Tennessee) and Hans Hach (Abliene Christian ’13)...
by Bobby Knight | Sep 20, 2016 | Blog
Connor Smith (Ohio State ’13) swept both the singles and doubles titles at the Israel F12 Futures in Ashkelon. Smith crushed #600 Neil Pauffley 6-1, 6-0 in the singles final and then he and Danny Thomas defeated Nate Lammons (SMU ’16) and Dane Webb (Oklahoma ’15) 6-0, 7-6(3) to win the doubles title. Smith also won both the singles and doubles title the previous week in Israel so that means he now has a 10-match winning streak in singles and an 8-match winning streak in doubles. The singles title was Smith’s second of the year, six of his career, while the doubles title was his 11th and third with Thomas.Sebastian Fanselow (Pepperdine...
by Bobby Knight | Sep 12, 2016 | Blog
Last weekend was a very successful weekend on the Pro Circuit as seven former collegians won pro titles while another eleven finished as runner-up. The third seed #502 Connor Smith (Ohio State ’13) swept both the singles and doubles titles at the $10K Israel F11 Futures in Herzliya. Smith won his first singles title of the year, fifth of his career, with a straight set win over the top seed #321 Yannick Jankovits. There were no breaks of serve in the opening set but Smith earned a mini-break to start the tiebreak and managed to pull it out 8-6. The only break of the second set came when Smith broke from 15/40 to go ahead 5-3 and then he served it out...
by Bobby Knight | Sep 5, 2016 | Blog
Brayden Schnur won his second career pro singles title on Sunday with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Tim van Rijthoven at the $25K Canada F6 Futures in Calgary. Schnur, who turned pro in July after completing his junior year at North Carolina, broke van Rijthoven from 30/40 to go up 5-3 in the first set before serving it out from 40/15 to take the set 6-3. Van Rijthoven broke twice in the second set in route to a 6-3 set but Schnur would come back in the third. Schnur broke from 15/40 to go up 4-2 and he’d serve it out a few games later to close out the match. So pumped to get my second pro title here in Calgary! Thank you to everyone who came out to support...
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