by Bobby Knight | Sep 2, 2017 | Blog
Kevin Anderson was one of Friday’s big winners at the US Open with the former Illini rolling into the fourth round with a sound straight set win over Croatia’s Borna Coric. The opening set was the closest of the three with Anderson only winning three more points than Coric but the South African cashed in his one break opportunity to close out the set 6-4.After not facing any break points in the first set, Anderson would face five in his 2-2 service game in the second set. Anderson managed to come all the way back from 0/40 down to get the hold and then three games later he’d break Coric from 30/40 to go up 5-3. Anderson held at love to take...
by Bobby Knight | Sep 1, 2017 | Blog
Three former college tennis players moved into the third round at the 2017 US Open with none more impressive than Jennifer Brady. The former UCLA Bruin hammered the No. 23 seed Barbora Strycova 6-1, 6-1 in just 56 minutes. Brady won 56 of 82 points (.683) and won 70% of the points on Strycova’s second serve. Brady has played in all four majors this year with her best performance thus far coming in Australia when she made the round of 16. Brady’s third round opponent will be WTA #57 Monica Niculescu with the match scheduled for Saturday. Take a look at ?? @jennifurbrady95’s match point as she dominates Strycova, 6-1 6-1. See you in...
by Bobby Knight | Jul 31, 2017 | Blog
John Isner (Georgia ’07) returned to the state where he had a ton of success in college and proceeded to win his fourth singles title at the BB&T Atlanta Open. Isner, who won the week before in Newport and has now won 12 career singles titles, fired 23 aces and won 85% of the points on his first serve in a 7-6(6), 7-6(7) win over fellow American Ryan Harrison. There were no breaks of serve in the first set, in fact there were no break points either, though Harrison went up a mini-break to start the tiebreak. Isner put it back on serve on the next point and would eventually fight off a set point when serving at 5-6 before taking the tiebreak...
by Bobby Knight | Jul 24, 2017 | Blog
Baylor rising junior Juan Benitez won his first career pro titles over the weekend after sweeping singles and doubles at the Morocco F1 Futures in Tanger. In the doubles final, Benitez teamed with Raleigh Smith (Northwestern ’14) to defeat Skander Mansouri (Wake Forest Rising Sr) and Nick Chappell (TCU ’15) 6-4, 7-6(3). Benitez and Smith were actually fortunate to make it out of the opening round because they trailed 9-4 in the third set supertiebreak and then after erasing those five match points they fought off one more before winning 13-11. As fate would have it Benitez and Smith would face each other in the singles final with Benitez getting...
by Bobby Knight | Jun 2, 2017 | Blog
Former collegians John Isner (Georgia ’07) and Kevin Anderson (Illinois ’07) joined Steve Johnson (USC ’12) in the third round at the French Open. Isner hammered 21 aces and held his serve all 17 times in a 6-3, 7-6, 7-6 win over No. 34 Paolo Lorenzi. Isner has now made it to the third round at the French four times in the last five years with his best finishes coming in 2016 and 2014 when he made the round of 16. Isner will face #53 Karen Khachanov in the third round after the Russian ousted the No. 13 seed Tomas Berdych in straight sets – Isner and Khachanov have not played before. Anderson advanced to the third round for...
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