Well, I might as well start with the rankings today. This afternoon, I released the first women’s rankings of the season. It was a little harder to get this first one done for a variety of reasons. The team database the ITA uses is a big improvement from previous years, but they are still ironing out a few things. There are still a couple of teams who are listed twice, thus not all of their matches show up correctly. That would mean problems with the rankings, should those teams be involved. I spoke with Jason today at the ITA and they are working to straighten that out.
There was even one match, Army (or U.S. Military Academy, as they are also listed) vs. St. John’s that is in the results three times. Teams like Stanford (women’s version) show up as Stanford University on the men’s side. Texas A&M, Corpus Christi on the men’s side is Texas A&M Corpus-Christi on the women’s side. I could go on. The names just need to be standardized, but that’s a job for the off-season. Like I said, they’ll get it all straightened out.
Ok the top-10…
| RK | TEAM | W | L |
| 1 | Northwestern University | 10 | 1 |
| 2 | University of Notre Dame | 10 | 1 |
| 3 | North Carolina | 12 | 1 |
| 4 | UCLA | 11 | 1 |
| 5 | California | 7 | 2 |
| 6 | University of Florida | 9 | 2 |
| 7 | Duke University | 10 | 2 |
| 8 | University of Michigan | 8 | 3 |
| 9 | Baylor University | 6 | 2 |
| 10 | University of Southern California | 7 | 3 |
For a complete listing of them, click here
Rux falls in McAllen
Baylor’s Jordan Rux (Kerrville) lost to Dayne Kelly of Australia today at the McAllen Futures.
Here’s part of the Baylor release…
Baylor men’s tennis junior Jordan Rux was knocked out of the USA F7 Futures Tournament on Thursday by losing 7-5, 6-1 to Dayne Kelly of Australia in McAllen, Texas.
“Jordan played a pretty good, young Australian player,” assistant coach Chris Brandi said. “They played a really tight first set. Jordan was up a break and then lost the first. He couldn’t really close out. He didn’t really serve as well today as he had earlier.
“In the second set the guy played better and took control of the match from there. Overall, I think Jordan played fairly well, but just wasn’t good enough today. Overall, in the tournament he did a good job.”
For the tournament, Rux was 1-1 after defeating eighth-seed Ti Chen of Chinese Taipei on Wednesday, 7-5, 7-6 (4). The results put Rux’s all-time USTA Futures events record at 4-11.
Kelly is currently ranked 432nd on the ATP tour and now has a 53-52 record in Futures events.
Road Warriors
Several teams hit the road this weekend for some big matches.
I’ll start with something local, as the SMU women travel to Austin to play Texas, then off to College Station to face the Aggies. This is a big weekend for SMU, but they really should win this matches. Texas has not been real impressive just yet. I think there has been some definite improvement, but like I always say, you actually have to win a match sometime… I think the TAMU match might be a tougher one. The Ags play some good doubles, but have been inconsistent so far in singles.
This will likely tick off my new SMU friends, but once again their schedule stinks. Even the matches with TCU, Texas and A&M are not what you expected in the preseason. TCU hasn’t beaten anyone this season EXCEPT Texas, falling to both Auburn and Alabama last weekend. Yes, TCU has a tough schedule, but a tough schedule doesn’t do you a bit of good unless you win a match once in awhile. SMU is supposed to beat UT and Texas A&M if they want to take that next step.
Looking at the rest of their schedule, only VCU and Baylor pose ANY threat. A loss in any of the other matches, including Rice, would be devastating. You are supposed to win those. You have to play some top-20 team (and win) to get where they want to go.
The Texas A&M men head to Big Ten country to face Illinois and Ohio State. You would expect the Ags to beat Illinois, but the Illini have been a lot better than most people expected. I remember before the Kickoff Weekend, so many people I spoke with thought Illinois would NOT win their regional. But they did and have played decently, so this is no walk in the park. Also remember the Aggies upset the then-No.7 Illini last year. Don’t think they haven’t forgot about that.
The big one is in Columbus. I am guessing they’ll play indoors. Wait, don’t go there? Ok, Ohio State has the world’s most insane home winning streak, having won 98-straight matches at home. This is bordering on trying to win in Athens in the 80’s territory. I think Ohio State is the better team, but the Aggies have something to prove and would love to break that streak.
The Texas men are on the road and face No. 33 Duke on Friday. This is an intriguing match for the Horns, as Henrique Cunha and Reid Carleton are pretty salty. Texas’ depth should get them through this one, but it could be a battle if they drop the doubles.
On Sunday, Texas travels to Charlottesville for what is really a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t match. Like I mentioned last night, Virginia will be without Sanam Singh and Julen Uriguen, who are off representing their home countries in Davis Cup. That gives the Longhorns an incredible shot at upsetting the top-ranked Wahoos.
The problem being, if Texas does win, everybody will say, “yes, BUT…”. If Texas falls to Virginia, everyone will say, “you lost to them and they didn’t even have those guys!”. They are just damned-if-they-do-damned-if-they-don’t.
On an interesting note, this is scheduled to be an outdoor match and UVa has a doubleheader tomorrow against ODU and Georgetown. Here’s what they say on their website.
The forecast for Friday calls for highs in the 40s, but the coaches have agreed to play the matches outdoors as long as the temperatures are above freezing.
See. All you have to do it talk beforehand fellas…
If you get down to match-ups, the doubles should be an advantage for UT. Virginia has changed their lineups around, but with Singh out that limits the options. I figure they’ll play Shabaz at 1, either Courtney or Jenkins at 2 or 3 (they have flipped these guys around), Barrick at 4 and Singer at 5. I am guessing Philippe Oudshoorn at 6. Anything too far from that is a stack and we can revisit my thoughts on that from last year, if you’d like.
North Texas also has a big weekend if they want to show the region that they are for real. They play #37 Tulsa Friday Afternoon and then Kansas State on Saturday.
They need to win both or very least be at competitive against Tulsa and defeat Kansas State to possibly me up the ladder.
SMU does need to beat both Texas and A&M to solidify their ranking also their new #2 will probably be their go to player
Sanam Singh may be available Sunday. He is reportedly heading back from Moscow on Friday because he was not selected to play in the Davis Cup tie.
UT will possibly see a jet lagged Singh though. I think he struggled a bit in January after returning from an ATP event in Chennai, India, so this could be a factor.
UT will also have a bit of an advantage because UVA has probably had only a handful of practices outdoor this season. The snow here in Charlottesville has been ridiculous, and the temps have only topped 50 a couple times.
Either way, I expect a great match. Obviously we’re not very confident in our doubles play as we have been in recent years, but the singles play was excellent at the Indoors.
I’ll predict a 4-3 UVA win after losing the doubles point, but taking four singles matches at #2 (Singh), #4 (Courtney), #5 (Barrick), and #6 (Singer).