[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/ext/alfredoramos/seometadata/event/listener.php on line 119: Undefined array key "description" College Tennis Thread - The Sports-India Community
This is a forum where users can follow various tournaments that have Indian participation or are held in India. GrandSlams and Davis Cup should also be discussed here.
Congratulations to Uzma for becoming Aces of the Week.
According the the web site mentioned below, "Aces of the Week are individuals and groups ranging from players, coaches, teams, trainers, to administrators who have impacted college tennis, their teammates, or their students in a positive manner. They are recognized for their outstanding achievements, service, and/or contributions to their peers and the sport of college tennis. "
In case the link does not work after some time, this is what it says about Uzma.
"Uzma Khan became the fourth player in UC Santa Barbara history and first since 1993 to earn the conference's top individual honor. A two-time first team All-Big West selection, Khan posted a remarkable 24-0 dual record and 35-2 overall as the No. 1 singles player for the Gauchos this year.
“She’s our team captain and everyone looks up to her for her leadership qualities and her positive attitude; we were all truly lucky to have her on our team,” gushes her teammates on the UCSB tennis team."
The NCAA Division I men's team tennis tournament has started and the top 16 teams will start play next week. Last year freshman Prakash Amritraj peaked at the right time and helped his college team to win the championship, and in the process became the MVP of the tournament. This year we have three freshmen with Indian ties - Stephen Amritraj (Duke Univ), and Rajeev Ram/Pramod Dabir (Univ of Illinois). Can one of them become hot like Prakash and win the MVP?
Jay's Texas Longhorns will play Florida in the next round. In fact four teams from the Big 12 Conference are in the final 16. My Oklahoma Sooners did not make it but Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Baylor are in the sweet 16 (basketball lingo).
Next year the NCAA Div I men's tennis championship will take place in my home town and I hope we have a few players with Indian connection there.
Yeah, I was not too happy seeing Okie State taking out Univ of Minnesota whom I supported for three years due to Harsh being there. OkSt upset Minnesota to make the final-32.
By the way, Prakash's USC also went down - in the second round to #4 UCLA, and missed the final-16. Prakash somehow did not seem to be fully into the college season this year, with all the pro distractions, etc. He had a dream season last year, at least a dream finish and an upset over a #1 player, etc along the way too .. I suppose he may just quit after this year?.. Not sure.
Stephen's Duke Univ is in the final-16. Stephen himself has been out for almost 3 months due toa knee injury. he returned just this week and played one doubles match each in the two rounds. Won them both. I don't think he will get to play much singles in the next rounds, but he will be valuable for them in doubles. He really is a super player.
Philip King with Duke is quite a player, and actually perhaps he is the best player in college, based on his earlier pro results. Duke could cause some damage in the next rounds.
Something tells me that somebody will upset Illinois along the way, as usual..
Prakash has had a pretty ordinary year in college tennis. He is ranked #43 with a 17-7 record, including some losses to players ranked in the 40-60 range (and one loss to someone ranked around 100). His best win is over a player ranked 28, and he has usually won matches against players ranked just below him. But PA also appears to be a bit like Leander -- needing a big stage to get himself pumped up to perform at a higher level.
I'm a bit bemused to find him still listed as a freshman. Perhaps he entered only in the spring semester last year, skipped the fall and is a freshman still this spring...Jay, any idea what the real picture is.
Sashi Menon's son Sumil is #7 on the same team, but has not yet played a match.
University of Illinois won against 12th ranked University of Washington to reach the quaterfinals. Rajeev Ram won his singles and doubles matches to give two victories to his team in a 4-2 victory. Illinois next plays Univ of Missisiiippi, a victor over Duke University 4-2. Stephen Amritraj did not get to play for Duke.
Seventh seeded Vanderbilt defeated 10th seeded Texas A&M 4-1. Jay's Texas Longhorns narrowly lost to Florida 4-3 . Florida next plays UCLA in the Elite 8.
On paper Univ of Illinois has the strongest team with three players ranked in the top 22 and their doubles teams also ranked high. However, Jay sometimes gets these feelings that turn out to be true, and Illinois certainly looked vulnerable against Washington. Rajeev Ram and Chris Martin, played well to clinch the victory for Illinois. Martin's older brother, David Martin, plays for Stanford and both of them grew up in my home town and I have watched them play as juniors at the tennis club I belong to. Rajeev and Chris are the two reasons I am rooting for Illinois.
As Jay said, Univ of Illinois "cruised" into the semifinals where they face Stanford. UCLA and Vanderbilt play each other in the other semifinals. Illinois defeated Ole Miss 4-1 in the Elite 8. Both of Rajeev Ram's matches (singles and doubles) were abandoned; he led 7-6 and 4-3 in the singles match.
Rajeev Ram and his Illinois team are in the finals of the NCAA Div I team championship. Illinois defeated Stanford in the smifinals 4-2 and will play Vanderbilt in the finals on Tuesday. Rajeev Ram lost his doubles match but his singles match was abandoned.
Good work by Rajeev Ram. Does he play second singles or first for Illinois?
It appears that neither Rajeev nor Prakash are ranked anywhere near as high as Harsh was during his sophomore year in Minnesota (when in fact he was ranked #1 during the month before the NCAA championship began and seeded 1 consequently if I remember right). Yet Harsh has struggled on the pro tour...sobering?
Harsh was actually lower ranked than Rajeev and Prakash in the second year. He was generally in the 40-50 range. It was in his 3rd year that he started with a bang, won the national indoors and shot up to the top-5.
Prakash would be higher ranked except for his up and down record. He does lose some games he probably shouldn't (based on rankings), but I suspect that his aggressive serve-and-volley has something to do with it. You sometimes lose with it too.
Yeah, it is sobering. Looking at the year-end college ranking, basically a top-50 ranking is equivalent in quality to a top-700 ATP rank. Top25 somewhere in the top-500. Top 10 somewhere in the top-350. Top-5 perhaps near top-250. Only one or two players every year have all the tools needed to get inside the top-200 or 150. At least these are the rankings you expect in a year or 18 months after leaving college.
Harsh finished at 5 in college, so he is right around where we would have expect him to be, at near 350. Should be going soon near 300. What happens next is anybody's guess.
Yeah!!! Illinois defeated Vanderbilt to win the NCAA Divison I team tennis championship. In a close tie Illinois won with a 4-3 margin. Rajeev Ram won his singles match defeating Matt Lockin 6-3, 6-4. Chris Martin won the decisive No. 6 singles match over Lewis Smith 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
Rajeev Ram won the doubles match also.
Brian Wilson/Rajeev Ram def. Chad Harris/Matt Lockin 8-2.
Illinois (32-0) joins Stanford's 1978, 1995 and 1998 squads as the only other team to go undefeated the entire season.
Congratulations to Rajeev and the rest of the Illinois team -- an amazing accomplishment!
I'm not sure whether this is the team or individual NCAA tennis championships that they're going to show or not, but ESPN will show some of the NCAA championships on May 27 at 2pm EST.
Good luck to Prakash and Rajeev in the individual tournament that kicks off tomorrow -- both are playing in singles and doubles.
. Florida next plays UCLA in the Elite 8.
.. Duke and Philip King got upset, and Illinois is still cruising (into the semifinals)
