Indians in US College Tennis

[sameerph]

Nandini Sharma who had created some very good results on pro tour in Europe last year has joined Univ of Central Florida (UCF). She had a decent start to her college career. The attached article has a video of her key win in last match where their team upset higher ranked Florida-

UCF beats Florida for the first time

[sameerph]

Nandini continues her good start to the college career.

Sharma Awarded AAC Player of the Week

[jayakris]

Time for an update on Indians in college tennis. The NCAA rankings came out last week. Only one November rankings comes out in fall, when the tennis season gets going with out-of-conference matches between colleges. The rankings after it gets heated up after January are more reliable.

Men's rankings

44. Aditya Vashistha, sophomore, St. Johns
54. Sangeet Sridhar (Indian-American), sophomore, Stanford
67. Siddhant Banthia, sophomore, Wake Forest
92. Rana-Roop Singh Bhular (Indian-Norwegian), Florida State.

Very nice to see Siddhant Banthia making the rank list! He is among the very few good ones we have brought out in the last 3 or 4 years. He joined half-way through the tennis 2018-19 season, in January this year. Aditya moved from Utah State to St. John's NY after one year. I'm surprised at his sudden rise to #44 from being unranked at the end of the first year. His junior results weren't that hot.

Women's rankings

30. Natasha Subhash (Indian-American), freshman, University of Virginia
65. Akanksha Bhan, sophomore, Columbia University

Natasha was considered to be among the top-5 USA recruits in college tennis this year, as she was in the WTA top-400 and as high as #26 in ITF juniors. It is great to see Akanksha in the rank list. Again, I'm a little surprised that she is playing that well by her second year. I was hoping to see Nandini Sarma in the rankings. Not yet. She is in a weak conference, and ranked 8th in the conference with the top 4 making the top-100 of college rankings. She is somewhere in the top-200 of college tennis.

But really, they need to be in the college top-10 or so by the end of 3 years, for any realistic expectations for them to later be in the men's or women's top-250 within 2 or 3 years after leaving college at age 22 or so.

[jaydeep]

Salsa Aher has joined the University of Kentucky.

[Dinesh]

Parth Agarwal is also listed in the roster for UK Men’s tennis. Interestingly, he’s only 5’6”.

[Dinesh]

Shivani Amineni (18 yo., junior career high 134) joined Columbia University and is listed in the women's tennis team roster, alongside Akanksha Bhan. Good luck to both the girls for the new season.

[jayakris]

As the college tennis season has hated up, it's time for an update. Nothing great to report from the March 1 ranking update.

Men's rankings
22. Govind Nanda (Indian-American), sophomore, UCLA
65. Aditya Vashistha, sophomore, St. Johns
69. Sangeet Sridhar (Indian-American), sophomore, Stanford
109. Rana-Roop Singh Bhular (Indian-Norwegian), Florida State.

Siddhant Banthia, sophomore at #14 ranked Wake Forest, has now dropped out of the top-125 ... He has been doing okay, going 7-3 but he is still at the #6 spot in the team, hasn't got to play too many ranked players at all, and so couldn't keep the ranking. So only Aditya is in the rank list now.

Women's rankings
10. Natasha Subhash (Indian-American), freshman, University of Virginia
104. Nandini Das, senior, Florida State University
105. Akanksha Bhan, sophomore, Columbia University

[sameerph]

Why are they playing Sid Banthia at #6 still ? I am sure he is better than that and should be playing at least at #3 if not better.

[Dinesh]

Some good news from Nandini Das at the NCAA championships this year, as her team (Florida State) has qualified for the last 8 of the bracket. Nandini and her partner Andrea Garcia are the 8th ranked doubles team in the country. Would be curious to know what Nandini’s plans are after she graduates from college this year. Florida State (#7) is up against #2 ranked Texas in the quarterfinals.

[jayakris]

^^^ Though she was ranked lower than a few others from her age group in India, and nobody raved about her talent, I had always felt that Nandini had some sort of a drive in her that was better than others - and so felt that she would do well. It is not surprising that she has been productive in college tennis.

[jayakris]

Not an Indian, but an Indian-American freshman has been doing quite well at the University of Texas, who reached the final of the NCAA national championships (to be held today against Pepperdine University). Malaika Rapolu from Cedar Park Texas. In fact she clinched the win in the semifinals, playing at the #6 spot for Texas, yesterday against North Carolina State Univ.

An aggressive player 6 ft 9 inch tall and well-built. Was among the top recruits in college recruiting last year too. She had come to India to play in the ITF juniors a couple of years ago. Dad is Madhuker Rapolu, who is a self-taught coach for her in younger days, from what I understand.

[Dinesh]

6’9”???

[jaydeep]

Typo Dinesh, Malaika Rapolu is 5' 9" tall.

[jayakris]

Oh my... Yeah 5-9... She is not the Dikembe Mutombo of women's tennis!

[Dinesh]

Nandini is back again this time winning a couple of rounds at the NCAA doubles D1 championships. Her team plays Lulu Sun/Kyle Collins from Texas in the quarters. Natasha is also in the doubles QF with her partner.