Johnson, Lock, and Cid Win Titles on the Tour + USONP Update

Saturday was a great day for former collegians with Steve Johnson, Benjamin Lock, and Roberto Cid each winning pro singles titles.

ATP 250 Nottingham, Great Britain (Grass) - Steve Johnson (USC '12) won his first-ever ATP level singles title after knocking off #25 Pablo Cuevas in straight sets. There were no breaks of serve in the opening set but Cuevas got the first mini-break in tiebreak and led 3-1. Johnson took the next four points to go up 5-3 and would end up taking the tiebreak 7-5. Johnson opened up a 4-2 lead in the second set but Cuevas fought off a break point to hold in a two-deuce game, broke from 30/40, and then held at love to go up 5-4. Johnson then held from 40/15, broke from 15/40, and then served it out in a one-deuce game to win it 7-6, 7-5 in 1 hour and 33 minutes.

Plenty of Coaching News, Strong Day on Tour, USONP Update

The coaching carousel spun so fast this afternoon that the top popped right off and I've called a mechanic to get it running again. The first shoe to drop came in Ann Arbor where Michigan announced its new head coach would be none other than Adam Steinberg. Steinberg accepted the job at Arizona State just nine days ago but apparently within the last 24 hours he decided he wanted to stay at Michigan. Michigan's release said Steinberg contacted them to see if he could return while Arizona State's release said Steinberg told them he couldn't continue as its head coach for personal reasons.

I'm sure those personal reasons will eventually come out but for Arizona State it is back to the drawing board. It'll be interesting to see if ASU opens its search back up or if they go back to the other finalists to see if they are still interested. It'll also be interesting to see how Steinberg does next season at Michigan because he is going to have to regain the buy-in that he had with the guys before his departure.

Pro Circuit Update

The final round of qualies at Wimbledon was washed out on Thursday but play rocked on at Pro Circuit events across the globe. Before I dive into those Futures results I wanted to give congratulations to Florida State commit Alex Knaff and NC State commit Alexis Galarneau for picking up their first ATP points earlier in the week.

Knaff picked up his point on Wednesday with a 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over #1671 Mason Recci at the $10K Havre, Belgium, F2 Futures (Clay). Knaff's attempt at picking up another point came up short when he fell to former East Carolina #1 Joran Vliegen 6-2, 6-4.

Galarneau won his opening round match on Tuesday with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over #682 Greg Jones at the $25K Richmond, Canada, F3 Futures (Hard) before falling today to #356 Peter Polansky in the second round.

Aljosa Piric Gets The Miami Job, Wimbledon Qualies Continue, Oosterbaan & Eubanks Get First ATP Point

The coaching carousel kept spinning on Wednesday with Old Dominion head coach Aljosa Piric named as the new head coach at Miami (FL). Piric had been ODU's head coach for the last five years and was named the Wilson/ITA Atlantic Region Coach of the Year this past season after guiding the Monarchs to a 21-5 record and a national ranking of #47. This past season was ODU's best in Piric's tenure with the Monarchs making it to the finals of the Conference USA Tournament before falling to Rice (host). Piric's five-year record in Norfolk was 76-35 (21-5, 16-3, 12-10, 14-7, 13-10) however ODU was unable to reach the NCAA Tournament in any of those five seasons.

Miami didn't renew the contract of Mario Rincon after he went 152-136 over the last 12 seasons. Rincon guided the Canes to the NCAA Tournament in five of his first seven seasons (Sweet 16 in 06 and 09) but this past season was the fifth in a row that they missed out.

Wimbledon Qualies Underway, Witten Wins USONP Hawaii, Genender & Zlobinsky Get First ATP Point

Wimbledon qualies officially got underway on Monday but several matches were pushed back until today due to rain. Former college players performed pretty well today going 6-6 although there were two head-to-head matches that guaranteed at least two winners. Austin Krajicek won the closest match of the day by knocking off former Tennessee All-American JP Smith 11-9 in the third. The only break of serve in the final set came when Smith got broke from 15/40 while serving at 9-10.

Former Memphis Tiger Joe Salisbury, ATP #706, won his first-ever qualifying match at a Grand Slam with a come from behind 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-3 win over ATP #163 Alessandro Giannessi. It didn't look good for Salisbury when he trailed 6-4, 5-3 but he held from 40/30 and then broke from 15/40 to even it at 5-5. Salisbury jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second set tiebreak and took it 7-3 to force a third set. Salisbury broke to go up 3-2 in the third and then he broke again to go up 5-2. Giannessi broke to make it 5-3 but Salisbury broke on a one-deuce game to win it.

Jeremy Feldman Gets The Charlotte Job, Monday Pro Circuit Qualifiers

Jeremy Feldman was named as the new head coach at Charlotte after serving as Tony Bresky's assistant coach at Wake Forest for the last two years. Feldman is a 2011 Cornell graduate who also served as a volunteer assistant at Wake Forest in 2012-13 and then was Danny Westerman's assistant coach at Denver during the 2013-14 season.

Jeremy Feldman (Picture Via Wake Forest)

Evan King & Sekou Bangoura Win U.S. Futures & Wimbledon Qualies Draw Announced

There were five guys with college ties playing for singles titles on Sunday and after an 0-3 start both Sekou Bangoura and Evan King salvaged the day.

Sekou Bangoura (Florida '11) picked up his fourth career Futures singles title with a straight set win over #274 Darian King in the finals of the the Winston-Salem USA F18 Futures (Hard). Bangoura broke King in a one-deuce game to go up 3-1 in the first but King broke back from 30/40 to make it 3-2. Bangoura made it three breaks in a row when he broke in a two-deuce game to go up 4-2 and a few games later he had a 6-3 first set. Bangoura broke from 15/40 to start the second set and then he broke again in a four-deuce game to go up 4-1. After a pair of holds Bangoura served it out in a two-deuce game to win it 6-3, 6-2.

Bangoura came close to not even making it out of the first round when he trailed Ryan Haviland 5-3 in the third but he won that match and every other match in three sets except for today's straight setter.

Bangoura has now won a title in each of the last four years with three of those coming in the United States. Bangoura came into this week with a career high singles ranking of 271 so when these 27 points are added in next week he should be just inside 265.

Alejandro Gomez Wins Title #1 in Colombia & Peter Nagy Wins #2 in Poland

It was a great day for several former collegians on the pro tour with two picking up singles titles and five others moving on to a Sunday final.

Alejandro Gomez (Kentucky '14) won his first career pro singles title at the Cartagena, Columbia, F1 Futures (Hard) with a thrilling three-set win over #551 Juan Sebastian Gomez. Alejandro broke Juan in a one-deuce game to go up 2-1 in the first set and he made that break lead hold up and took the opening set 6-4. Juan broke Alejandro from 30/40 to go up 3-1 in the second and then broke him again from 30/40 to take the set 6-2. Juan broke Alejandro in a one-deuce game to go up 2-0 in the third but Alejandro broke back from 15/40 to put it back on serve at 2-1. Juan broke Alejandro at love to go up 4-2 and then held in a one-deuce game to go up 5-2. Alejandro held for 3-5 but Juan had a pair of match points on his serve after he went up 40/15. Alejandro won four straight points to break for 4-5 and then he fought off a match point on his serve to hold for 5-5. Each held quickly to send it to a tiebreak and then Alejandro got the first mini-break to go up 3-1. Juan got it back on serve at 3-4 but Alejandro took three of the next four points to win it 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(4). 

Sadhaf Pervez Named Southern Utah's New Men's Coach, Pro Circuit Update

Former Drake women's coach Sadhaf Pervez was named as the new men's head coach at Southern Utah. Pervez was the head coach of the women's team at Drake for two and a half seasons but left abruptly in between the fall and spring semesters this past season.  Southern Utah started it's men's program in the fall of 2012 but it's been tough sleeding so far with the Thunderbirds a combined 0-58 with 52 of those losses being shutouts.  Click here or on the tweet for the full release.

Sadhaf Pervez Named as SUU Men's Tennis Head Coach | https://t.co/W3Sz9mQx0k #TBirdNation pic.twitter.com/17N3tYjV8E

— SUUTennis (@SUUTennis) June 17, 2016

Mackie Turns Pro, Stump Goes From Miss St to Florida, Pro Circuit Update

The 2016 NCAA Singles and Doubles Champion and recently named ITA National Player of the Year Mackenzie McDonald announced today that he was leaving UCLA a year early and turning pro. Many people including myself figured it was a foregone conclusion that McDonald would move on after a tremendous junior year and he made it official after signing an exclusive representation agreement with Octagon.

2016 @NCAATennis singles and doubles champion, Mackie McDonald will forgo his senior year and turn pro immediately. Best of luck Mack!

— UCLA Men's Tennis (@uclatennis) June 16, 2016

Adam Steinberg Chosen As Arizona State's New Coach, Zhao Says Bye To the Farm, Pro Circuit Update

On May 4th it was announced that Arizona State was bringing back its men's tennis program and today came the announcement that Adam Steinberg was leaving Michigan to become the Sun Devils new head coach. Steinberg, who had coached Michigan for the last two years and Pepperdine the 12 prior including the 2006 NCAA Championship team, will have a full year to build the program from scratch. Here is Arizona State's release which lists all his past accomplishments.

Stanford junior Carol Zhao announced that she is foregoing her senior season to turn pro. Zhao went 76-16 in three years at Stanford and was a three-time all-conference selection. Zhao currently has a WTA ranking of 317 and reached a career high of 247 last summer. Zhao wrote about her time at Stanford and thanked several people in this piece that she wrote.

McDonald & Collins Named National Players of the Year, ITA All-Star Team Announced, USONP Update, College Tennis Weekly Featuring Harvard, Pro Circuit Update

The ITA announced its 2016 All-Star Team which included the year-end number one in the singles and doubles rankings, the NCAA D1 Singles and Doubles Champions, and the winners from last fall's National Indoor Intercollegiates. UCLA junior Mackenzie McDonald was named the ITA National Men's Player of the Year while Virginia's Danielle Collins was named the ITA National Women's Player of the Year. I have all the winners listed below and for the full release from the ITA which includes more information about the winners you can click here.

James Wilson Named Head Coach at Utah State, USONP Update, Evan King & Tennys Sandgren Win Futures, Other Pro Notables

I wanted to start off by giving a congratulations to Texas Tech assistant James Wilson on landing his first heading coaching job at Utah State. Wilson, who had been an assistant for the last three years at his alma mater, replaced Clancy Shields who recently took the head coaching job at Arizona. I'm still showing there are 13 D1 men's head coaching jobs open and another 16 on the women's side. If anyone knows of another opening or one that's been filled let me know.

6 of the 15 US Open National Playoff Sectionals have been completed with all 6 men's singles winners and 5 of the 6 women's singles winners having college ties. The New England sectional is scheduled to wrap up today while the Midwest will wrap up tomorrow. To view all current winners you can check out this sheet which also lists any college ties and this link has more details about the USONP.

Edwardsville Open Semifinals

There are several pro events that take place in July and August in Illinois and several of them have tournaments in advance to help determine wild cards. Last week Illinois rising junior Aron Hiltzik won the Ursula Beck Wildcard Shootout in Decatur, Illinois and this weekend Edwardsville High School is hosting the Edwardsville Open with the winner getting a wild card in the late July Futures event

I made the 45 minute drive north to watch today's semifinal matches which included three current college guys and one 16 year-old that will be a force in years to come. Both semifinal matches started shortly after 11 a.m. and with temperatures in the mid 90s the guys were all in a hurry to get on court so they could try to get off as soon possible.

College on Tour - 6/10 Update

Summer time is a great time for many guys with pro aspirations to earn some ATP points before they head out on the tour after graduation or before they start college in the fall. Let's take a look at some guys that have performed well this week.

ATP 250

Hertogenbosch (Netherlands) - Dennis Novikov (UCLA '13) qualified for the main draw at the  by defeating Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M '11) 7-6, 7-6 in the final round of qualies before falling in the first round to #68 Dudi Sela 7-5, 6-7, 7-6(5).

Challengers

Moscow (Russia) $75K+H Clay - Emilio Gomez (USC '13) is into the semis; Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Oklahoma State '10) made it to the quarters in Moscow before falling to the #1 seed, #61 Mikhail Kukushkin 6-1, 2-1. ret.

Women's Kick-Off Draft - Everyone Avoids Cal

The 2017 Women's Kick-Off Weekend draft is complete with none of the regionals filling up quickly while the Cal Regional filled up last with no one choosing to go to Berkeley until pick 44 of 47.

I thought Virginia would fill up quickly with most of the team graduating but it took 24 picks to fill up the three spots in Charlottesville. Both the Vanderbilt and Duke Regionals filled up first followed by Virginia, Auburn, Georgia Tech and Michigan.

Women's Kick-Off Weekend Draft Projections

I meant to get these projections out sooner but better late than never.

Usually you figure that the first 15 to 20 teams will try to find a regional where they think they can win the whole thing but then the rest are making picks off based who else is in the regional so they can try to pick up at least one quality win. By the time you get to the bottom of the barrel you have to what's left which usually are the toughest spots that everyone else is avoiding.

Here are the regional hosts with a notation about whether the matches will be played indoors or outdoors along with who the hosts will have to replace next season:

Roditi Named Mexico Davis Cup Captain, Change at Clemson, Update On US Open National Playoff

TCU head coach David Roditi added another title today when he was named captain of the Mexico Davis Cup team. Roditi who just finished his sixth year at the helm of his alma mater played in several Davis Cup ties for Mexico from 1997 to 2000. Roditi's first tie will take place on July 15-17 when Mexico travels to Peru.

Clemson made a coaching change on Tuesday with eight year assistant John Boetsch taking over for Chuck McCuen who had been head coach for the last eight years. McCuen, who went 110-96 in those eight seasons with two NCAA appearances, will remain on as the Director of Tennis Operations.

The US Open National Playoffs are well underway with four sectionals already completed. Many of the names below should be familiar to those that follow college tennis and I'm sure that plenty of the upcoming winners will be as well. You can look at all upcoming events at this link.

Men's Kick-Off Draft Is Complete

The 2017 Men's Kick-Off Weekend draft is in the books with the Oklahoma and Oklahoma State Regionals filling up first and the Ohio State and Florida Regionals filing up last.

South Florida picked first and choose to go to Florida and then Illinois through a little curve and decided to go to Oklahoma.  A few picks later Arkansas and Michigan also choose the Oklahoma Regional which meant it was filled up after just nine picks. The allure of an Oklahoma team that will have to replace its coach and top two players was just too much for teams to pass on.

Oklahoma State is expected to return everyone from a top 15 team but that didn't stop Kentucky, Tulsa, and Columbia from jumping on board rather quickly.

Men's Kick-Off Weekend Draft Projections

We are less than 24 hours away from the men's draft so I thought I'd try to pick where everyone will go. I did the same thing last year and got some right so we'll see how I do this year.

Usually you figure that the first 15 to 20 teams will try to find a regional where they think they can win the whole thing but then the rest are making picks off based who else is in the regional so they can try to pick up at least one quality win. By the time you get to the bottom of the barrel you have to what's left which usually are the toughest spots that everyone else is avoiding.

Here are the regional hosts with a notation about whether the matches will be played indoors or outdoors along with who the hosts will have to replace next season:

Kick-Off Weekend Drafts - Who Is On The Clock

It's draft time!!! This Wednesday afternoon the 2017 ITA Division I Men's Kick-Off Weekend draft will begin at noon eastern and last until roughly 3 p.m. There will be 15 teams hosting four-team regionals during the Kick-Off Weekend which will take place next January with the winners advancing to the 2017 Men's National Team Indoors in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Women's K-O Weekend Draft will take place on Thursday with Yale set to host the 2017 Women's NTI.

The Virginia men and Yale women get an automatic berth as the NTI hosts but everyone else has to earn their spots. The regional hosts and the order of selection are determined by the final rankings which were released the day after the NCAA Finals.

Weekend Roundup - Near Misses On The Tour, Futures Wildcard Awarded, Plenty of D1 Jobs Open

Summer time means a slew of college guys/gals hit the road to play in Pro Circuit events all across the world so I'll start doing a weekly recap each Sunday of the top performers. 

Nick Chappell (TCU '15) was playing in his first career singles final at the Kiryat Shmona, Israel, F9 Futures but he came up short falling to #638 Edan Leshem 6-3, 6-3. Leshem broke Chappell from 30/40 to go up 3-1 in the first and then held three more times to take the opening set 6-3. Leshem broke Chappell to go up 2-1 in the second on a three-deuce game but Chappell broke back from 15/40 to even it at 2-2. Leshem broke on a one-deuce game to go up 4-3 and then broke again on a three-deuce game to seal the win. Chappell's semifinal appearance a week ago earned him a new career high ranking of 823 and this finals appearance should bump him up even higher next week. 

Final Women's Singles Rankings

The final singles rankings were released on Wednesday with NCAA singles champion Danielle Collins finishing the year at No. 1.

Cal, Florida, and Ohio State each had five ranked singles players while NCAA Champion Stanford was one of six teams that had four ranked players. There were ten teams that had three ranked players including national runner-up Oklahoma State.

There were more juniors ranked in the top 125 than any other class. It was interesting to see 22 freshmen in the top 125 while the guys only had 13 freshmen ranked.

Final Men's Singles Rankings

The final singles rankings were released on Wednesday with NCAA singles champion Mackenzie McDonald finishing the year at No. 1.

The NCAA Champion Virginia Cavaliers had all six singles starters ranked in the top 125 while no other team had more than four. There were nine teams that had four ranked starters with another five that had three ranked.

Final Women's Team Rankings

The national champion Stanford Cardinal made the jump from No. 15 all the way up to No. 1 after defeating Oklahoma State 4-3 to win the NCAA Championship. Oklahoma State moved up four spots from No. 12 to No. 8 but anyone who saw them play would say without a doubt they were a top 5 team.

Cal stayed at No. 2 after a semifinal appearance while Florida, who was No. 1, dropped to No. 3 after losing in the Round of 16 to Stanford. North Carolina fell one spot to No. 4 and Vanderbilt came up one spot to No. 5.

There were several teams that made big jumps or falls with Baylor coming up eight spots to No. 32, Rice coming up seven spots to No. 41, and TCU coming up six spots to No. 31. Duke and NC State took the biggest tumbles inside the top 50 with each falling five spots to No. 14 and No. 40 respectively.