A year ago, Williams and Sandgren were both sitting somewhere in the 600 or 700s. They're doing well. And JP Smith, as I've previously predicted, will be a very good professional as a doubles player.
Sandgren will probably be top 200 by the end of the year. He was playing #3 for us. You know how many former college tennis players are ranked ahead of Williams and Sandgren right now? John Isner and James Blake. That's it. I'm not going to count Ryan Sweeting. How in the [uck fay] did UT not win it all in tennis last year? I'm just gonna get more and more pissed about this as it becomes increasingly crystal [dadgum] clear just how obscenely good that team was.
They lost in the Qtr to UGA last year after beating them 2 times during the regular season. They got absolutely nothing out of 5 & 6, which had to be expected as they advanced deeper into the draw. That basically leaves you with needing doubles and 3 of the top 4 singles. They took doubles. Williams and Boris held there own. Tennys got hammered. JP was cruising then lost focus, got into a 3rd set and started having cramps and lost 7-5 in the 3rd....I believe he had 2 match points along the way. If you look back at the Qtr last year and the Championship the year before, Williams was a rock while Smith and Sandgren did not pull through when they were needed most. Championship loss was 4-2, but TN was leading at 5-4 in the 3rd set on #5, so a win by either of the other 2 and you have a Championship. All 3 have done a little better in the short term than I thought they might do initially. If they continue on the path they have been on, maybe in the next year or so they can crack the top 200 and get into some bigger tournaments where they can make more than a few bucks at a time.
Williams pulled his weight. Smith shouldn't have lost to that dude. And Sandgren...he better have been really really really hungover. And he better have gotten him some sweet sweet muff pie the night before. I mean, I hope it was the best piece of puss in Palo Alto. Argh.
I think Williams is poised to make a jump. I predict he'll win a challenger this Summer and be top 150 by the end of the year.
We've known this for some time. So of course Jimmy Hyams just now gets around to writing about it. Nevertheless, Sean Karl is a Vol. And you're right, he is pretty good. He's a notch below what Williams and Sandgren were, but making it to the semifinals at the Easter Bowl is a nice showing. State's No. 3 junior picks Vols' tennis » Knoxville News Sentinel Next year, Tennessee will again be pretty good. We still won't be great at the very top, but we'll have nice depth. Deeeeeep.
Oh, hold on, both Lipman and Karl will be Seniors next year. Did we get zero signees for the class of 2012? This is what it looks like. Perhaps we didn't have any more available schollies. Conference Information
They have 10 on the roster currently. A decent bit of foreign influx, probably to fill the void that of losing Sandgren and Williams unexpectedly. IT would not surprise me if they pull 1-2 quality foreigners at the midterm. How sure? I was saying that I do not think that was going to happen. I see him at Vandy assuming he plays collegiately. If they add another other than Karl from TN, I would envision it being Sharp. I think there are some places (UVA, Duke, Stanford) that he might prefer, but he told me at the beginning of summer TN was a possibility. Was just really getting started with the process. Because of his size, I think that Sharp has a pretty decent upsize.
Looks like the NCAA just shat on college tennis by moving to the 3rd set 10 pt tiebreak instead of a 3rd set.....
Terrible news..... UT commit Sean Karl has been diagnosed with Cancer...prayers going out the young man. LINK
NCAA PULLS BACK CHANGES TO COLLEGE TENNIS Posted by Satsuma Illini on August 22, 2012 Posted in: College Tennis, NCAA. Tagged: College Tennis, Illini Tennis, NCAA. 2 comments Tennis Wins! NCAA Loses! The NCAA announced today that they are pulling back two of the major changes they proposed for college tennis! College tennis’ #SaveCollegeTennis campaign on Twitter, the petition that was set up, USTA and ITA’s letter to the NCAA and other activities have persuaded the NCAA they made a huge mistake when they decided to try and change the sport for whatever goals they were after. Tennis athletes and fans have prevailed! Now we have to protect the players and get that 10 minute break and 90-second changeover back in place. Have these guys at NCAA ever played tennis? DI Tennis Committee reconsiders tiebreaker proposals Division I Tennis Committee rescinds recommended tiebreaker procedure Zoo Tennis Article NCAA Rescinds Recommendations Changes that were rescinded: 1. Replacing a third set with a 10-point tiebreaker. 2. Changing the doubles set to tiebreaker at 6-all. Changes that will proceed as planned: 1. A regional round will be added for the 16 and 8 rounds. (from the 2014 season) 2. National Championships will be decided on a weekend rather than on Monday (singles) and Tuesday (team). (from the 2014 season) 3. Remove warm up time between the doubles and singles matches. 4. Reduce time between the singles and doubles matches to five minutes. 5. Reduce court changeover time from 90 seconds to 60.
Ewing's sarcoma is what took that great LB from Boston College out for a year. He was able to play his senior year and I think is still in the NFL.
