Big Top 10 Battle today!!!
Not Hoo news, but Iām happy for her. Amazing run. (And the brevity of the tweet is brilliant)
Huge weekend for the #5 men coming up: #1 Texas and #3 Ohio State, both at home. The men are coming off a successful qualification for national Indoors. They are playing 3 first years in their full strength lineup, headlined by junior US Open champ Rafael Jodar. They look deep this season; #1 singles might be a toss-up against most good teams, but they havenāt lost at #6 yet and the other spots all having winning records. Havenāt lost the doubles point yet either.
The #5 women have #7 Michigan in town. They also qualified for Indoors with a big top-10 win against Duke. They have 2 first years in the lineup to complement their veteran core. They have the best doubles team in the country, ITA rankings be damned (currently #2 in the rankings, but they just beat #1 and they did win the fall individual championship). Theyāve been very good in singles too, havenāt lost at #2 or #4.
I do like that the elite programs schedule aggressively in tennis.
Split weekend for the men, losing to OSU 4-2, but then beating Texas 4-3:
Had to fight for it, lost the doubles point and 5 of 6 first sets in singles. 3 first years with singles victories in the comeback, btw. Also of note was Jodar moving to #1 and Dietrich down to #2.
Women lost 4-2 to Michigan yesterday.
Women started ITA Indoors today against Tennessee, can watch here:
They won the doubles point, but it appears that they are without Elaine Chervinsky today (#19 in singles rankings, one half of the #1 doubles team in the nation).
Won three of our 1st sets, probably should have won five though. Zu and Ziodato both had a bunch of chances to close theirs out.
Yeah that was frustrating to watch. Xu in particular serving at 5-4, 30-0 and missed an easy slam, felt like that shook her. Ziadato had multiple set points. And now the second sets are going poorly.
Ziodato melted down up 6-5, she had her opponent digging the whole game and just couldnāt finish off points.
Dang. Ziodato had come back from 4-0 down too in the first set.
Score tied 1-1 as we go down on court 4. Lost our 2nd set on court 6 and down 5-3 in the 2nd on court 3, but itās looking like Collard is about to put us up 2-1 on 5.
2-1 score UVA up, gaining a bit of momentum now. Ziodato wins the 2nd set to force a 3rd, and weāre up in the 3rd set 2-0 and 3-2 on courts 3 and 6 respectively.
A win at #6 would be massive I think.
Tied 2-2 now as Zu goes down at #1 6-7, 4-6.
Pico Navarro just had a big break at #6 to make it 4-4 in the 3rd set. Would be a big point there. Looking good at #3, up 5-1 in the 3rd set and Ziobato up 2-1 at #2 in the 3rd set.
That last Lacy rally was amazing. Sheās up 5-1, should get us a 3-2 lead. Just need one more.
Ugh Pico Navarro just got broke right back at #6, down 4-5 now.
Hoos up 3-2, Lacy wins at #3 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
Ziodato up 3-2 at #2, Pico Navarro breaks again to tie it up at 5-5 on #6. Both in the 3rd set, just need to win one of these.
Pico Navarro saves three match points and breaks to send it to a tiebreak at #6.
Ziodato just got broke at #2, now tied 4-4.
Oh lord, I forgot how stressful high-stakes tennis can be to watch.
HOOS win 4-2 as Pico Navarro takes the tiebreak 7-3 to win her match 6-3, 1-6, 7-6. Incredible comeback from her. Ziodato was tied 5-5 at #2 but up in her game, though Iām glad it didnāt have to come down to that lol.
Thank god we won that as I couldnāt take the commentator talking about āTennessee fightā any more.
Thought Pico Navarro was getting a little tight up 5-1, but she played very aggressively at 5-3 and just hit through her opponent. Good stuff. Wonder if there will be any news on Chervinsky being out?
Not confirmed but apparently it was due to an illness.