• The KillerFrogs

TCU Men's Tennis - 2020-2021

Longfrog

Active Member
As I kind of alluded to, Alcaraz was a terrible 1st round opponent for Norrie and he got absolutely smoked. Straight sets, not really close at all. Really tough end to the hardcourt season. Going to need to pump up the serve in the offseason.

Yeah I wasn't able to watch... was hoping Alcaraz might be a little overamped in the moment, but he's already played in some big events including majors, and they had them playing on an outer court. Kind of a strange run right now for Norrie after dominating on clay to come up short on hard courts, which used to be his strength.
 

Jared7

Active Member

Losing Gray to the pros is a big hit for the team - I'm not sure we're going to be as strong this season as heretofore predicted. I'm guessing Roditi already knew it and wanted to balance out the announcement with a positive like recruiting Marcos, whose record looks to be as good as Gray's (at least in the pros). But Alastair had a lot of college experience and had been anchoring the team for a couple of years now. The pressure will be on Fomba, Jong and the new guys to lead the team now. We clearly have more depth, but perhaps not as strong at the top as before. But we'll see if someone steps up.

Norrie's early loss at the U.S. Open is very disappointing. After such a strong clay and early hard court season, he's really fallen off. Luckily, the 2-year roll is starting to end, so he's likely to maintain his ranking (earned earlier).
 

Jared7

Active Member
Gray's first tourney as a full-time pro starts this week - he's at Bagneres-De-Bigorre (France) where he's scheduled to play Harold Mayot today.
 

jake102

Active Member
Losing Gray to the pros is a big hit for the team - I'm not sure we're going to be as strong this season as heretofore predicted. I'm guessing Roditi already knew it and wanted to balance out the announcement with a positive like recruiting Marcos, whose record looks to be as good as Gray's (at least in the pros). But Alastair had a lot of college experience and had been anchoring the team for a couple of years now. The pressure will be on Fomba, Jong and the new guys to lead the team now. We clearly have more depth, but perhaps not as strong at the top as before. But we'll see if someone steps up.

Norrie's early loss at the U.S. Open is very disappointing. After such a strong clay and early hard court season, he's really fallen off. Luckily, the 2-year roll is starting to end, so he's likely to maintain his ranking (earned earlier).

Norrie reminds me of a new hitter or pitcher in MLB where they start off real hot, but then start to fade as people see them more and take them seriously and find weaknesses. Now Norrie needs to punch back, and I think it starts with beefing up the first serve and getting the backhand up the line occasionally.
 

Jared7

Active Member
I'm sure everyone is just chomping at the bit to know what effect all this realignment news has on Big 12 and TCU tennis. Losing UT and OU would drop the Big 12 to just 4 teams and the continuation of the conference (without affiliates) would be in jeopardy. The good news is that UCF and BYU both have men's teams and would move membership back to 6 teams (assuming all sports invitations). Cincinnati and Houston have women's teams but not men's teams. BYU finished 14-6 last year (7-1 in WCC play) but lost to Pepperdine and therefore didn't earn the 1 automatic berth that the WCC has. They're a decent team but haven't been nationally relevant recently. Their coach is Dave Porter, who just finished his first year as head coach. UCF, however, is an excellent team - they finished 22-4 last season (7-0 in the AAC), losing only to NCAA champ Florida, A&M, Georgia and, ultimately, Mississippi State in the 2nd round of the NCAA's. They won the AAC, their first ever title, by sweeping all teams. And they finished 11th, their highest-ever. Their coach is John Roddick, Andy's brother, who was the former coach at OU.

Losing UT will be tough - they won the NCAA's in 2019. OU has fallen off a bit since losing Roddick, but have still been routinely in the Top 25. UCF will be a stellar replacement; BYU an average to above-average replacement. But both schools should benefit in recruiting by moving to the Big 12.

Norrie-killer Alcaraz is currently beating Tsitsipas. Gray lost in the 2nd round to Arthur Fils 3-6, 6-4, 4-6 at Bagneres-De-Bigorre.
 

Jared7

Active Member
Gray and fellow Brit Ryan James Storrie won the doubles title in Bagneres-de-Bigorre.
That means, Rybo, Chappell, Widow and Gray have all won pro doubles titles this year!

Alastair is now in Portugal at the tourney in Sintra, where he got a bye in Round 1 of the qualies and beat Italian Mirko Lagasio love and 2 in Round 2. He'll now face Denmark's Henrik Heise Korsgaard in the final round of qualies for a shot at the main draw.
 

Jared7

Active Member
Gray made the main draw by beating Korsgaard 1 and 4 but lost in the first round of the main draw to Paul Jubb 4 and 4. He didn't play doubles this week, so no title chances.

Alcaraz finally lost (he retired) to Auger-Aliassime in the quarters at the U.S. Open.
 

Longfrog

Active Member
Lui Maxted lost in the 1st round of junior boys singles at the Open but is now into the quarters in doubles. Today they took out the #2 seeds in 3 sets. The color commentator (Jan-Michael Gambill) said Maxted was the best player on the court. His serve routinely clocked in around 110 but he maxed out at 126 and there was a lot of discussion about Maxted's power despite a slight frame.
 

Jared7

Active Member
Medvedev ruined Djoker's shot at a single season Slam and at an undisputed GOAT ranking (at least in terms of total Slam W's).

Alastair Gray has traveled to Johannesburg and will face Konstantin Kravchuk in the first round of the main draw in the RSA.

Alex Rybakov lost in the 2nd round at Kyiv in Ukraine 4 and 2 to Sebastian Baez over the weekend after winning 2 qualie matches and his first rounder at a Challenger. Nick Chappell was also there and lost in the first round of the main draw.

No word from Roditi on our schedule or offical roster as yet - it's just got to happen this week!
 

Longfrog

Active Member
We've got a partial schedule out for next year. Aside from ITA Kickoff, which we already knew, we've got #1 Florida on Jan 14 and #4 Tennessee on Jan 16. We also know we've got #7 UVA on Feb 13 since they've released their full schedule. I know we always schedule tough, but that's an insane run before you even get to Indoors.
 

Jared7

Active Member
The Frogs have signed Pedro Vives Marcos for the 2021-22 season. He's one of the top Spanish juniors and he's rated as the #2 recruit by the ITA. Pedro has a career high of #578 in the ATP rankings in singles and #541 in doubles. He even defeated Rybo at a clay tourney earlier this season in Spain.

Gray's 2nd round opponent in Joburg will be South African Vasilios Carepi.
 
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