• The KillerFrogs

TCU Men's Tennis 2021-2022

Longfrog

Active Member
I missed this, but our '22 recruit Sebastian Gorzny won a Grade 1 junior event in Costa Rica yesterday. In fairness, the field was a little lighter than normal. The top seed -- who Gorzny beat in the final -- is ranked #52 in the world. When the event was last held in 2020 they had several in the top 10 competing.

Gorzny is currently ranked #89 but if my math is right he'll move into the low 40s once this result gets included.
 

Jared7

Active Member
Norrie gives up another break and falls 3-6 in the 1st set. McEnroe is picking Korda to beat him. Maybe he's not all there; having just been diagnosed with COVID a few weeks ago.

Norrie now getting bageled, down two breaks in the 2nd. This ain't happening for him today.
 
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FrogUltimate

Active Member
Norrie falls 3-6, 0-6, 4-6 in an embarrassing first round exit from the Aussie and he's now 0-4 on the new year.
He’s a mess right now. Also, terrible surfaces to start the year (fast, high bouncing) and terrible four opponents in a row (Zverev, FAA, Fritz, Korda). And what do all those guys have in common? Tall, right handed, really solid backhands. That’s the code Norrie needs to break…. I think it begins with his backhand going up the line.

The rest of the year should be a bit better suited for him with all the remaining GS being on better surfaces for him, especially clay and the US hardcourts.

Just read an article post-loss. Norrie said it’s his worst match in eight months. Felt fine physically but just played horribly. Said he’s going to tweak schedule to make sure he’s playing his best tennis at the big events.

On the positive side - for American tennis - Korda is clearly the future and our best shot at a top 10 or even #1 player. The first guy we’ve had in like 10 years with that potential
 

ticketfrog123

Active Member
I'm going to go ahead and call it like I see it - our tennis program is having too many injuries. You can certainly have injuries in tennis, but it's somewhat rare for young guys to spend much time injured playing tennis.
Is having? It’s been a noticeable issue since started getting good around 2013.

At least 1 singles player has missed significant time (half a season? every Year since then. Some years 2-3 guys down
 

Purp

Active Member
We talked toward the end of last year about Cam's fitness being his biggest competitive advantage. I wonder if him getting corona has affected his fitness levels more than he wants to admit. I get that these 4 losses were against bad match-ups for him, but I also know plenty of people who had corona (even very mild symptoms) who don't have the physical stamina and lung capacity they did before many months after getting over it. I hope I'm wrong, but I won't be surprised if he struggles most of this season if it is, in fact, corona related.
 

ticketfrog123

Active Member
We talked toward the end of last year about Cam's fitness being his biggest competitive advantage. I wonder if him getting corona has affected his fitness levels more than he wants to admit. I get that these 4 losses were against bad match-ups for him, but I also know plenty of people who had corona (even very mild symptoms) who don't have the physical stamina and lung capacity they did before many months after getting over it. I hope I'm wrong, but I won't be surprised if he struggles most of this season if it is, in fact, corona related.
Plenty of NFL guys have gotten it & returned to their roles as starters. YMMV I guess
 

Longfrog

Active Member
I hope I'm wrong, but I won't be surprised if he struggles most of this season if it is, in fact, corona related.
I'd be more worried about that if he was wearing down in matches. But he only had one 3 setter at the ATP Cup, and he was awful from the get go vs Korda. He also seemed as surprised as anyone with how one sided it was yesterday. If routinely shanking basic groundstrokes is Covid related, I'd think it would be showing up in training too. I guess it could be and he just doesn't want to reveal it.

Having said that, it was a pretty shocking performance that doesn't seem like just a routine bad day or bad matchup.
 

FrogUltimate

Active Member
Yeh his fitness was fine. It was all about just playing a horrible match. I think his game plan was awful too… seemed like he was keying in on Kordas forehand which was rock solid and then couldn’t adjust. But even so, he had a ton of errors (for him) and his shots lacked weight. First couple games his ground strokes looked like college level pace and spin. I mentioned a couple posts ago, but Norrie needs to explore his backhand up the line. Doesn’t have to be a huge shot for a winner but just to redirect the point.

And at end of the day, his first serve % was 58%. That’s horrendous for a light hitting server.
 

Longfrog

Active Member
I mentioned a couple posts ago, but Norrie needs to explore his backhand up the line. Doesn’t have to be a huge shot for a winner but just to redirect the point.
He hits it so flat though. Do you think he can get it up and down in time going down the line? From what little I saw, it did seem like Korda was sitting cross court every time Norrie lined up a backhand. So I get that it would be a really useful shot for him, I just have doubts that he can be consistent with it.
 

FrogUltimate

Active Member
He hits it so flat though. Do you think he can get it up and down in time going down the line? From what little I saw, it did seem like Korda was sitting cross court every time Norrie lined up a backhand. So I get that it would be a really useful shot for him, I just have doubts that he can be consistent with it.
Definitely tough. But he just needs to redirect, could even develop an effective slice. Just can’t get whipped going crosscourt all the time, like you said, Korda was a solid 3-4 steps to his forehand side anytime Norrie had a backhand
 

Jared7

Active Member
The Loughborough tourney doesn't actually start until the 24th, so it'll be next week before Gray will be back in action. Nick Chappell was most recently at Forli in Italy for a Challenger on 1/5 where he lost in the Round of 32. There's several Cancun tourneys starting this week - Jerry Lopez isn't listed for this week, but he might play in the next few weeks. Rybo apparently is still recovering from surgery.

I don't know what's wrong with Norrie. It's probably a combination of a bad Aussie draw, Korda's team having analyzed Cam's tendencies and being better prepared (and hotter); playing better competition (Zverev is the Olympics and ATP Finals champ and may well be the Aussie fave with Djoker out); COVID and an inevitable slow streak after he was so hot last summer and fall. But if he's really the 12th best player in the world, he can certainly improve his down the line shot and gain consistency by having Facu make him hit 2000 of them per day. I'm not that concerned as yet - as he himself has said, he's now the hunted and no longer the hunter. He's got a high ranking and players are gunning for him; not the other way round. We'll see.
 

FrogUltimate

Active Member
I don't know what's wrong with Norrie. It's probably a combination of a bad Aussie draw, Korda's team having analyzed Cam's tendencies and being better prepared (and hotter); playing better competition (Zverev is the Olympics and ATP Finals champ and may well be the Aussie fave with Djoker out); COVID and an inevitable slow streak after he was so hot last summer and fall. But if he's really the 12th best player in the world, he can certainly improve his down the line shot and gain consistency by having Facu make him hit 2000 of them per day. I'm not that concerned as yet - as he himself has said, he's now the hunted and no longer the hunter. He's got a high ranking and players are gunning for him; not the other way round. We'll see.

Yep, completely concur. Definitely a little bit of a "sophomore slump" I think. No longer catching anyone by surprise.
 

Jared7

Active Member
I don't think I previously listed the preseason ITA Top 25 - here it is:

1. Florida (W)
2. Baylor (on our schedule)
3. Texas (on our schedule)
4. Tennessee (L)
5. The Fighting Frogs of lil ole TCU
6. Ohio State
7. Virginia (on our schedule)
8. Georgia
9. USC
10. Wake Forest
11. UCF
12. Kentucky
13. South Carolina
14. North Carolina
15. Arizona
16. Stanford
17. Michigan (on our schedule)
18. Mississippi (on our schedule)
19. A&M
20. Mississippi State (on our schedule)
21. Harvard
22. Pepperdine
23. Illinois (on our schedule)
24. Oklahoma (on our schedule)
25. UCLA (on our schedule)

In the ARV category, USF, Tulane, Tech and Oklahoma State are also on our schedule. The Spring season is really beginning to kick in this week. There is no doubt that the TCU and Texas matches against Florida and Tennessee were the highlights of Week 1. Ranked match-ups this week include Texas v. Arizona, UCF v. Florida; Ohio State v. Illinois; Wake Forest v. Tennessee and Harvard v. Virginia.
 

Jared7

Active Member
The College Tennis Ranks website is now operational for this Spring. This is a really good resource for anyone searching for college tennis news. The twitter page has been active since last May but the website basically takes the summer and fall off due to there being no rankings in that period. The site publishes the most recent ITA rankings, provides comprehensive schedules for all Division 1 teams, including week ahead and week behind schedule pages. It also has a projected ITA rankings page, which is more or less real time and a What If page where you can figure out what would happen to the rankings if, say, TCU, wins the next match. It also has its own ranking - TCU is 8th according to them.
 

Jared7

Active Member
The new ITA Coaches Poll dropped earlier today and it takes into account the big TCU opening matches. There is a new #1 and it's the team that beat the Frogs 4-3 - the Tennessee Volunteers. And the Frogs moved up to #3 (tied) in the nation. Here it is:

1. Tennessee (L)
2. Baylor (on our schedule)
3. the Fighting Frogs of lil ole TCU
3. Florida (W)
5. Texas (on our schedule)
6. Ohio State
7. Virginia (on our schedule)
8. Georgia
9. USC
10. Wake Forest
11. Kentucky
12. South Carolina
13. North Carolina
14. UCF
15. Arizona
16. Stanford
17. Michigan (on our schedule)
18. Mississippi (on our schedule)
19. A&M
20. Harvard
21. Mississippi State (on our schedule)
22. Pepperdine
23. Illinois (on our schedule)
24. Oklahoma (on our schedule)
25. UCLA (on our schedule)

4 Big 12 teams; 5 if you count UCF. 11 Top 25 teams on our schedule. Which might increase if we make the Indoor Nationals in Seattle. CTR still has us at 8th.
 

MBAFrog91

Member
The new ITA Coaches Poll dropped earlier today and it takes into account the big TCU opening matches. There is a new #1 and it's the team that beat the Frogs 4-3 - the Tennessee Volunteers. And the Frogs moved up to #3 (tied) in the nation. Here it is:

1. Tennessee (L)
2. Baylor (on our schedule)
3. the Fighting Frogs of lil ole TCU
3. Florida (W)
5. Texas (on our schedule)
6. Ohio State
7. Virginia (on our schedule)
8. Georgia
9. USC
10. Wake Forest
11. Kentucky
12. South Carolina
13. North Carolina
14. UCF
15. Arizona
16. Stanford
17. Michigan (on our schedule)
18. Mississippi (on our schedule)
19. A&M
20. Harvard
21. Mississippi State (on our schedule)
22. Pepperdine
23. Illinois (on our schedule)
24. Oklahoma (on our schedule)
25. UCLA (on our schedule)

4 Big 12 teams; 5 if you count UCF. 11 Top 25 teams on our schedule. Which might increase if we make the Indoor Nationals in Seattle.
I guess head to head does not count in the ITA poll.
 

Jared7

Active Member
I guess head to head does not count in the ITA poll.
Yeah, it seems like we should be ranked above a team that we beat rather than tied with them. But it's just a poll and when the computer rankings start being applicable, we'll get full credit for the W. So it's not really that big of a deal. And the Florida match was in Ft. Worth and it was really close (4-3) and Florida did beat Texas on the road and they are the defending champs. And we've got tons of big matches coming up (Virginia will follow ACU).
 
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