TCU Men's Tennis - 2020-2021

[Longfrog]

NOTE: I’m trusting this stat site and it’s been iffy as it’s had the same player serving three games in a row more than once.

Sidearm stats is usually pretty good about the score. They occasionally mess up, but there are times I'm watching the feed and can't tell what the call was either.

But they routinely screw up whose serve it is. Many times they will be off in the first game and never correct it. By the end of the match they'll show on the video feed where both guys are like 8 for 9 on break point chances or whatever, when those are actually their service games.

 

[Longfrog]

Meanwhile, two days after roasting us, USC just barely scraped by UCLA 4-3. Two singles matches went to 3 sets and the Trojans won them both.
Like us, #6 UT also barely beat an unheralded opponent, topping Tulane 4-3
#11 Florida beat #10 A&M 5-2
#4 UVA beat #13 Wake 5-2
#3 Tennessee crushed Ole Miss 7-0 (did not lose a set)

 

[Longfrog]

I must be bored, but I went back and looked at the career high ranks that some of our notable players of the recent past achieved as juniors. Mostly I was interested in seeing where our recruit (Maxted) ranked. Fomba is the biggest outlier, but I don't think that's too surprising given that he's got so much power and was probably growing into his game. A couple of pretty nice finds in the 2018 class between him and Jong.

Looks like Maxted is done with juniors even though ITF shows he's still only 17. So it's conceivable he could have gotten a higher rank had he stayed at that level through the summer.

Edit: NVM, looks like he is still signed up to play a big junior tournament in Colombia in a couple of weeks.

 

[Longfrog]

Above post was inspired by spreadsheet below showing ranks for this year's freshman class. If Maxted had been in this year's class, he would be tied for the 8th best ITF rank with, ironically, Guy Den Ouden who played #2 for Pepperdine today and barely lost to Fomba.

 

[Jared7]

The Camster blitzed through Basilashvili love and 3 today at Rotterdam; afterwards saying he'll "take that kind of start every day of the week." Not sure who he'll play next in the Round of 16.

I'll go with "good comeback for $500 Alex" regarding our W yesterday over Pepperdine. We needed that - a solid road win over a tough (albeit unheralded) team to get the season back on track. We're 8-3, and our only L's are to Top 10 teams and we have 2 W's over Top 10 teams. We're a very impressive 5-1 on the road. I think we'll fall slightly from 5th in the next rankings. I'm not entirely sure, but I think it switches to the stat-based system this week - expect major changes throughout whenever it does although the top teams (UNC, Baylor, UVa., Tennessee etc...) are clearly identifiable whether based on stats or humans

The schedule will now lighten up a bit prior to our next road (Florida) swing. We've got Tech at home (non-conference) on Saturday. And I thought we had Tyler JC on Sunday, but that's now disappeared from the schedule (we'll see). Then, it's USF on the Ides and Florida on St. Patrick's Day. And the Ponies (home) and Aggies (away) after that prior to the commencement of Big12 play.

 

[jake102]

I must be bored, but I went back and looked at the career high ranks that some of our notable players of the recent past achieved as juniors. Mostly I was interested in seeing where our recruit (Maxted) ranked. Fomba is the biggest outlier, but I don't think that's too surprising given that he's got so much power and was probably growing into his game. A couple of pretty nice finds in the 2018 class between him and Jong.

Looks like Maxted is done with juniors even though ITF shows he's still only 17. So it's conceivable he could have gotten a higher rank had he stayed at that level through the summer.

Edit: NVM, looks like he is still signed up to play a big junior tournament in Colombia in a couple of weeks.

View attachment 8660

Nice work. Man it would be nice to get Fearnley back on track

 

[jake102]

The Camster blitzed through Basilashvili love and 3 today at Rotterdam; afterwards saying he'll "take that kind of start every day of the week." Not sure who he'll play next in the Round of 16.

Believe he has either Wawrinka or Khachanov next. Tough draw/deep tournament but he's playing really well.

 

[Jared7]

Believe he has either Wawrinka or Khachanov next. Tough draw/deep tournament but he's playing really well.

Khachanov beat Wawro 6-4, 7-5 this morning. If this had been a few weeks ago, I'd have liked Cam's chances, but not after Khachanov made the semis at the Aussie (as a qualifier). Norrie may be playing well, but Khachanov has been playing better.

 

[jake102]

Khachanov beat Wawro 6-4, 7-5 this morning. If this had been a few weeks ago, I'd have liked Cam's chances, but not after Khachanov made the semis at the Aussie (as a qualifier). Norrie may be playing well, but Khachanov has been playing better.

I think you're mixing up your Soviets. Khachanov has been a top 20 player for the past couple years, young guy. Pretty big serve, huge forehand but has a funky swing, solid but unremarkable backhand. Not a lot of all court to his game. I could see Norrie's super flat backhand causing a few issues to his forehand, but Khachanov should be a decent favorite here.

 

[Jared7]

I think you're mixing up your Soviets. .

It wouldn't be the first time I've done that. Since Marat Safin, the only Russians I really know much about are Rublev (with the long hair) and Medvedev (scraggly beard). The Tennis Channel has been covering Rotterdam well - I'll watch Cam and Khachanov tomorrow.

 

[jake102]

It wouldn't be the first time I've done that. Since Marat Safin, the only Russians I really know much about are Rublev (with the long hair) and Medvedev (scraggly beard). The Tennis Channel has been covering Rotterdam well - I'll watch Cam and Khachanov tomorrow.

Should be a good one.

 

[Jared7]

Still a poll so not much of a shift - the Frogs remain 5th (despite the L to USC). Here's the new ITA coaches poll:

1. North Carolina
2. Baylor (W)
3. Tennessee (L)
4. Virginia (L)
5. the Fighting Frogs of lil ole TCU
6. Texas (on our schedule)
7. Ohio State
8. USC (W; L)
9. Illinois
10. Florida (on our schedule)
11. A&M (on our schedule
12. Wake Forest
13. Michigan
14. Georgia
15. NC State
16. South Carolina
17. UCLA
18. Arizona
19. UCF
20. Kentucky
21. Arizona State
22. Memphis
23. Mississippi State (W)
24. Mississippi (W)
25. Alabama
26. Oklahoma State (on our schedule)
27. Pepperdine (W)
28. Oklahoma (W)
33. Denver (W)
35. Tech (up next)
36. USF (on our schedule)
46. SMU (on our schedule)
50. Tulsa (W)

The poll was expanded; all Big12 teams in. Memphis was the biggest upward move.

 

[Jared7]

I'm not very optimistic about the Tennis Channel actually showing the Norrie-Khachanov match. They're showing Murray-Rublev now, but they've been switching to Buenos Aires (men) and Doha (women), so after this one's over, they seem likely to go elsewhere. So, we'll probably have to follow this on the web. Zverev and Medvedev have already fallen in Rotterdam, so maybe Cam can get the upset too. One thing I do know about Khachanov, though, is that he's always been a bit of a "Karen."

On the ITA poll, TCU is 8-3 and all of our matches have been against the Top 50, we're 2-3 against the Top 10, but 4-3 against the Top 25. This bodes well for us when they do finally switch to the stat-based system.

I was wrong - they're showing it live! Go Cam!

 

[Jared7]

Norrie started off well with a hold at love and almost got a break...and then it turned ugly and embarrassing and Khachanov is utterly blowing him out. Now 2-6, 0-2 and this thing is done. Oh well...

 

[jake102]

Norrie started off well with a hold at love and almost got a break...and then it turned ugly and embarrassing and Khachanov is utterly blowing him out. Now 2-6, 0-2 and this thing is done. Oh well...

Yeah I watched a couple games and it looked like Norrie was the better player. His forehand must have fallen apart, his usual culprit.

 

[Jared7]

Texas Tech is 4-2 and the Red Raiders are currently ranked 35th; having started out in the Top 25. They have W's over ACU (twice), Wichita State and Utah and L's to LSU and Tulsa. The reason they've only played 6 matches is because they didn't make the Indoors and they've had to cancel a bunch of matches (against A&M, UTSA, Arizona, Northern Arizona and SMU) due to COVID and ERCOT. So, they're basically very untested at present and are probably looking forward to our match as their first opportunity against a Top 10 team. They are led by #37 Parker Wynn, #93 Ilgiz Valiev, Franco Ribero and #115 Reed Collier. Their coach is now Danny Whitehead. Their website says that our all-time record against them is 10-2, but that's because they ignore all our SWC history - the real record is 39-6; including the last 6 straight, 9 of the last 10 and an incredible 27 straight from 1974-2001. But they did win 3 straight just prior to Roditi taking over.

We should be favored (we're 22-2 at home against them), but they've gotten us a number of times unexpectedly. We've had a LOT more experience than them at this point against top teams. The match is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. (CST) on Saturday.

 

[Jared7]

Some interesting results from the past few days:

Baylor beat Wake on the road. The Bears are now 15-2 and their only losses are to UNC and TCU. They'll play ASU today.
Pepperdine upset USC in L.A. for the first time in 21 years.
Florida beat Georgia.
Arizona State beat OU.
Wichita State upset Memphis.

Our match against Tech today has been canceled. Not sure why (probably COVID) - they'll try to re-schedule at some point. Next up will be USF (hopefully).

Jerry Lopez (o Gerardo Lopez Villasenor si prefiere espanol), got a huge Davis Cup W for Mexico in their tie with Bulgaria yesterday; making it 1-1 overall.

 

[Jared7]

Tech quickly scheduled UTA for today as a result of our matches' cancellation, so I'm guessing the cancellation was because we have positive COVID tests on our team. There hasn't been any formal announcement or anything (other than to say it was because of Big12 guidelines regarding match interruption), but if Tech is still playing and we aren't, the logical inference is that it's us. This is troubling news - hopefully, everyone is asymptomatic and recovers quickly.

 

[Jared7]

Jerry Lopez won a thrilling match yesterday 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) over Bulgaria's Dimitar Kuzmanov to clinch the Davis Cup tie 3-1 and advance Mexico's team to the next round in September and keep their hopes alive for making the 2022 Playoffs. For years (really decades), Mexico has languished in the lower levels and rarely even makes the Qualifiers for advancement to the final rounds, but they've apparently got a new leader who might propel them into the higher groups. And it's TCU alum Jerry Lopez (o Gerardo Lopez Villasenor si prefiere espanol). He provided 2 of the W's this week.

It's hard to know what's going on with our team because there has been no official announcements other than the cancellation of the Tech match (Tech went on to blank UTA 4-0 yesterday in their hastily scheduled replacement match and they'll be playing Tulane today). To speculate, it seems likely that someone on the team or connected to it has tested positive for COVID and we're now into a quarantine. If it's 10 days, then that would allow us to play USF on the 15th, if it's 14 days, that might force the cancellation of both USF and Florida. If it is Roditi or another coach, they'd presumably make an announcement, but if it's a player, they don't have to and we may never know what's going on.

 

[Jared7]

The Frogs may not be playing but both Norrie and Rybakov are. Cam is now in Marseilles, where he will play Constant Lestienne early tomorrow morning in the Round of 32. And Rybo is now in Rovinj (Croatia) where he got into the main draw as the #5 seed and will play Mauro de Maio tomorrow as well. Both matches look winnable.