Longfrog
Active Member
The tennis season starts tomorrow in Tempe against #25 Arizona State. It feels very weird to enter a season without Alex Rybakov. He was nearly a guaranteed win at #2 singles for his first couple of years and at #1 his last two years. His absence leaves a big hole in the lineup, but I am really excited about this year's team which should be every bit as competitive as they have been in the past couple of years, but with a much different flavor.
It still pains me that Alex and Norrie didn't get a title in their time at TCU. The undoing for those teams was depth. Even when healthy, we struggled to get wins at the bottom of the lineup, and any injury meant that we started a match in the hole 0-1 or 0-2. While we don't have an ace at the top this year, our depth is much better, and it is thanks to an awesome incoming group of freshman. The recruiting class was ranked #4 but I think they are pretty clearly the top class in the country. The others ranked above them had larger classes but a lower average rating. All three members of the incoming class, which includes two Czechs (Paroulek and Jirousek) and a Brit (Fearnley) can really play and notched very impressive wins in the fall season.
If you go based on the most up-to-date UTR ratings, here's how our singles lineup will look:
#1 Alastair Gray (Sr, edit: Jr)
#2 Tadeas Paroulek (Fr)
#3 Luc Fomba (So)
#4 Jacob Fearnley (Fr)
#5 Tomas Jirousek (Fr)
#6 Bertus Kruger (Jr)
That leaves our #6 singles player from last year, Sander Jong (So) on the bench. Sander had a rough start to last year but I thought really improved and held his own by the end. So I expect a pretty fluid lineup in the early part of the year and a lot of competition for playing time.
It still pains me that Alex and Norrie didn't get a title in their time at TCU. The undoing for those teams was depth. Even when healthy, we struggled to get wins at the bottom of the lineup, and any injury meant that we started a match in the hole 0-1 or 0-2. While we don't have an ace at the top this year, our depth is much better, and it is thanks to an awesome incoming group of freshman. The recruiting class was ranked #4 but I think they are pretty clearly the top class in the country. The others ranked above them had larger classes but a lower average rating. All three members of the incoming class, which includes two Czechs (Paroulek and Jirousek) and a Brit (Fearnley) can really play and notched very impressive wins in the fall season.
If you go based on the most up-to-date UTR ratings, here's how our singles lineup will look:
#1 Alastair Gray (Sr, edit: Jr)
#2 Tadeas Paroulek (Fr)
#3 Luc Fomba (So)
#4 Jacob Fearnley (Fr)
#5 Tomas Jirousek (Fr)
#6 Bertus Kruger (Jr)
That leaves our #6 singles player from last year, Sander Jong (So) on the bench. Sander had a rough start to last year but I thought really improved and held his own by the end. So I expect a pretty fluid lineup in the early part of the year and a lot of competition for playing time.
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