• The KillerFrogs

TCU Men's Tennis - 2020-2021

Jared7

Active Member
Lost in all of today's excitement about TCU's W over Ohio State in the NCAA's was that jake reported several pages ago that Cam Norrie got a W over Corentin Moutet today at Lyon and will be facing Dominic Thiem in the Round of 16 there. Presumably tomorrow, but at present TBD.

Also, Alex Rybakov did indeed stay in Catalonia - this time at Vic - and he's into the qualies at the ITF tourney there this week. He won his first match today (over Max Alcala Gurri) and will be playing at 3:00 a.m. (CDT) against Pedro Vives Marcos to, I think, advance to the main draw. He, with Martin Damm again, with whom he got a title last week, is already into the main draw in doubles.
 

Jared7

Active Member
Rybo lost his 2nd round qualie match to Marcos this morning 2 and 4 at Vic so he won't be making the main draw this week in singles in Spain. He and Martin Damm, however, are currently playing their opening round match in doubles (they lead 5-1 in the first set), although for some reason the Tennis Channel is showing some guy named Federer in Geneva.

At Lyon, the British team of Norrie and O'Mara lost to the French team of Herbert/Mahut in doubles in the 1st round 1 and 1 this morning. In singles, the Norrie v. Thiem match remains TBD, so probably tomorrow.
 

Jared7

Active Member
For the first time since the rankings were invented in 1973, there are no Americans ranked in the Top 30 of the ATP. (Basically, Isner's slipped). That's concerning in and of itself, but what is worrying me is the effect that COVID has had on the ITF tour in the U.S. That is, starting last March and continuing, virtually all of the U.S. based ITF tourneys have been canceled. Because of health concerns, yes, but also because the sponsors have pulled out. These tourneys don't make (a lot of) money usually because not many people attend and jacking up ticket prices just tends to make even fewer people attend, but pre-COVID, there were a lot of U.S.-based ITF tourneys and now there aren't. Around the world, that hasn't been the case, which is why dedicated guys like Rybo have gone and parked themselves in Turkey or Croatia or Spain for weeks and played a bunch of tourneys. But for guys like, say, Reese Stalder or Nick Chappell or Gerardo Lopez Villasenor (or even Trevor Johnson), there just haven't been many (or nearly as many) venues to play at in the last 15 months. And it seems like it's continuing - looking at the upcoming schedule, there remain very few U.S. events.

We've discussed how the COVID ATP ranking system has hurt Cam Norrie (and it has), but the decline in U.S.-based ITF tourneys has hurt U.S.-based players perhaps even more. The ATP tours (both Challenger and the main tour) have been able to continue more or less unabated although they have drastically cut payouts (especially in doubles) due to the dearth of fans. But the lower levels have been hurt worse, in my view and may be hindering or even preventing the "normal" and expected development of U.S. players.

Hopefully, as the pandemic situation improves, especially in the U.S., this will resolve itself over time. We'll see.
 

jake102

Active Member
For the first time since the rankings were invented in 1973, there are no Americans ranked in the Top 30 of the ATP. .

American tennis is in a really bad spot. I don't see a single young guy with top 20 potential outside of Korda. There's a chance that Fritz, Opelka or maybe even Paul could randomly land inside the top 20 for a period, but it would be short lived.
 

Jared7

Active Member
With all the damn streaming platforms out there I wish they’d throw the final 8 or 4 on to ESPN+ or Nbcsports. Something.
The Tennis Channel will be covering one quarterfinal, one semifinal and the finals of the men's team competition, and I think they'll be covering some of the last matches in the NCAA singles tournament as well.
 

Jared7

Active Member
Rybakov and Damm are just about to start their quarter-final match in doubles at Vic. In the now-becoming long-awaited Round of 16 singles match in Lyon, the Norrie v. Thiem battle has been delayed until tomorrow.

Looking at the Elite 8 teams, TCU has played all of the other participants other than Georgia and we're 3-6 collectively against them (0-1 v. Florida; 0-1 v. A&M; 1-1 v. USC; 1-0 v. Texas; 0-1 v. Tennessee and 1-2 v. Baylor). The winner of the TCU-Baylor match will play the winner between Tennessee and Georgia; and the winner of the Florida-A&M match will face the winner of the Texas-USC match. I think that the Tennis Channel will be showing the UT match, although I'm not totally sure.
 

jake102

Active Member
Rybakov and Damm are just about to start their quarter-final match in doubles at Vic. In the now-becoming long-awaited Round of 16 singles match in Lyon, the Norrie v. Thiem battle has been delayed until tomorrow.

Looking at the Elite 8 teams, TCU has played all of the other participants other than Georgia and we're 3-6 collectively against them (0-1 v. Florida; 0-1 v. A&M; 1-1 v. USC; 1-0 v. Texas; 0-1 v. Tennessee and 1-2 v. Baylor). The winner of the TCU-Baylor match will play the winner between Tennessee and Georgia; and the winner of the Florida-A&M match will face the winner of the Texas-USC match. I think that the Tennis Channel will be showing the UT match, although I'm not totally sure.

For the record, I'm happy with our draw. I think being on Baylor's side of the draw is certainly preferable as compared to Florida's side of the draw. Find a way to beat Baylor and have to feel decent against Georgia/Tennessee. Then you need either A&M or UT/USC to beat Florida
 

Jared7

Active Member
For the record, I'm happy with our draw. I think being on Baylor's side of the draw is certainly preferable as compared to Florida's side of the draw. Find a way to beat Baylor and have to feel decent against Georgia/Tennessee. Then you need either A&M or UT/USC to beat Florida
Yeah, I've said all along that I'd rather be on Baylor's side than Florida's. If there's one team that scares me, it's the Gators. I think we can beat Baylor, even though they're favored. If Gray and Fomba can beat Boitan and Soto, then we only need 2 more and the play of the Czechs yesterday gives me some confidence. Hopefully, Sander will be back. Beyond that, if we were to win, I'd rather Georgia beat Tennessee because the Vols' top 2 players are both ranked above Gray and Fomba. But at this point, we've just got to deal with whomever is in front of us.

Rybo/Damm are down a break in the first set at Vic.

Our match tomorrow is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. (CDT). Tennessee-Georgia is first, we're next; then USC-UT; then A&M-Florida.
 
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flyfishingfrog

Active Member
Link did not go to an article that I could see. They did have a vote option for best team. I gave TCU 1 vote. (only one as of now) and Ohio St had 7.
Basically had the season stats by player overall against Baylor and had Baylor winning 4-3 based on the assumption Jong will still be out and this we have to play up from 4 down
 
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