• The KillerFrogs

TCU Men's Tennis 2021-2022

Jared7

Active Member
Rybo lost the first set 3-6, but has gotten into a tiebreaker in the 2nd set 6-all.

Rybo falls 3-6, 6-7 (6-8).
 
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Jared7

Active Member
Cam will open up against Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the 2nd round at Monte Carlo (he got a bye in the first round). Ramos-Vinolas beat Tallon Griekspoor earlier today. He's a 34-year-old veteran with an ATP rank of #37. Good on clay.
 

FrogUltimate

Active Member
Cam will open up against Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the 2nd round at Monte Carlo (he got a bye in the first round). Ramos-Vinolas beat Tallon Griekspoor earlier today. He's a 34-year-old veteran with an ATP rank of #37. Good on clay.
My draw analysis for Norrie:

Not good is the bottom line. The detail is that his first round (essentially second round due to bye) is Ramos-Vinolas who basically gets all his ATP points on clay. His all-time win percentage on clay is 56%, hard 36% and grass 29%. So while his ranking is #32, his clay ranking would probably be top 20.

After that he will likely get Hurkacz (#13) who does not like clay, but is obviously a good player recently dropped from top 10. He's a top contender for those last top 10 spots. And if he gets past Hurkacz, likely gets Ruud who is a bit of kryptonite and is remarkable on clay. And Ruud's draw is very favorable to get there. And the good news after that, is he would likely get Djokovic or Alcaraz. Yeesh!

Decent news is that the other top 10 contenders have somewhat tricky draws also... FAA likely gets clay court specialist Musetti first round, and clay court specialist Schwartzmann if he gets past Musetti. Rublev and Sinner will get each other in 3rd round.

For whatever reason Norrie didn't play this tournament last year, so I guess he has no points to defend which is great. All gravy. This is also close to the slowest surface/court they will play all year.
 

Jared7

Active Member
For whatever reason Norrie didn't play this tournament last year, so I guess he has no points to defend which is great. All gravy. This is also close to the slowest surface/court they will play all year.
I think he didn't play Monte Carlo last year was because his ranking wasn't high enough to qualify. Being in the Top 10 now means that he can set his schedule and play wherever he wants. But a year ago, he started at #71 and, fighting the 2-year roll, only gradually advanced. Facu's strategy was to get Cam into the off-ATP250 events (like Estoril) where he was already in the main draw rather than chance qualies at bigger events. It worked because he started making finals and had advanced enough to at least guarantee Slam draws although he still didn't get seeds at the French and Wimbledon. And then he finally broke through at Los Cabos.

Monte Carlo would have been a stretch last year and he probably would have gone out early. As I expect him to do this year, given that draw. This will be his first tourney on clay in awhile and guys like Ramos-Vinolas rarely play anything other than clay. Even if he gets by that, it looks tough.
 

Jared7

Active Member
Djokovic got bounced out of Monte Carlo this morning - losing to Davidovich Fokina - so that clears out part of Norrie's bracket (although Hurkacz, Ruud and Alcaraz remain). Ramos-Vinolas is the guy that beat Cam in last year's final at Estoril in 3 sets. Norrie entered 5 clay tourneys last Spring and made 2 finals (Estoril and Lyon) and this will be his first match since entering the Top 10. He says he likes clay and his grind-it-out long rally strategy suits the surface, but I'm not sure if his game actually does. It'll be tomorrow morning.
 

FrogUltimate

Active Member
Djokovic got bounced out of Monte Carlo this morning - losing to Davidovich Fokina - so that clears out part of Norrie's bracket (although Hurkacz, Ruud and Alcaraz remain). Ramos-Vinolas is the guy that beat Cam in last year's final at Estoril in 3 sets. Norrie entered 5 clay tourneys last Spring and made 2 finals (Estoril and Lyon) and this will be his first match since entering the Top 10. He says he likes clay and his grind-it-out long rally strategy suits the surface, but I'm not sure if his game actually does. It'll be tomorrow morning.
My feel is that his game does match clay somewhat well, but not super slow clay like Monte Carlo. Just feel like he needs some speed to have any impact
 

FrogUltimate

Active Member
Gray saves the week for professional Frogs by pulling out a tight three set win.

Earlier today, Norrie lost in three to Ramos. Disappointing result regardless of Ramos clay skill. Norrie had a chance to add a chunk of points given he was defending nothing but will remain with zero Monte Carlo points.

And past few days both Rybo and Chappell lost in Challenger qualies

If Gray hadn’t pulled out this match, would be first time I can remember in a while where all four top pro Frogs play and none make it late into the week. Although to be fair, Gray is only into the second round I think, so not exactly a deep run yet.
 

Jared7

Active Member
Won't Cam get points for making it to the 2nd round, even though it was a bye? It's disappointing, but not too unexpected that Ramos-Vinolas would beat him on clay in his first match on that surface in awhile.

Oklahoma State is 11-9 on the season, ranked 44th and are definitely on the NCAA bubble because the usual NCAA cutoff is about at that level and because they have Texas and TCU remaining and could very well not finish over .500 if they lose those and lose in the first round of the Big 12 tourney. This is a relatively bad season for the Cowboys - they're usually stronger. They have W's over Bryant, Lamar, UNLV (twice), UTRGV (twice), Omaha, SMU, Memphis, Tulane and Tulsa and L's to Arkansas, Oregon, Columbia, Pepperdine, Cornell, Middle Tennessee State, OU, Baylor and Tech. Their biggest W's are over the AAC schools. All-time, we're only 14-10 in the lead and most of that is due to Roditi because our longest streak is 8 straight from 2014-18. We won last year's match 4-0; the last time they beat us was in 2019 in the Big12 tourney in Lawrence. We're #1 in the country; we're leading the Big 12 and they're in last place. We'll be heavily favored tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. (CDT) in Stillwater, but it's certainly conceivable that they could pull off the upset if we're caught napping.
 

FrogUltimate

Active Member
Won't Cam get points for making it to the 2nd round, even though it was a bye? It's disappointing, but not too unexpected that Ramos-Vinolas would beat him on clay in his first match on that surface in awhile.

Oklahoma State is 11-9 on the season, ranked 44th and are definitely on the NCAA bubble because the usual NCAA cutoff is about at that level and because they have Texas and TCU remaining and could very well not finish over .500 if they lose those and lose in the first round of the Big 12 tourney. This is a relatively bad season for the Cowboys - they're usually stronger. They have W's over Bryant, Lamar, UNLV (twice), UTRGV (twice), Omaha, SMU, Memphis, Tulane and Tulsa and L's to Arkansas, Oregon, Columbia, Pepperdine, Cornell, Middle Tennessee State, OU, Baylor and Tech. Their biggest W's are over the AAC schools. All-time, we're only 14-10 in the lead and most of that is due to Roditi because our longest streak is 8 straight from 2014-18. We won last year's match 4-0; the last time they beat us was in 2019 in the Big12 tourney in Lawrence. We're #1 in the country; we're leading the Big 12 and they're in last place. We'll be heavily favored tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. (CDT) in Stillwater, but it's certainly conceivable that they could pull off the upset if we're caught napping.

I could be wrong, but I think when a ranked player (or anyone) gets a bye in the 1st round, and then gets beat in their first match in the 2R, they don't get points. But if they win that 2R match, then they get points as if they won their first round match also. I could be wrong, but I think this is the case.
 

Jared7

Active Member
The regular season is winding down and conference tourneys will start next week. Here's the latest ITA rankings as crunch time approaches:

1. the Fighting Frogs of lil ole TCU
2. Ohio State (W)
3. Florida (W)
4. Baylor (W; L)
5. Tennessee (W; L)
6. Virginia (W; W)
7. Michigan (L)
8. Wake
9. South Carolina
10. Kentucky
11. Georgia
12. Texas (W; W)
13. Harvard
14. Arizona
15. USC
16. Stanford
17. Middle Tennessee State
18. North Carolina
19. Duke
20. NC State
21. A&M
22. San Diego
23. Pepperdine
24. Louisville
25. Columbia
26. Northwestern
27. SMU (W)
33. Tech (W)
35. Mississippi State (W)
36. Mississippi (W)
38. Oklahoma (on our schedule)
40. USF (W)
49. Tulsa (W)
52. Oklahoma State (tomorrow)
53. UCLA (W)
57. Illinois (W)
69. Tulane (W)

Virginia's rise to the Top 6 has definitely helped us - as long noted previously, we're likely to be projected as #1 going into the NCAA's. A bunch of teams - starting at about OU - are on the bubble for the NCAA's.
 

Jared7

Active Member
Gray wins again this morning. Into the quarters
Gray is in Nottingham this week for a hard court ITF tourney and he's seeded 4th. He's already beaten Joris de Loore and Daniel Cox, both in tough 3-setters. Tomorrow in the quarters, he's got Billy Harris, a 27-year-old Brit, who's seeded 5th and has an ATP ranking of #402.

If the Frogs prevail over Okie State, we'll clinch at least a share of the Big 12 championship, but because we beat Baylor, we'd also clinch the top seed in the tourney next week in Ft. Worth. We shared last year's regular season title with the Bears, but they had the advantage and ultimately won the conference tourney and made the NCAA finals. I want to win this one outright with a 5-0 conference record. The only matches left are Texas and TCU against the Oklahoma schools and Baylor v. Tech. Michigan v. Ohio State is tomorrow.
 
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