Clemson Tiger tennis

2:30 at Clemson. We are trying to get as many fans as possible to this match.

South Carolina is much improved from last year(we beat them 5-2 last year) and this will be a very close match. Currently South Carolina is ranked 33 but they will go down when the new rankings are released today because they lost to Tennessee and Vandy over the weekend.

doubles: I have to give the edge to the Gamecocks here. We have been playing better lately, especially the #3 team of Moran and Dom Maden but doubles has been the Gamecocks strength so far this year.

singles: (clemson players listed first)

1: Yannick Maden vs Nick Jones - Nick Jones played #4 for Sc last year. He is somewhat of a sacrificial lamb at #1. I expect Maden to win this fairly easily.

2: Gerardo Meza vs Andrew Adams - Adams is a freshman from NY. he has played very well in his first season, some great results early. Meza is a much improved player from a year ago. This will be a tough 3 setter. From what I have heard it sounds like Adams plays a similiar style to Omar Aly of Miami who gave Meza a good amount of trouble. Tough one to call.

3: Ayrton Wibowo vs Ivan Machado - Old school tennis wil be played here. Both players are more comfortable at net and love to serve and volley. Machado is the only player on the Gamecock roster who has one the team the last time the Gamecocks came to Clemson in 2010. This will be two tight sets to Wibowo.

4: Dom Maden vs Chip Cox - Maden is in form while Cox is out of form. However Cox plays a style that can bother Maden. What will win, matchup or momentum?

5: Hunter Harrington vs Thiago Pinheiro - Another tough one to call. Pinheiro has had some great results at 5 recently including the beating of 47th ranked Hernus Pieters of Georgia. He is a lefty and hits with lots of topspin. This could go right into the wheelhouse of the 6'4 Harrington. Despite Pinheiro wins I like this matchup for Harrington.

6: Zac Rigsby vs Kyle Koch - Battle of south carolinians here. Koch is a freshman and has been better than expected. This is a match you would expect Rigsby to win though.

overall it will be close. The crowd could end up making the difference. Abolsute must win for out tournament chances.
 

Tar Heel Tennis

Professional
Chip Cox isn't playing well?

I really like his on-court demeanor, and his doube-fisted game off of both sides. Last time I saw him play was the ITA Indoors in Chapel Hill.
 
He's lost 4 in a row and 5 of 6 including one to Charlotte's #4 player.. I also like his game but he's hitting a rough patch right now. Hope he stays in the rough patch for the Clemson match
 
Last edited:

mikeler

Moderator
I was playing next to two small college teams last night. The noise and cheering after each point seemed pretty over the top. Seemed like I heard "C'mon" every minute. Is that the case with the D1 schools?
 
When I click on the link, I get a message:

You are not logged in to CoverItLive. Please log in and try again.

Then the browser tab closes.

yeah there are some real issues with the internet connection at the tennis courts. I'll try again on away matches.


ill have a report soon
 
I feel gutted and grilled after this result

decent crowd about 220 in doubles.

doubles:

SC played poorly in doubles. #1 and #2 doubles were easily won. #3 went to SC easily.

singles: (in order of how they finished)

6: Kyle Koch def Zac Rigsby 6-2 6-2
This is a sad result. Rigsby was a better junior player and a far bigger deal but now is getting blasted by Kock who was a decent player but not great from Irmo. Koch did play well in this match. One way traffic the whole time.

3: Andrew Adams def Ayrton Wibowo 6-4 6-0
I was actually looking forward to this match the most out of the 6 singles matches. Wibowo led 2-1 and had break points but Adams then reeled off 4 straight games. Wibowo then grabbed some momentum to make it 5-4, but then gave away a game to lose the first set. After that he sunk without trace. He was confused. He is a net player but hesitated going to net each time. Adams ate it up. Adams is too strong off the ground for a player to hesitate going to net and get away with it.

4: 117 Thiago Pinheiro def Hunter Harrington 6-4 7-6(4)
This was a toe-to-toe battle. Pinheiro is a strong player for a Freshman. He will be string at 5 all season. Big strong lefty who fights hard. Harrington fought as well. Both players held serve easily all match. Pinheiro was more clutch in the intense moments. The 2nd set tiebreak was testy. The Gamecock players watching were pretty routy and things got personal on court 5. Harrington played well but Pinheiro was the more solid player, Harrington took more risks but was not able to convert on many of them. Pinheiro worked Harrington's backhand to death.

3-1 Cocks now, the Tigers need the 3 remaining courts.

4: Dom Maden def Chip Cox 3-6 6-3 6-2
This was the surprise of the day. Not the result but how it happened. I had waffled back and forth over who would win this match. I knew Cox's game would bother Maden and appeared that it was even worse than I feared when Cox led 6-3 3-0. I even turned to someone and said "Dom's done". His body language was terrible and Cox looked set to bagel him. Then out of nothing Dom won 2 games. Then 4, then 6 and then 8 in a row. He would win 12 of 14 to end the match. I didnt watch a lot of this match. It was hard to tell exactly what was going on that changed the momentum so much. It just appeared that Maden was getting more a hold of his forehand during his run. He was cracking it, while early he was looping it. Cox lost his intensity as well. This is what kept the Tigers alive.

1: 49 Yannick Maden def Nick Jones 6-4 4-6 6-4
Jones played very well. He has really improved from last year when he played #4 and had a poor record. Jones was getting ahold of Madens short balls and bossed the court a lot of the time. But he was also erratic. He either made his ambitious shot or missed it. Maden was more solid. This 3rd set was going on simueltaneously with court 2. Great atmosphere with the fans getting into every point. Jones served huges in the 3rd and led 4-3. But Maden dug in and forced Jones to hit too many errors. This but momentum fully on Clemson's side.

2: 104 Ivan Machado def Gerardo Meza 5-7 7-6(0) 7-6(2)
This match was the definition of a hard fought college tennis match. Mahcado led 5-2 in the first but Meza dug in just like he did vs Spir of GT and took the set. Machado didnt let it phase him and kept plugging away. This wa san interesting clash of styles. Meza preferred to play baseline rallies where he ran his ooponent side to side with his flat shots. Machado preferred to play crafty points around the net. He almost always hit a backhand slice. In the 2nd set Meza served for the match at 6-5 but got broken and then played a terrible tiebreak to hand Machado the set. The 3rd set was side by side with court 1's 3rd set. This match got really heated. Machado tried to pull several fast ones. Wanting to call a let after getting bested on an overhead because "people were talking behind him". The assisstant coach for SC stalled for time several times in crucial moments. They were the head game kings. The end of the 3rd set was almost a carbon copy of the 2nd set. Meza served for it at 6-5, got broken at 15-40 then played a poor tiebreak. Machado took it more than Meza gave it though. At 1-2 in the tiebreak Machado double faulted but the ump overruled Meza's call and gave the point to Machado making it 3-1 rather than 2-2. It was a terrible call. The Gamecocks stormed the court and mobbed Machado when he won. Big clinch for the senior and a crushing loss for Meza.

This would have been a massive win.
 
Clemson loses another 4-3 heartbreaker this time to FSU
who is ranked #30. Brutally hot day, it was 87 degrees.

doubles: split 2 and 3. Came down to #1 where Maden and Rigsby gave away the tiebreak losing it 8-6. Rigsby double faulted on match point

singlesclemson won at 1,2 and 5)

1: 49 Yannick Maden def Jordan Kelly-Houston 7-5 6-7(3) (10-8 )
Tougher than expected for Maden. K-H played well and took a lot of risks with his backhand. This match was the last to finish so the result was already confirmed as a Clemson lost but it was still nice for Maden to win and prevent a bad loss from entering his record.

2: Gerardo Meza def Blake Davis 4-6 6-4 6-2
Stronge effort from Meza. He was the far fitter player in the 3rd set and steamrolled through it in 14 minutes. Davis was neautralizing Meza's forehand in the first set with good defense but that took a lot out of him and Meza didnt let up.

3: Andres Bucaro def Dom Maden 6-4 6-2
Bucaro has not lost a dual match yet this year. Impressive improvement from last year. Maden got too angry after losing the first set and could not get it together in the 2nd. Dom Maden misses more easy shots than anyone on the team.

4: Cristian Gonzalez-Mendez def Ayrton Wibowo 6-3 6-1
Disappointing match from Wibowo. He looked confused on court. Didn't know what to do, whether to attack forward or not. G-M was hitting good flat passing shots and was not bothered by Wibowo who seemed to give in in the 2nd set.

5: Hunter Harrington def Anderson Reed 4-6 6-1 6-3
Reed fought but Harrington was too strong. He has hitting the fh solidly throughout and did not let Reed regain a foothold after the 1st set. It's looks as though Harrington has become a solid #5 which is important for the team.

6: Dominic Cotrone def Cedric Willems 7-6(4) 6-4
Swing match. Willems led 4-1 in the 1st but gave away the set. Cotrone was tight on line calls and hooked Willems badly on match point. The important point of the match came in the 1st set tiebreak when Willems led 4-2. Cotrone won 5 straight points when Willems dropped his shots too shallow in the court and Cotrone pounced on them.


tough loss again. Now we play 3 straight unranked opponents in W&M, Maryland and BC. So not any opportunities to improve the ranking.
 
Weird stat. Clemson is 9-1 in 3 set matches in the last 4 matches. But only 5-9 in two set matches. What does this say? The team certainly has a lot of fight and physical fitness. Like I mentioned in the recap above Meza was far more fit than Davis in the 3rd set.
 

clintontiger

New User
Just curious, did the official give a code violation when the south carolina player dumped the volley in the net and kicked his racquet over the net onto clemson's side. It was at about the 2 minute mark of the video.
 
Just curious, did the official give a code violation when the south carolina player dumped the volley in the net and kicked his racquet over the net onto clemson's side. It was at about the 2 minute mark of the video.

yes and funny enough JKH did the dame thing vs Maden in our match vs FSU. Two matches in a row Maden had a player kick their racket onto his side of the court.
 

clintontiger

New User
I am a fairly new collegiate umpire in the upstate area and after seeing the video I was just curious. I was hoping so but you never know with officials.
 
Clemson took care of the Tribe easily. Funnt thing. Yannick Maden's opponent Vodislav stated after the coin flip when he chose to serve "I'll hold". He then proceeded to double fault 4 straight times to start the match.

vs Maryland tomorrow. Maryland is not ranked but still a pretty good team. They took one on the chin vs Oklahoma. Maryland beat Clemson last year 5-2. However I expect Clemson to come out strong tomorrow. Clemson will using new doubles pairings. Then new combo of Y.Maden and Wibowo at 1 will be a salty team.

Maryland will likely take #6 singles. Rigsby,Moran and Willems have all had their fair share of trouble winning at that spot. Harrington is playing well now, he will be a rock at 5 this ACC season. I don't see him losing much there. As long as he plays well nobost at that position can hurt him, his shots are far too big for many players at #5. I expect #1 and #2 to be battles but Maden and Meza will pull them out. The other question mark for Clemson is which Wibowo will show up. He plays a brand of high risk tennis, which can be great or also bad. That will be a key.
 
Clemson def Maryland 5-2

doubles:

Maryland plays strong doubles and were very aggressive. They won all the matches. Pretty fiery stuff from the Terps.

singles:

1: 49 Yannick Maden def Maros Horny def 6-1 6-2
This is just a bad matchup for Horny. He served big but could not make his volleys. Maden is great at passing shots and Horny played straight into his hands several times. Horny is one of the nicest guys in college tennis, wish him well the rest of the year.

2: Gerardo Meza def 152 Vlad Stefan 6-3 4-6 6-2
Stefan played awful to start the match. He missed 4 straight returns and double faulted 3 times. His body seemed to be disconnected from his shots. He was disjointed, not a very pleasing player to watch at all. Meza lost some of his edge up 6-3 3-1 and allowed Stefan back into the match. But as he has done so many times this season Meza put his head down and plowed through the 3rd set.

3: Ayrton Wibowo def Sergio Wyss 7-6(1) 2-6 6-1
Wibowo played another fantastic 3rd set. He was teeing off on the weak Wyss serve in the 3rd. His forehand was on fire and he cracked several krakatowa shots(get it? ;) Largest volcano in history in Indonesia, Wibow is from Indonesia). Wyss was very hostile and tried to psych himself up in the 3rd by saying Wibowo was tight which was very far from the truth.

4: Dom Maden def Jesse Kiuru 6-4 6-2
Down 3-4 in the 1st D.Maden stopped missing and it was straight forward from there. Kiuru could not hurt him in any way.

5: John Collins def Hunter Harrington 7-5 6-7(4) 10-7
Collins is better than #5. He should be their #3 player. Harrington is ultra agressive and basically everything revolves around if he makes his forehand winner shots or not. Both players held serve fairly easily throughout, with only one break the entire set. Harrington led 5-3 in the super-breaker but Collins played some smart aggressive tennis to take the dead rubber.

6: Zac Rigsby def Tommy Laine 6-1 ret.
Rigsby did not play well in doubles so I was surprised to see him come out so strong in singles. Laine tanked big time, basically just didn't feel like playing after the 1st set. Since this match was indoors 5 and 6 came on later, so the match was already decided by the time this match was still ine first set. Rigsby was there to play and Laine decided he didn;t feel like it and quit.
 
beat BC 5-2. Meza played excellent and won 6-1 6-1. He is easily the most improved player on the team from a year ago.

Duke next. I hope we can put up a fight. At least have a better showing than the Virginia Tech. I will be happy with one line win and a couple other tight ones. Really the important one next weekend is the UNC match.
 
Clemson goes 3-0 on the week and falls from 63 to 64. It hurts that Maryland has fallen out of the rankings.

Basically UNC and NC State are the must wins on the schedule, the other matches than can move us up into the tournament range because Wake and VT wins won't help much.
 
Not a bad performance vs Duke but it is evident that the team does not have full confidence in themselves. Several times today a player od doubles team was in position to win a set and then just allowed Duke to rattle off several games in a row letting them off the hook.

at 1 doubles: Maden and Wibowo led 6-4, then lost 4 straight games to lose 8-6.

at 3 doubles: Moran and D Maden led 4-0, would lose 8-6. Lost 5 straight games at one point.

at 2 doubles, Rigsby and Meza led 3-2 and then lost 5 straight games.

Yannick Maden led Cunha 4-0, lost the set 4-6. Then led 3-1 in 2nd set, lost the set 3-6.

Wibowo led Wietoska 3-0, lost 5 straight games and lost set 6-4.

Rigsby won 2nd set 6-1 and had momentum then blew 3 break points in 1st game of 3rd set, then lost 4 straight games.

The only match that Clemson did not have a mental collapse in was Meza vs Mengel. That was even all the way through with long rallies and good shotmaking. Meza is the strongest mentally on the team so no surprise there. Everyone else had issues. It's as if they got alead then thought "wait a minute, we arent supposed to beat Duke"
 

10isplayer

Semi-Pro
Sounds like Duke had a sloppy performance to give up so many leads to Clemson and then they picked it up when they had to.
 
UNC today. It would be huge to win this, get the bonus away points and spoil the Senior day for the Heels. It all starts with doubles. We lost to them last year 4-3, so I believe that it can be done.
 
Weakest performance of the year today vs UNC. We gave a better fight vs Duke Friday. The key was #2 doubles. Meza and Rigsby were tied 6-6 and have a very long game which they held to lead 7-6. and I thought that was it. But for some reason they folded and dropped 3 straight games, making the win of Moran and D.Maden at 3 meaningless.

Ayrton Wibowo finally puts it all together and wins a good match, beating 101 Hess-Olesen 6-4 6-4. But that was it for the Tigers. Yannick Maden gave a good performance vs Hernandez. Hernandez rips the cover off the ball every shot. Maden won the 1st set 6-4. Hernandez won 2nd set 6-4 and the the super tiebreak 10-4. Jose just clubbed the ball in the tiebreak and Maden was unable to use some of the 1st set craftiness to win many points.

The rest of the match was a disaster. Meza played bad and was not himself all match. Did not have the same level of intensity that he usually brings. Harrington got killed again, or rather he killed himself again. He seemed to be taking steps forward but after two horrid performances this weekend I don't know anymore.

Rigsby dropped the first set 6-3 and let 5-2 in 2nd but then dropped 5 striaght games anfter playing several baffling points.

Dom Maden was just out willed today. Burkhardt was not going to be denied on senior Day. I have never seen a player run around so much and still win a set 6-0. He was scrambling like mad but Maden could not finish him off in any points.
 
haha. No bet.

I hope Virginia does not sit anyone out. Especially a big 3 player. I want to see them play and want Clemson to face the best possible.

Last year Jarmere Jenkins and Yannick Maden played to a 6-4 6-4 Jenkins win. It was a very long match, if I remember correctly it ended almost same time as Galloway's legendary win over Singh. Even though Maden is better than last year, Jenkins is way better. Maden does not have the firepower to hold up for too long with Jenkins, so it will be more lopsided then last year.

Domijan should over power Meza. Meza likes to power opponents, wont work vs Domijan.

I discussed Wibowo vs Frank in the ACc thread.

Dom Maden could play with Courtney. He is a good returner of serve.

Harrington has no shot vs Shane

Rigsby can maybe battle with Uriguen, last year Uriguen won 6-2 7-5 vs Rigsby.

I think doubles is possible for Clemson. We have been playing inspired doubles recently, especially Moran. But the issue is closing. We will likely lose 9-7 8-6 8-6 or something.
 
Last edited:
pretty good performance from Clemson today. Virginia is dripping in talent. They will be right there for the national title at the end of the season.

doubles:

It was tight on all 3 courts, but UVA was able to get a late break on courts 1 and 2 to win each 8-5. Clemson won court 3 8-6

singles: (Clemson won at #6)

1: 3 Jarmere Jenkins def 66 Yannick Maden 7-5 6-2
This was a long match. Last one to end. Long rallies and lots of tactics. Jenkins is the fastest player in college tennis and had some ridiculous gets. But overall he did not play that well. He shanked and mis-hit many balls. Maden was throwing him off his A game. He righted the ship more in the 2nd set and was able to dictate most of the points.

2: 1 Mitchell Frank def Gerardo Meza 6-0 6-0
Meza said this was the first time he has ever been double-bageled in his life. This was a matchup made in #### for Meza. Frank had been playing 3 for UVA but was switched to 2 today which sucks because I thought Wibowow actually matched up favorably with Frank. Meza tried to penetrate the curt with his corner to corner flat shots but Frank has impeccable footwork and could track down everything and push it back deep and to the other corner. Every point was a photo copy of the last one, far too much comfort for Frank.

3: 34 Alex Domijan def Ayrton Wibowo 6-2 6-3
Domijan hit some stellar passing shots early and shook Wibowo's confidence at coming to net. He missed too many easy volleys. Wibowo led 3-1 in the 2nd set and had momentum but then completely faded and lost 5 straight games.

4: 75 Justin Shave def Dom Maden 6-3 6-1
didnt see much of this match.

5: 124 Drew Courtney def Hunter Harrington 5-7 7-6(2) 10-8
Great match from Harrington but disappointing in the end. He came back from 2-5 down in the 1st set to win the set 7-5 which is massive because Harrington rarely breaks serve and rarely comes back from deficits. Played a poor 2nd set tiebreak. Both of these players play the same style. Tall, big serve and not the greatest of movers. Harrington led the super tiebreak 8-5, then donated 5 straight points without making Courtney have to strain at all. Missed returns and first ball shots. I hope this loss does not hurt his confidence because he played really well most of the day.

6: Zac Rigsby def Philippe Oudshoorn 6-0 6-4
Best I have sen Rigsby play in a long time. He was flying around the court and serving big. Oudshoorn did not play well and let Rigsby dictate. Hopefully a springboard win for Rigsby because he has the game to be a very solid #6 vs anybody.
 

ClarkC

Hall of Fame
The good news is that Wes Moran is the only senior on the roster. However, I don't see any commitments for next year, and no domestic recruit of note is still considering Clemson, so they need a surprise recruit from overseas to be much better next year. They will get somewhat better just from being a year older, but then they will lose Yannick Maden, Wibowo, and Rigsby, so they had better recruit well ASAP.
 
Yes I am hopeful for next year. Each player should imrove. Hopefully Maden can add some firepower to his game so he can be more dangerous to the big players. I'm not sure if Wibowo will be better. he is soft mentally and does not seem to care about tennis.

I have high hopes for Harrington. I hope he can make a big jump.

And actually there is still Connor Clements considering Clemson. Also there is a blue chip considering Clemson but it is not on tennisrecruiting.net. And we may get a transfer from William & Mary. Hopefully we can get some foreign guy too.

I mean this season isn't shot, but we would have to beat NC State and beat a big team like FSU or UNC in the ACC tournament.
 

tennis_tater

Semi-Pro
Y
And actually there is still Connor Clements considering Clemson.

Just read an article on Connor Clements on tennisrecruiting.net and it says he is basically down to Illinois and South Carolina, but open to a few others. That being said, does Clemson really have a shot with this kid?
 
Just read an article on Connor Clements on tennisrecruiting.net and it says he is basically down to Illinois and South Carolina, but open to a few others. That being said, does Clemson really have a shot with this kid?

I am not sure really. I did see that he dropped Clemson from his top 3. I think we are kinda satisfied after getting Ansari. I wouldn't mind if we did not get Clements and got a foreign guy in January to add with Ansari.
 
at Wake Forest today. We haven't beat Wake in a while. They have been one of those weird bad matchups for us. But I can't see them beating us today.

Wake could take doubles. I expect Prabhakar to beat Wibowo and Kreyman over Meza. But Clemson should cruise at 5-6. The important match is Dom Maden vs Lee at 4.
 
Looks like Clemson got it done for you 4-3. I saw Kreyman played 1, did Wake have someone out?

No, Hopkins played #2. He and Kreyman have been switching 1 and 2 a lot. Kreyman played really well in set #1 but Maden turned it up a notch in the tiebreak and then cruised in the 2nd set.

They key in the match was #3 doubles. Moran and D Maden trailed 1-6 and came back and won 9-7

Meza vs Hopkins was one helluva ball striking battle. Both players hit the ball so flat. Very tight match, good battle.

I have to say, Adam Lee vs Dom Maden was the most ill-tempered college match I have ever seen. Players despised each other. After winning his match, Yannick Maden got involved, openly calling out Lee for his hooks, Lee told him and others to shut the eff up. Ref gave both players point penalties, lots of over rules. Not a good showing of sportsmanship from either player. Lee liked to hit balls deliberatly away from Maden after points.
 
Last edited:
Just when you think the losses can't get any more heartbreaking, life finds a way.

As soon as Mudge closed out Harrington to make it 3-2 Clemson, I started to get worried. Yes we were still in good shape, but two seniors were left on senior day. And even though Sullivan blew 9 match points, that's right 9, he still somehow won. Pulgar down 5-7 1-3, somehow came back to gut it out vs Yannick Maden. I still am wondering how we let this one slip away.
 
The NCAA tournament is not very ikely at the moment. Would have to beat Wake and UNC and even then it might not be enough.

Another thing to keep in mind is qualification for next year's indoor tournament. That would require a win over Wake.
 

tennis_tater

Semi-Pro
Just when you think the losses can't get any more heartbreaking, life finds a way.

As soon as Mudge closed out Harrington to make it 3-2 Clemson, I started to get worried. Yes we were still in good shape, but two seniors were left on senior day. And even though Sullivan blew 9 match points, that's right 9, he still somehow won. Pulgar down 5-7 1-3, somehow came back to gut it out vs Yannick Maden. I still am wondering how we let this one slip away.

Well, I see Wake comes back to beat Clemson after being down 0-3. I swear, if I didn't know better, I would say Clemson's athletic program, as a whole, is cursed.
 
Season now over. Very disappointing end.

We won doubles again like we did last friday vs Wake.

singles: (Clemson wins 5 and 6, we take 1-4)

There was a point in the match where Clemson lead on all 6 courts. 6-5 on 1, 4-2 on 2, 7-5 3-2 on 3, 5-4 on 4 and cruising on 5 and 6. At this point I was pretty upbeat I was happy to see neutrals walking through at the site in Cary and them seeing us smashing the Deacs.

5: Hunter Harrington def Alex Tsai 6-2 6-3
Easy for Harrington. Tsai never thought he would win. I feel bad for Tsai, freshman, didn't have a good year at all and will not touch the court next year with the recruits Wake has coming in. I would consider transferring if I was him

6: Zac Rigsby def Connor Sheerwood 6-2 6-2
Rigsby ends his strong season with a solid performance. Hope he can continue playing like this next year.

Here is where things started to turn.

at #1 Yannick Maden dropped the 1st set 7-6(5) to Kreyman. at 5-5 in the breaker Kreyman hit a fh on the stretch that hit the netcord and trickled over the net. That crushed Maden and he dropped the next point tamely.
I thought he would turn it around but never did. This is a bad loss for him. He should always beat Kreyman.

at #3 Wibowo was in a tiebreak for the 2nd set. He had a 3-1 40-0 lead in the 2nd but could not close. Win that game at make it 4-1 and it is likely Prabhakar checks out. He was shocked that Wibowo was playing that well, considering he had routed Wibowo 0 and 2 on Friday.
Tiebreak. I was watching this closely, it seemd like I was the only one who knew how big the tiebreak was for the whole match. Wibowo led 4-2 then like Maden got an unlucky netcord and still led 4-3. But Wibowo played a strong point the next point and made it 5-3. I thought maybe this was it, he recovered from that netcord strongly and he will finish it. Well not quite, instead he loses 4 straight points, admittedly Prabhakar played an excellent long point and hit a crazy good bh at 5-5. Once Prabhakar won the set I knew things were trouble.

on 2 Meza dropped a tough first set 7-6(5). Just like their previous match on Friday. On Friday Meza came back in the 2nd set. Not this time, DHop closed the door and steamrolled through the 2nd set.

I was stunned how quickly we faded after Wibowo failed to close it out. 1-3 were punched and none of the punched back. All fell fairly easily in the 3rd.

Court 4. Adam lee, who despite his attitude, is a great fighter. Once Wibowo lost and it was assured that the deciding match was at 4 only one outcome was coming. Dom Maden cracked and could not handle the pressure. Lee muscled thorugh on a bum leg(he was milking it a bit) 7-6(3) 7-6(5). You have to think if Maden had been able to push through and win the set he could have won in 3, Lee looked so tired.

In total in took 32 minutes from the time Wibowo failed to close it out until the time when Lee clinched it. Story of the season.
 
Just for fun, few observations this year:

most annoying fan/player/coach cheers of the year that i witnessed

5. This is how I like to spend my Sundays - NC State fan
He said this after each long an intense point. It was pretty funny actually, lightened the mood.

4. Woo! Woo! Woo! - An older Duke fan.
This guy sat in the front row and said that phrase again and again when Cunha won points, it was very annoying anlthough I wasn't as perturbed by it as some others were.

3. Let's go Libeets! - Hunter Reese
During doubles, Hunter Reese would say this to his doubles partner Libietis. That's fine. The issue? He said it about 4-5 times between every point. And not even looking at him, he would be crouching at the net waiting for Libeitis's serve and then say it a couplr times.

2. On it! on it! - South Carolina players
What they said in between the 1st and 2nd serve of a player. It sounded like the birds from Finding Nemo, Mine Mine Mine. Except it was on it.

1. Here we go Noles - Jason Zafiros
This is #1 by quite a large margain. He said it very slow and very nasally like a martian. He wasn't playing that day so he sat right behind the Clemson players and said it after every point. He would drone 'Noles, "Noles, 'Noles. It's not something you can explain, you have to hear it, but it made we want to strangle kittens.


individual sayings by players that were memorable:

"Hold on Broski" - Adam Lee of Wake to Dom Maden

"We take what we want!" - Anderson Reed of FSU after beating Hunter Harrington in the 1st set(he would then lose the next two sets)

"That's too heavy" - Jason Zafiros in the same nasally voice. He would say that after a ball was hit flat as a pancake. Get it? Irony

"**** my ******* **** so hard" - a Duke player

"Hit it haaaarder Andy" - One of Auburn's players to Mies.
 
It's going to be a real close shave if Yannick Maden gets into the individual field. He will probably end up being an alternate. It helped that his wins over Libietis and Borsos got stronger as the year went on. However Japie De Klerk never really got going on year, so that wasn't as marquee of a win as it appeared it would be.

Maden/Rigsby doubles team was ranked #50 and they beat Prabhakar and Hopkins again who were ranked 48. Probably not enough to get into the doubles field. It was a mistake to break this combo up for a few ACC matches durint the year.
 
A Wake Forest fan I know played Ansari the other day. He told me that Ansari is the best player he has ever played against by far and this guy has played Robbie Mudge, Morgan Mays and others before. He thinks Ansari will be in the top 125 next year as a Freshman.

We'll see
 
I still can't believe we lost to Tennessee. It was literally one point. Of course in the mind of Tennessee that makes them the much better team but I wonder how differently the season would have been had we won that match. The doubles were so close after Meza beat Brandon Fickey.
 
If Clemson played UCLA(which with the conference expansion nonsense who knows), then the Bruins would have to be added to the most annoying list. Their bench players were mighty annoying vs Ohio State, which I was ok with since I was pulling for the Bruins to beat Ohio State.
 
Last edited:
Clemson adds Daniel Strawn from Macon,GA. He's a 4 start recruit. Looks like a walk on. I know Clemson was aiming for Anish Sharma, who ended up going to GT. Strawn is a lefty so he can add some lefty hitting in practice for the starters.
 

tennis_tater

Semi-Pro
Did Clemson finish their tennis facility upgrade, or is that something that's just in the works? How do their current facilities compare to others in the ACC?
 
Did Clemson finish their tennis facility upgrade, or is that something that's just in the works? How do their current facilities compare to others in the ACC?

They finished the Duckworth facility upgrade a couple years agao. There is another upgrade planned for the near future. Getting a new indoor center. Our indoor center is abyssmal, one of the worst.

But the outdoor courts are pretty good, in the top half of the ACC for sure. The locker rooms are very close to the courts and accesible, however the locker rooms themselves are not that good. The stands are good, you can watch any of the 6 courts and a very clear scoreboard. There is also a balcony you are able to watch from on the Duckworth facility.

The best facility in the ACC for pure viewer is FSU's. NC State's new facility is also very good.

I would put Clemson's outdoor facility #3 behind FSU and NC State. And just ahead of Duke and GT.
 
Top