Recent College Players That Turned Pro

boomerTennis · Aug 30, 2012

Klahn's serves during the match (at least the 5th set when I caught it), were huge. I watched him played a few times last year and the year before, and couldn't remember he had that big of a first serve and very consistent heavy spin on the 2nd serve. Kudos to him for working on that part of the game, it sure paid off!

Nostradamus · Aug 30, 2012

boomerTennis said:
Klahn's serves during the match (at least the 5th set when I caught it), were huge. I watched him played a few times last year and the year before, and couldn't remember he had that big of a first serve and very consistent heavy spin on the 2nd serve. Kudos to him for working on that part of the game, it sure paid off!

Well, his 1st serve isn't huge huge. It is around 115 mph and he will get it to 123 mph if he really needs one big point. Do you know why his serve was so effective in 5th set ?

Answer is Klahn almost exclusive served out wide in ad court for the 1st 4 sets. but when 5th set came, he somehow was able to change it up. and could hit the middle consistantly with pace. and this really threw off Jurgen Meltzer.

matchplay · Aug 30, 2012

db379 said:
Klahn (Stanford) and Johnson (USC) win their 1st round match at the US Open!
Burdette (Stanford) is in the 3rd round in the women's draw. Great wins for all these recent grads!

super results for many young Americans
johnson, graduate?

db379 · Aug 30, 2012

db379 said:
Klahn (Stanford) and Johnson (USC) win their 1st round match at the US Open!
Burdette (Stanford) is in the 3rd round in the women's draw. Great wins for all these recent grads!

Nostradamus said:
Well, his 1st serve isn't huge huge. It is around 115 mph and he will get it to 123 mph if he really needs one big point. Do you know why his serve was so effective in 5th set ?

Answer is Klahn almost exclusive served out wide in ad court for the 1st 4 sets. but when 5th set came, he somehow was able to change it up. and could hit the middle consistantly with pace. and this really threw off Jurgen Meltzer.

yes, a big 1st serve and a big FH made the difference. When one thinks that most college players, including Klahn, have a poor BH and usually lack consistency, this is a really an impressive win against a former top 10 (just last year).

db379 · Aug 30, 2012

matchplay said:
johnson, graduate?

as far as I know, yes.

10isplayer · Aug 30, 2012

db379 said:
Klahn (Stanford) and Johnson (USC) win their 1st round match at the US Open!
Burdette (Stanford) is in the 3rd round in the women's draw. Great wins for all these recent grads!

Burdette is going to be a senior this year.

Nostradamus · Aug 30, 2012

db379 said:
yes, a big 1st serve and a big FH made the difference. When one thinks that most college players, including Klahn, have a poor BH and usually lack consistency, this is a really an impressive win against a former top 10 (just last year).

Next match against Gasquet will be a tough one. Bradley's best weapon goes right into the strength of Gastquet, his backhand. and Gasquet's best serve, up the middle in the ad court goes right into Brad's weaker return--backhand.

db379 · Aug 30, 2012

10isplayer said:
Burdette is going to be a senior this year.

my bad... I thought she had already been a senior.

db379 · Aug 30, 2012

Nostradamus said:
Next match against Gasquet will be a tough one. Bradley's best weapon goes right into the strength of Gastquet, his backhand. and Gasquet's best serve, up the middle in the ad court goes right into Brad's weaker return--backhand.

Frankly, it could be a quick match. Gasquet is another level compared to Melzer, and he has so much variety in his game. If Brad can hold his serve, he has a chance to do well but I'd be surprised if he wins a set. Wish him luck.

2ndServe · Aug 30, 2012

I don't know. I've never been impressed with Gasquet, very typically flashy French player who might blow him off the court 2/10 times but I think Klahn's forehand will dictate play against him.

slice bh compliment · Aug 30, 2012

Overall, though, it's been a decent few days for the kids who played some college ball. I'm including James Blake.

SoBad · Aug 30, 2012

If Gasquet plays against Klahn, I'd go with Rich - not because of 1hbh, but because his balls are reportedly undamaged by Sam.

Nostradamus · Aug 31, 2012

SoBad said:
If Gasquet plays against Klahn, I'd go with Rich - not because of 1hbh, but because his balls are reportedly undamaged by Sam.

what does his balls that isn't damaged have anything to do with this match ?

fightfan · Aug 31, 2012

Steve Johnson just took a 2-1 set lead over Gulbis! Hopefully I won't curse him.

He's looking great so far. I don't think he's been broken in the entire match. His serve and forehand can definitely be reliable weapons on the ATP tour. He certainly seems capable of breaking into the top 100.

fightfan · Aug 31, 2012

And Johnson did it! He beat Gulbis to get to the 3rd round of the US Open. By my calculations, he should get to at least ~180 in the world after this tournament. That's also by really only playing half a year at most.

SoBad · Aug 31, 2012

Nostradamus said:
what does his balls that isn't damaged have anything to do with this match ?

The appropriate plural form is "are" as in "balls are not damaged".

Rob_C · Aug 31, 2012

cmb said:
Why turn down a WC to Kzoo? Oh lets see, to get to the semis he has to play 6 useless matches, probably at 8am because thats how it works at stupid USTA junior tournaments. 6 matches against toolbox juniors who qualied out of their lame sectional tournaments. You do realize that he is playing challengers now....even if he has to qualie for the open, its better then wasting a whole week there ******* around with highschool players. After 6 matches playing against superchamps, ur gonna lose some of ur level.

good choice by him, win some challengers and he will be in the MD soon enough

Just to pick this back up about the benefits of playing K'zoo and getting the US Open WC, Novikov seems to be benefitting nicely from his decision to play, just like Sock the yr before, and others before him.

Clemson_tennis · Nov 12, 2012

Former Auburn Tiger Tim Puetz beat world #109 Jan Hajek 7-5 6-4 in Helsinki. Big victory.

Clemson_tennis · Jan 14, 2013

Two former Vols in action today:

Rhyne Williams blew a 2 set lead vs #28 Florian Mayer. He also had two match points in the 4th set tiebreak which he ended up losing 14-12. Big opportunity blown, could have been a big upset. Mayer made the quarters of wimbledon last year.

JP Smith gave a disappointing effort. Got a great draw by getting Joao Sousa in the first round. But lost 6-4 6-1 6-4.

Clemson_tennis · Apr 2, 2013

Not a whole lot of success lately.

Klahn moved up to career high of 188.

JLyon · Apr 2, 2013

Kosakowski reached Challenger Final in San Luis Potosi over the weekend

Clemson_tennis · Apr 9, 2013

Steve Johnson lost to Verdasco in Houston tonight 7-6(5) 6-2. Double faulted on set point for Nando.

Clemson_tennis · Apr 13, 2013

Former Vol teammates Williams and Sandgren will play against each other in the Sarasota challenger first round.

goldy0084 · Apr 13, 2013

John Peers (MTSU/Baylor) took the Houston title today against the Bryan's. Amazing win for him and Jamie Murray. They got destroyed in the first set and were down 3-0 in the second set breaker before reeling off eight straight points and winning the super (were down match point-second serve). Peersy really played great.

Rhyne Williams (Tennessee) had a great tournament as well in Houston. He got absolutely spanked against Almagro today in the semis, but Nico is a pretty darn tough out on the dirt. He will move up to 113 with this tournament.

Clemson_tennis · Apr 18, 2013

Steve Johnson pounded Rhyne Williams 6-1 6-3 tonight. Putting things in the right pecking order again.

andfor · Apr 19, 2013

Clemson_tennis said:
Steve Johnson pounded Rhyne Williams 6-1 6-3 tonight. Putting things in the right pecking order again.

What's their head-to-head in the pros?

andfor · Apr 20, 2013

Unranked (ATP) Georgi Rumenov who plays at Armstrong Atlantic def. former UF player Greg Oueltte ranked #417 in 1st rd qualifying at the Savannah Challenger. Noticed Rumenov's career prize money is about $24k.

TopDawg · Apr 20, 2013

I think the entire starting 6 for AA got a wildcard in Savannah.

andfor · Apr 20, 2013

TopDawg said:
I think the entire starting 6 for AA got a wildcard in Savannah.

I just glanced at the draw. Any of their other players win matches?

TopDawg · Apr 20, 2013

Pablo Gor who played at 5 & 6 this year lost 6-3 6-3 to a guy ranked 515, Daniel Regan beat his teammate Sven Lalic 6-3 6-3, Matus Mydla who played 2 lost 6-0 7-5 to a guy ranked 363.

Lots of former college guys in the main draw: Michael Russell, Bradley Klahn, Steve Johnson, Tennys Sandgren, Somdev Devvarman, Bobby Reynolds, Rhyne Williams, and Sekou Bangoura. Mardy Fish is the #1 seed

andfor · Apr 23, 2013

Clemson_tennis said:
Steve Johnson pounded Rhyne Williams 6-1 6-3 tonight. Putting things in the right pecking order again.

Ironic match result of the year. Tennys Sandgren def. Steve Johnson 6-3. 1-6, 6-3 in the Savannah Challenger today. Anyone think Chris and Rhyne Williams didn't have anything to do with it? Lol

Pecking order confusion?

jaggy · May 1, 2013

I have talked here about Ronnie Schneider who is going to UNC next year. He has qualified in a 10k future and is drawn against Chase Buchanan the top seed and osu grad in round 1. This should give him a good perepective of where he stands, I think he (Ronnie) loses in 2 but takes a few games.

db379 · May 1, 2013

I am watching the most disturbing and horrific match ... B. Klahn vs. D. Kudla. This match is unforced error after unforced error, they serve an average of 2 double faults per game... these guys are nowhere near true pro level! scary.

andfor · May 1, 2013

jaggy said:
I have talked here about Ronnie Schneider who is going to UNC next year. He has qualified in a 10k future and is drawn against Chase Buchanan the top seed and osu grad in round 1. This should give him a good perepective of where he stands, I think he (Ronnie) loses in 2 but takes a few games.

Buchanan is certainly the favorite. Would not surprise me if Ronnie wins this match.

db379 said:
I am watching the most disturbing and horrific match ... B. Klahn vs. D. Kudla. This match is unforced error after unforced error, they serve an average of 2 double faults per game... these guys are nowhere near true pro level! scary.

I've seen hundreds of these level matches and most are pretty good. I've also seen and seen both these guys play and their very good as well. It's just one match. You can if you want to, but I wouldn't judge their quality off just this one time.

mikej · May 1, 2013

db379 said:
I am watching the most disturbing and horrific match ... B. Klahn vs. D. Kudla. This match is unforced error after unforced error, they serve an average of 2 double faults per game... these guys are nowhere near true pro level! scary.

in person? or where?

surprising, since kudla's success is all about consistency and speed rather than big weapons

who's winning?

mikej · May 1, 2013

ah, i see, tallahassee

kudla can't be playing that bad to have straight-setted somdev previous rd, even if somdev is still getting his tennis back maybe from previous injury derailment

matchplay · May 1, 2013

db379 said:
I am watching the most disturbing and horrific match ... B. Klahn vs. D. Kudla. This match is unforced error after unforced error, they serve an average of 2 double faults per game... these guys are nowhere near true pro level! scary.

another example of why 99.9% of these kids should go to the best schools they can

mikej · May 1, 2013

ps nice to see kuznetsov doing well, taking down jack sock - one of the guys i respected a lot in juniors - knew he was one of the top dogs but didn't walk around like a 14 yr old that ruled the world at tournaments like orban / bruch / some other top guys

he'll probably never break through, but would be nice to see

andfor · May 1, 2013

Ok. The story from db379 is total BS. Klan and Kudla are at 3-3 on the 3rd and Klahn has 4 double faults and Kudla 3.

Klahn is 22 and 188 in the world and went to school. Kudla is 20 and 142 in the world.

Those that spout off without knowing squat that these players should go to school blah, blah blah, need to STHU.

db379 · May 1, 2013

i'll just ignore one poster above who seems only interested in starting an argument even though he hasn't watched the match.

I know Klahn for having seen him play many times in college, and he's a great player. I've seen Kudla play a few times before on TV, and I know he's had some good results lately. That being said, I don't consider this match (from 1st set to 3rd set) very good quality. The third set was actually better than the first two, but when each of these players have been broken so many times in each set (in 1st set, Klahn got broken 3 times if I remember correctly and hit in average two doubles per game...). Way too many unforced errors, and poor decisions out there. That's just my take. I don't see any of these players gettign into the main draw of a big event with that kind of play.

andfor · May 1, 2013

db379 said:
i'll just ignore one poster above who seems only interested in starting an argument even though he hasn't watched the match.

I know Klahn for having seen him play many times in college, and he's a great player. I've seen Kudla play a few times before on TV, and I know he's had some good results lately. That being said, I don't consider this match (from 1st set to 3rd set) very good quality. The third set was actually better than the first two, but when each of these players have been broken so many times in each set (in 1st set, Klahn got broken 3 times if I remember correctly and hit in average two doubles per game...). Way too many unforced errors, and poor decisions out there. That's just my take. I don't see any of these players gettign into the main draw of a big event with that kind of play.

Being at the match does not change the actual statistics. They played 28 games and had a total of 8 double faults. That's a fraction of your claim of 2 double faults per game.

Was the match of poor quality? That's believable

mikej · May 1, 2013

yeah i doubt they just randomly enter statistics without accuracy - they seem to limit themselves to only serve and return statistics, so tough to judge quality of match as a whole with winners vs errors, but clearly the double faults were an exaggeration

kudla i think will make it (sort of, not in a big financial way, but reasonably successful as a tour player) as a poor man's david ferrer - he's already 142 in world w/ 5 tour wins to his name at age 20 - peak somewhere around 50 in the world in 2-3 years is my guess

klahn has 100K less in winnings, ranking of 188, and only 1 tour win at age 22 - my guess is he peaks around 120 if he sticks with it, though he's probably less committed to the path than kudla since he has that nice stanford education to fall back on whenever the world travels and expenses stop being worth it

this tournament is a fun one - thanks for bringing it to our attention db - dyoung vs ryan harrison tomorrow (or the used to be america's next great hope vs current america's next great hope) - and kuznetsov gets another nice win today, along with smyzcek, americans doing well

Clemson_tennis · May 1, 2013

I don't know how much of a great hope Harrison is anymore. He's one dimensional. Plus he has an awful on court attitude, which he seems to get a pass on usually.

Kirijax · May 1, 2013

Yeah, Harrison has been a disappointment. Kind of like a white Donald Young.

Whoops. Was that politically incorrect?

Clemson_tennis · May 1, 2013

Not when it's true. Benoit Paire is the white Gael Monfils.

mikej · May 1, 2013

Clemson_tennis said:
I don't know how much of a great hope Harrison is anymore. He's one dimensional. Plus he has an awful on court attitude, which he seems to get a pass on usually.

is he the next sampras or agassi - clearly not - he'll never even get to no 1 in the world

but i think he has a good shot at being a top 20 player for a few years - clearly his attitude sucks and i'd rather punch him than share a beer with him - but he has already been up to #43, still only 20 yrs old, and looks to be starting to make another surge with a beast mode domination of the savannah challenger last week (hidalgo was the only competitive match of the five he played)

stefan kozlov is the next "american" (we can claim him, right? haha) that has a chance at being a top 5 type, if you ask me, again as a david ferrer type that has a ceiling below #1 in the world

Clemson_tennis · May 1, 2013

Tim Puetz lost 6-4 7-6 to on fire Rosol today

Clemson_tennis · May 1, 2013

mikej said:
is he the next sampras or agassi - clearly not - he'll never even get to no 1 in the world

but i think he has a good shot at being a top 20 player for a few years - clearly his attitude sucks and i'd rather punch him than share a beer with him - but he has already been up to #43, still only 20 yrs old, and looks to be starting to make another surge with a beast mode domination of the savannah challenger last week (hidalgo was the only competitive match of the five he played)

stefan kozlov is the next "american" (we can claim him, right? haha) that has a chance at being a top 5 type, if you ask me, again as a david ferrer type that has a ceiling below #1 in the world

what about Spencer Papa. I have heard good things about him.

mikej · May 1, 2013

Clemson_tennis said:
what about Spencer Papa. I have heard good things about him.

Kozlov is younger and absolutely threw him in a trashcan en route to international spring title - even though Kozlov is working his way back into it after long winter injury layoff

mikej · May 1, 2013

mikej said:
Kozlov is younger and absolutely threw him in a trashcan en route to international spring title - even though Kozlov is working his way back into it after long winter injury layoff

Basically in Kozlov you've got a 15 year old who seems to have what dyoung had at that age - except not horribly mismanaged by parents and with an eastern European work ethic - no sure thing ever in tennis, most will fall short, but if you have to put chips on the table you put them on Kozlov and don't think twice

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