2018 Men's NCAA Tournament

[Matthew Lee]

It's usually easy to dislike a successful sports dynasty for whatever reason but the Virginia players certainly made it difficult to pull against UVA. Singh, Devvarman, Domijan, Jenkins, Frank etc were nothing but class in their years playing college tennis as were most of the UVA players. TSK and Altamirano were the only ones who were a bit more abrasive on court.

Agree with those who had class. I do have to say that apart from Kwiatkowski and Altamirano, Aragone sure hooked quite often, but he looked like a good guy most of the time. Maybe I'm wrong. Man, though, that team was so great...

 

[jcgatennismom]

How do you think the Wake Forest players of this year compare to past UVA players? In two weeks, we may know the answer-past UVA players may play Wake players in the WS Future. Assuming Petros gets DA into MD and Wake gives 4 WCs to other players, here are some of the recent college players who will probably be in main draw: from VA: Altamarino, Aragone, Thai, Ritschard from Wake: Petros, WCs for 4 of these 5 Skander Cungu, Botzer, Seraphim, Zloblinsky (Gojo did not sign up), UNC-Schneider plus Kypson, Hiltzik former Illini, Kircheimer from Northwestern. In the Quali, there probably will be Crawford and Kessler of Florica plus top FL recruits Sam Riffice and lukas Greif, Reinberg from GA plus top GA recruit Trent Bryde and 5 star Britton Johnston, Corwin and Spec from Minn, Zeke and Kovacevic from Illinois, Lebedev from Notre Dame, Trevor Johnson from TCU, Mac Kiger and possibly R Kelly from UNC (way down alternate list-last year some UNC players got Quali WCs so hopefully he will get in), remaining Wake players-Solomon, Dempster and Roy smith of Baylor. The older Redlicki (Duke/Ark)brother is in the Quali. There are other college players further down on alternate list that I am not listing as they may not get in-close to 200 players on alternate list and that is after 50 players withdrew since Thursday.

If you are curious to see if the results are different when ads are played and have some time, return to Wake to watch more good tennis. Quali is June 9-11 and MD is June 12-17. Unfortunately Futures are not livestreamed-only Challengers. Players currently on list could withdraw before then, and the list above assumes some on the alternate list will make it into Qualis, and some currently high on Quali list will be in MD. Will be interesting to see how USTA PD rising freshmen Riffice, Greif, and Bryde do if they play current college players.

If you want to check list closer to tournament time, check this link: https://www.itftennis.com/procircuit/tournaments/men's-tournament/info.aspx?tournamentid=1100042652

Last year Eubanks won this Future in an all GT final (vs Kevin King). Interesting note: Gojo played it last year and lost to Brandon Holt. Only Gojo, Solomon, and Morgan Dill from Wake played it last year, but it looks like most of the Wake guys this year are staying around for it.

 

[jerryjones1960]

Agree with those who had class. I do have to say that apart from Kwiatkowski and Altamirano, Aragone sure hooked quite often, but he looked like a good guy most of the time. Maybe I'm wrong. Man, though, that team was so great...

Frank was sneaky dirty, remember that call against UCLA in the finals on match point. Calls the ball out, gets overruled, goes his towel like he knows he just got caught stealing candy.....too lazy to find the video

 

[Clemson_tennis]

While bad calls are the hot topic. Check out this one from Alex Clayton vs Sanam Singh (starting at 1:11, the 1st serve). Right in front of the chair too and no overrule. #homecooking

Also I remember a few years ago, Andy Roddick took a screenshot from one of my YouTube videos and captioned it "I went to a college tennis match and THIS was called out" talking about a bad call that George Goldhoff made against Oklahoma.

 

[ClarkC]

At least Sanam won the match a few points later. Not much extra work, although 40-0 instead of 30-15 would have been nice.

 

[Matthew Lee]

Frank was sneaky dirty, remember that call against UCLA in the finals on match point. Calls the ball out, gets overruled, goes his towel like he knows he just got caught stealing candy.....too lazy to find the video

Idk what to tell you man...Frank was the type of guy to win and be arrogant sometimes, but he was overall a hardworking player.

 

[Rattler]

While bad calls are the hot topic. Check out this one from Alex Clayton vs Sanam Singh (starting at 1:11, the 1st serve). Right in front of the chair too and no overrule. #homecooking

Also I remember a few years ago, Andy Roddick took a screenshot from one of my YouTube videos and captioned it "I went to a college tennis match and THIS was called out" talking about a bad call that George Goldhoff made against Oklahoma.

Hooking on serves is the most common hook in College Tennis...happens EVERY match...most of the time the server doesn’t ask. Hell that’s why they play let serves, because calling let on an Ace was match strategy for so many Top programs.

But yeah the video you posted was a bad hook...the chair should have seen that serve, also the Goldhoff match vs. Oklahoma was another one that the server asked and the chair didn’t overrule.

 

[sftennisfan]

Hooking on serves is the most common hook in College Tennis...happens EVERY match...most of the time the server doesn’t ask. Hell that’s why they play let serves, because calling let on an Ace was match strategy for so many Top programs.

But yeah the video you posted was a bad hook...the chair should have seen that serve, also the Goldhoff match vs. Oklahoma was another one that the server asked and the chair didn’t overrule.

I actually don't think it is clear that serve at the 1:11 mark actually clipped the line. I don't think that was a crazy call from Alex Clayton.

 

[Rattler]

I actually don't think it is clear that serve at the 1:11 mark actually clipped the line. I don't think that was a crazy call from Alex Clayton.

Can you watch it in SloMo?

 

[Nostradamus]

While bad calls are the hot topic. Check out this one from Alex Clayton vs Sanam Singh (starting at 1:11, the 1st serve). Right in front of the chair too and no overrule. #homecooking

Also I remember a few years ago, Andy Roddick took a screenshot from one of my YouTube videos and captioned it "I went to a college tennis match and THIS was called out" talking about a bad call that George Goldhoff made against Oklahoma.

not a good game. Sanam just played safe and alex kind of gave it to him

 

[Nostradamus]

https://www.ncaa.com/video/tennis-women/2018-05-22/di-womens-tennis-team-championship-full-replay


I have to admit this year's NCAA doubles final was really exciting. singles finals were relatively routine wins. I was hoping the cute Cali girl blonde from Pepperdine would win but not so.

 

[db379]

I actually don't think it is clear that serve at the 1:11 mark actually clipped the line. I don't think that was a crazy call from Alex Clayton.

Agreed. No matter how many times I watch the replay, this ball was clearly out, not even close to the line!
And I don't see any complaints from his opponent.

Why bring that video here? It is not a hook, and as far as I know Alex has always been a clean competitor.

 

[Gemini]

I actually don't think it is clear that serve at the 1:11 mark actually clipped the line. I don't think that was a crazy call from Alex Clayton.

I watched it a few times and agree that it was out. The quality of the video might not have been the best available at the time but doesn't provide the level of clarity that can be achieved today. Even with that, it appears to be out.

 

[Clemson_tennis]

Agreed. No matter how many times I watch the replay, this ball was clearly out, not even close to the line!
And I don't see any complaints from his opponent.

Why bring that video here? It is not a hook, and as far as I know Alex has always been a clean competitor.

Maybe watch it a few more times because Singh clearly tells the umpire it was in and asks for an overrule as does Boland from the sideline.

 

[JAJ]

For what it's worth, I was in Winston for three days of the singles draw and saw plenty of bad calls, some subsequently overruled. However, in at least three or four cases I can recall, upon being overruled the player in question held up a hand of apology to his opponent. Plenty of guys playing clean tennis, a few not so much.

 

[jaggy]

For what it's worth, I was in Winston for three days of the singles draw and saw plenty of bad calls, some subsequently overruled. However, in at least three or four cases I can recall, upon being overruled the player in question held up a hand of apology to his opponent. Plenty of guys playing clean tennis, a few not so much.

Does that not just kind of suggest they admit being caught cheating?

 

[monfils is my homeboy]

Wake Forest won! Deal with it! I'm sick of hearing how they were older and hired mercenaries! Any of your favorite teams could've had them if you ponied up! Coach Bresky did and they won! Winners don't make excuses they make improvements! Tony Bresky is a personal friend of mine and I used to coach at Wake Forest! They are a force now deal with it! You wanna compete, recruit better. If not shut up! You can't win the Kentucky Derby with mules....you need thoroughbreds!!

 

[db379]

Maybe watch it a few more times because Singh clearly tells the umpire it was in and asks for an overrule as does Boland from the sideline.

Ok, I'll admit Singh protested for about half a second and went straight back to serve because he knew his ball was out.

The point though is that this ball was clearly out, and correctly called out. So why claim this was an obvious hook? It was not.

My original question was why show this? you carefully chose a video of Stanford vs Virginia, claiming the Stanford player cheated while he did not. What your post does is generate more bias against Stanford players and Stanford in general. Is it what you were trying to do?

If you want to find actual hooks in college tennis, you will find plenty of real hooks. You might even find some from Clemson team.

 

[BlacknGold35]

Does that not just kind of suggest they admit being caught cheating?

IMO - Not at all & it's really hard to judge intent. Guys are going to miss calls - they're moving at incredibly fast speeds all over the court and, especially at the top end of the ladder, are hitting huge shots with the ball moving at a ridiculous pace. There's plenty of room for honest mistakes & good on the guys who accept they missed a call, apologize to the opponent, and move on.

 

[Clemson_tennis]

Ok, I'll admit Singh protested for about half a second and went straight back to serve because he knew his ball was out.

The point though is that this ball was clearly out, and correctly called out. So why claim this was an obvious hook? It was not.

My original question was why show this? you carefully chose a video of Stanford vs Virginia, claiming the Stanford player cheated while he did not. What your post does is generate more bias against Stanford players and Stanford in general. Is it what you were trying to do?

If you want to find actual hooks in college tennis, you will find plenty of real hooks. You might even find some from Clemson team.

Singh didn't make a bigger deal out of it because it was only a 1st serve and he's still up 30-0,2 points away from the match, it wouldn't have been part to get mentally distracted in that moment and he double faults right after so he actually was a bit affected by it.

I remember this video from years ago and always thought the ball was inside the line. I'll admit that serve calls are harder than groundstroke or lob calls and often the most commonly hooked calls (that's part of why there are actually few aces in college tennis compared to the pros). The point was not to hate on Stanford but to show that tight/bad calls have always happened in high pressure situations in the NCAA tournament. I also mentioned the Goldhoff Texas call. I was calling out the faux righteousness from the players and coaches who flocked to twitter to bash Gojo and act as if they or their players were way above such calls in tight high pressure situations in the heat of the moment. There are A LOT of college players out there who are very glad that not every point they have ever played is on video somewhere, because I bet you could cherry pick and find where they made a bad call for nearly every player.

And do you think I am going to deny that Clemson has made bad calls before? Of course not, I have seen several. In fact a match between Yannick Maden and Dominic Cotrone from FSU was one of the most hooking matches I have ever seen in college. They both started to hook in the 1st game of the match and the chair umpire lost control of it, lines were out in that match.

 

[JAJ]

IMO - Not at all & it's really hard to judge intent. Guys are going to miss calls - they're moving at incredibly fast speeds all over the court and, especially at the top end of the ladder, are hitting huge shots with the ball moving at a ridiculous pace. There's plenty of room for honest mistakes & good on the guys who accept they missed a call, apologize to the opponent, and move on.

Well said. That's kind of how I processed what I saw last week.

 

[jerryjones1960]

well said Clemson. The line call argument is just dumb. There is an umpire on every court. Sorry, stakes are high at the top level. Name another sport you make your own calls? Soccer, basketball, football? Nope. If you're cheating yourself you are not winning much.