jcgatennismom
Hall of Fame
Will 2024 be Kova’s year? For the 1st time, he cracked the top 100 ATP earlier this year. He beat Jordan Thompson in his 1st rd at Acalpulco, and then took 2 seed Rune to a tiebreak 1st set before losing quickly in 2nd. Considering Fritz, Eubanks, and Paul lost in 1st rd of the 500, reaching 2nd rd after playing Qualis was a decent accomplishment. He reached the QFs at Los Cabos beating Rinky H enroute.
Kovacevic was part of the American crew of Shelton, Wolf, and Eubanks playing Challengers in 2022. Shelton and Wolf broke top 100 in ’22, and all 3 had meteoric rises in ’23. What are his chances of now being a regular member of the post collegiate American top 100 ATP crew of players? His best ATP performance was reaching the SF of Seoul ATP 250 in fall of 2022. He reached ATP 101 in April of ’23 dropped to 146 before hitting 110 by end of ’23. He beat other former collegians Norrie, Gojo and Borges in 2023. He is now ranked slightly ahead of Wolf who has fallen to 95 after withdrawals from ’24 tourneys due to injury. Hopefully JJ will be back at Indian Wells after not playing a match since AO.
Kova like Shelton, Eubanks, and Wolf was not a USTA PD kid like Kypson. He wasn’t even recruited to Illinois until summer before his freshmen year. He was just a 4 star (#79) in Dec of his senior year but was ranked #24 after beating a bunch of blue chips and 5 stars at his final Kzoo in August ‘16
I remember watching American freshmen Wolf, Zeke, and Kova at the back courts of Athens in’17 back when the last 16 teams traveled to NCAA final site. My goal was to watch some of the top ranked ITA players at the time Torp, Norrie, Thai, etc as well as American freshman in lineup of top 16. I watched TCU vs Illinois-was amazed at Illini energy in spite of loss, and I enjoyed OSU vs OK and vs TCU-wanted to see the coach with the purple cowboy hat. Those couple days led to my interest in college tennis. Now it is great to see collegians from that week in top 100-Norrie first then also Rinderknech, Wolf, and now Kova-there are probably more than from 2017 NCAA teams that I didnt see. It took Kova several years to become a line #1 player at ILL but Wolf already had the swagger at line 2 as freshmen. Watching on the back courts vs the main courts where Virginia was playing, fans were close enough to hear the coaches speak to players on changeovers.
As for Kypson, I hope he has matured over the years-he certainly had a reputation as a brat at Kzoo-whining at refs who made the calls on the stadium courts where the top seeds play. He had a pretty good racquet toss too. As far as other American collegiate IW WCs-Nakishima is in MD and Quinn and Dostanic are in Qualis.
Kovacevic was part of the American crew of Shelton, Wolf, and Eubanks playing Challengers in 2022. Shelton and Wolf broke top 100 in ’22, and all 3 had meteoric rises in ’23. What are his chances of now being a regular member of the post collegiate American top 100 ATP crew of players? His best ATP performance was reaching the SF of Seoul ATP 250 in fall of 2022. He reached ATP 101 in April of ’23 dropped to 146 before hitting 110 by end of ’23. He beat other former collegians Norrie, Gojo and Borges in 2023. He is now ranked slightly ahead of Wolf who has fallen to 95 after withdrawals from ’24 tourneys due to injury. Hopefully JJ will be back at Indian Wells after not playing a match since AO.
Kova like Shelton, Eubanks, and Wolf was not a USTA PD kid like Kypson. He wasn’t even recruited to Illinois until summer before his freshmen year. He was just a 4 star (#79) in Dec of his senior year but was ranked #24 after beating a bunch of blue chips and 5 stars at his final Kzoo in August ‘16
I remember watching American freshmen Wolf, Zeke, and Kova at the back courts of Athens in’17 back when the last 16 teams traveled to NCAA final site. My goal was to watch some of the top ranked ITA players at the time Torp, Norrie, Thai, etc as well as American freshman in lineup of top 16. I watched TCU vs Illinois-was amazed at Illini energy in spite of loss, and I enjoyed OSU vs OK and vs TCU-wanted to see the coach with the purple cowboy hat. Those couple days led to my interest in college tennis. Now it is great to see collegians from that week in top 100-Norrie first then also Rinderknech, Wolf, and now Kova-there are probably more than from 2017 NCAA teams that I didnt see. It took Kova several years to become a line #1 player at ILL but Wolf already had the swagger at line 2 as freshmen. Watching on the back courts vs the main courts where Virginia was playing, fans were close enough to hear the coaches speak to players on changeovers.
As for Kypson, I hope he has matured over the years-he certainly had a reputation as a brat at Kzoo-whining at refs who made the calls on the stadium courts where the top seeds play. He had a pretty good racquet toss too. As far as other American collegiate IW WCs-Nakishima is in MD and Quinn and Dostanic are in Qualis.
