I know Mary and she works very hard on her mental game. She will take a Nadal-like approach of following the process and one point at a time. That's helpful in these moments where I'm sure they both have nerves. I worry about all the players going straight into the singles tournament tomorrow. I know they're young, but pretty brutal to have to do this 8 days in a row in this heat.
the singles tournament barely matters for anyone who isn't going to get a USO wildcard - it's always an odd event with big differences in who cares and who is rested, resulting in plenty of upsets - but, not many lose sleep over not being a singles champion
I thought it was weird the defending champ pulled out from defending her crown. Mary wants it for sure. She got into the Qualifiers last year and lost in the first round, but if she runs the table I think they'll put her in the Main Draw. If not my guess is they'll put her in the Qualifiers again? Unless she can win a spot through play in the summertime. I grew up by her (about an hour outside of NYC) in CT so it would be a massive home crowd if she earned a spot.
From what I see it starts tomorrow. No delays. There's 3 A&M players who need to get over the team win quickly (which is likely the biggest win of their life), especially Mary (as she has bigtime aspirations and there are serious USO implications). If she could pull it off it would be a remarkable 9 days, but no matter what she will finish as #1 and POY.
She was amazing - kind of doubt she’ll follow it up by winning the singles, but that’s ok - one wildcard isn’t going to make or break her future
One of the ESPN networks had competitive air guitar on yesterday, but tennis NCAAs deferred to paid ESPN+
I had a good time watching the broadcast, and enjoyed the CrackedRacquets commentary/play-by-play.
UVA won six of the last 11 championship (including 2024). What you said "things have to fall in place", I called good coaching and preparation by UVA coaches. So sick of the Buckeyes falling short every year and it clearly falls on Tucker.
Friend is a good player though. Yes, there's challenger WC incentives to being ranked top 16. I think that's the number, could be different.
Toby Samuel just lost as another example in a pretty big surprise to Masjuan of UCSB.
I refuse to believe you are an actual Ohio State tennis fan, who is big enough of a fan to travel to NCAAs, but still wants Tucker fired.
You;re entitled to your own opinion but I was there when the Buckeyes failed to advance. I had big hope that the Buckeyes would take home the trophy this year but had doubt in my mind that Tucker would f! that up. My instinct was proven correct.
I thought about asking him to post a photo the other day. With all the hatred of Tucker, and being a fancy big city guy…I’m not sure I believe he went to the Mecca that is Stillwater OK to cheer them on…
Thought about asking for pics too, then I remembered that there's no way that Bob is giving up his Saturday tee time with Fortune 500 CEO's at Trump National D.C.
It’s too bad that winning Indoors doesn’t have the same prestige of NCAAs. The big 10 teams spend most of March and April playing mostly weak conference teams-has the big 10 ever had more than 4 teams in top 25? Purdue, Penn State, and Wisc were ranked lower than a lot of MM teams. How can big10 teams truly be ready to play top teams at sites that are hot and humid if they only have a short trip to South or Texas over spring break before the heat? The SEC, big12, and ACC are much better prepared for those conditions as they have probably faced some hot and humid weekends playing conference in April or hosting early rounds in May.
I've been saying this for years. I'm not sure there's an ideal location but for sure, Lake Nona is probably the worst with respect to penalizing teams that play an indoor-heavy spring schedule. Lake Nona is a great location in terms of fan friendliness (and for me personally), but it's not a coincidence that teams from Texas and Florida seem to have an advantage. Watching JJ Wolf just wilt a couple of years ago (to Riffice, I think?) wasn't fun. If they could move the whole thing up even 2-3 weeks it would make a difference-probably not realistic. As would Hawkeye installation. This overrule stuff is getting out of hand.
It's semi-prestigious, but yeah nothing like outdoors. But that's because outdoors is the actual NCAA championship. Indoors involves NCAA schools, but it's not an NCAA championship. If it were, would it matter? In track and field, indoor and outdoor are technically separate sports in separate seasons and a NCAA team championship is awarded for each. But while it's great to win an indoor title, it's not like winning an outdoor title for most top programs. Some even generally ignore indoors, as they're trying to prep for outdoors which involves some different events and a different sized track. But to answer my own question, I think it would matter somewhat.
Cali would be great tho more expensive for hotels and travel for NCAA.
100% agree with the move next year to move the individual event far away from the team event
Yeah I think I agree overall. Just don’t like how singles rankings wont mean much in the dual season
Yeah, it's always been a true grind - physically, mentally, emotionally. There always seems to be a top singles player or two or three who went deep in the team tournament who fizzle out in the individual tournament. Still, others manage to overcome the slog and do well in both.
It’s a convenient crutch to use to explain away losses in the individuals. If there’s a will there’s a way as Micah Braswell proved in his win over a strong opponent in Jin. And his brother almost pulled off a stunner against Cassone who was well rested.
Roditi was very classy in the trophy presentation.....giving a tremendous amount of Respect to Tut Bartzen.
read an article on ZooTennis he withdrew due to stress fatigue or something, but plans to play doubles
i thought Tarvet was good, he's getting his butt kicked by colton smith
