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Wake Forest Tennis 2023-2024: Men #7, Women #37

ChrisL68 said:
looks like we might be better than advertised.
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I definitely underestimated them, at least to this point. Filo/Melios are holding down 1-2 better than I expected, Tacchi is playing better than I expected, and Karimov is playing lower than I expected and winning (I thought he would play 1 and lose a lot).
 
are the midyear guys mentioned earlier expected to jump into the top 6?
 
IAppreciateIt said:
are the midyear guys mentioned earlier expected to jump into the top 6?
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Probably not. Barun might crack the lineup, but I think the top 6 are set. Apparently we were close to getting Mili Poljicak from Croatia, but then he won junior Wimbledon and went pro.
 
Deacs beat MTSU and advance to the national indoor sweet 16. Doubles was close - we were down 0-4 in the tiebreak at 3 and came back for a clutch win. Filo’s match was one of streaks, but he played well in the final set, which was big.
 
women's tennis seems like another meh season. that is a program that should be better than it is, IMO.
 
ChrisL68 said:
women's tennis seems like another meh season. that is a program that should be better than it is, IMO.
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Yeah, I think they'll be right around the top 25 - not bad, but not great. This would be great for some of our sports, but I agree that women's tennis could be better.

Women's tennis is very different from men's. The women have 8 scholarships compared to 4.5 for men. Tennis is the most lucrative sport for women in the world (look at the top earning female athletes in Forbes, for a while it was 15 of the top 20 were in tennis), so I think that attracts some of the top female athletes in the US into tennis. Venus and Serena were also huge in attracting US females into tennis. So, the US pool of top tennis players is larger for women than men, and Wake women have double the scholarships of the men. The Wake women have incredible facilities (like the men) and a good history (some here probably remember Bea Bielik winning the NCAAs in dominating fashion), so I think they should be able to field a strong top 20 team most years (with several years in the top 10).
 
Andrew Delgado, a really solid player from High Point, has committed to Wake for 2024. He's ranked #5 in the US.
 
The men won two easy matches today. Next two are tough - Ohio State and South Carolina, both at Wake.

A couple of college tennis notes: NC State freshman Diana Shnaider of Russia was cleared by the NCAA and played her first match today. She is ranked significantly higher than anyone else in NCAA women's tennis and is #94 in the world. She went to the second round of the Australian Open (winning $107,000). Many thought she would never show up at NC State when she signed last summer, and especially after she advanced in the Australian, but here she is. Pretty interesting story on the women's side.

Kentucky beat #1 UVA yesterday. Taha Baadi, from Wake, won the clinching match at 3 singles. Baadi also played #1 doubles and beat Bar Botzer. Bar is 6 seasons removed from his freshman season at Wake. He won the NCAA team national championship at Wake in 2018 and at UVA in 2022. He is 29 years old and a second year student at Darden (UVA business school). He's the first student athlete to be in their business school and play on a team
 
Deaconblue said:
How does Botzer still have eligibility?
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It seems impossible, doesn't it? COVID year (spring 2020) didn't count and he sat out the following year (spring 2021) because the COVID situation was still uncertain.
 
Bar Botzer is possibly the only NCAA athlete who was alive the last time WF won in Cameron. He’s older than Mitch Wilbekin.
 
Rafi said:
It seems impossible, doesn't it? COVID year (spring 2020) didn't count and he sat out the following year (spring 2021) because the COVID situation was still uncertain.
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Does he have zero pro chances at this point and is just milking as much discounted education as possible?
 
deacdixieboy said:
Does he have zero pro chances at this point and is just milking as much discounted education as possible?
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It sort of depends on what you mean by pro chances. He was playing pro when he was 16 years old. But yes, he's not going to make a living playing pro tennis, so he's getting a college degree and an MBA. Seems like a brilliant move.

It's a bit crazy, because US students and some international students play by different rules in regards to the NCAA eligibility clock. For US students their clock starts once they enter high school (which is why elite athletes sometimes repeat 8th grade), but some international students do not have this same rule. For example, Israeli students can get a major delay on their eligibility clock if they are in the military. That's what Bar did, and why he didn't start college until he was 23 years old. However, during his "military service" he was mainly playing pro tennis tournaments...
 
Isn’t he like 30 years old? Didn’t he do his military stint before going to college?
 
lost 4-2 but we played them tough
 
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Finished at 3-4 because they played out all matches. Deacs looked good. Ohio State is super tough, especially indoors (they always are). Melios with a big win at 1, Karimov dominant at 3 (that's a great sign), and doubles played really well (Ohio State is always good at doubles). They were missing a few top players, but their top 8 are all pretty equal, so still really a solid showing for Wake.
 
Great to see the team continuing to perform at an elite level even in a down year.
 
Looks like we have imploded. This stretch seems to be the worst that I can remember. I know it’s been tough matches but??? Beat OSU because they were hurt?
 
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