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2019 Texas Women's Tennis

Aleemay

By Aleemay
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Aleemay

Aleemay 304

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New year so let's start a new topic!

Texas is returning the bulk of its Big 12 Championship team, only losing Wagland but replaces her with Tijana Spasojevic. Fernanda Labrana also looks to be improved after a not so hot first semester.

Looking at the schedule, there's no where really to hide except against MTSU on opening day and conference cellar dwellers Iowa State and Oklahoma State.

Teams that will challenge for the crown and easily qualify for the NCAAs: Oklahoma State, Kansas, Tech

Teams that can upset Texas on a very good day and should get an NCAA berth: Baylor

Question mark teams: Oklahoma (Coach's first full recruiting class), TCU (depth issues), Kansas State (Can the assistant coach replicate last year's success as the new HC?)

Other things that need to be considered:

-With the new implementation of the transition tour, Bianca Turati can now easily get into $25,000 tournaments main draw. How many will she enter during the season and will her results push her to turn pro by the end of the year?

-The Fed Cup dates for Group II Europe/Africa has yet to be announced. If they're in April like last year, will Katie Poluta be nominated to represent South Africa again during the middle of the season?

-Marta Perez-Mur has been in a boot for at least a month after her last fall tournament. How bad is her injury and has she recovered?

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Aleemay

Aleemay 304

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6 minutes ago, perfectchaos007 said:

Good preview but not sure I would put OKST in the cellar dweller category given their recent history. Pretty sure they played for a national championship just a couple years ago. Even in a down year for them they’re gonna be dangerous. 

Woops haha my mistake. In my original version, I had the bottom teams being OK State, Iowa State, and WVU. Then this last month OK State signed Tamara Arnold (top JUCO player) and Bunyawi Thamchaiwat (Eye popping WTA ranking in the 400s) for the spring. This now gives them a full roster of scholarship players.

Somehow I accidentally deleted WVU instead of OK State (which is why I have OK State in the next line where I predicted they'll easily qualify for NCAAs). lol

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Aleemay

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8 hours ago, Chris Lewis said:

So is Bianca playing for UT or is she playing on the pro Tour???

Why did all the seating get gutted from the NEW stadium???

A lot of top players (especially the men) are able to play the college season while also playing a few lower level pro tournaments as an amateur. Bianca is signed up to play a 25K in Florida in a couple weeks.

The seating had to be replaced because it was almost impossible to watch the near court player during the matches. The view was being blocked by the walls and most people had to stand in order to watch both players.

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Chris Lewis

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Thanks for replying Alee. That was a pretty bad design flaw on the stadium.

I wonder who blew that one & if the tennis staff had any input on the design. Oh well, at least they are going to fix it. It's not like UT doesn't have plenty of $$$$$$. I assume it will look like the seating at the old Pennick Allison (god I miss that place), except with shade.

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Aleemay

Aleemay 304

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First weekend of play today. Might have to revise my assessment on Baylor, couldn't get any of their three freshmen to be eligible for the season meaning they'll have to play with a walk-on. Just lost to Hawaii today (last year UH was ranked in the 60s). 

Texas ranked number 6 in the preseason polls. This one was conducted by coaches, not the computers.

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Aleemay

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https://texassports.com/news/2019/1/22/granic-earns-big-12-womens-tennis-player-of-the-week-honors.aspx

Congrats to Petra for winning Player of the Week! To give context how big the Freeman Memorial tournament is, here are some winners in the past ten years:


2016     Hayley Carter                North Carolina (seven time All American)
2015     Jennifer Brady               UCLA (currently top 100)
2013     Sabrina Santamaria       USC (currently ranked in top 100 in doubles)
2011     Maria Sanchez              USC (former top 100 player in doubles)
2009     Irini Falconi                   Georgia Tech (former top 100 player)

On most teams, Petra would be playing line 1. Her game is big (both groundstrokes and serve)

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Aleemay

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As I suspected, no Marta for the year

https://texassports.com/news/2019/1/25/no-6-womens-tennis-preview-ita-kick-off-weekend.aspx

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Texas returns a talented and experienced lineup that includes one senior (Katie Poluta), three juniors (Petra Granic, Anna Turati and Bianca Turati) and two sophomores (Fernanda Labraña and Bojana Markovic)  from last year's squad. Sophomore Marta Perez-Mur will redshirt the 2019 season after suffering a right knee injury during fall competition. The Longhorns add freshman Tijana Spasojevic (Belgrade, Serbia), who was ranked as high as No. 836 in the WTA singles rankings. Head coach Howard Joffe is in his fourth season leading the UT program.

Hope the rest of the team stays healthy!

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Aleemay

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4-0 win over MTSU. Fernanda looked really good- much more confident and fluid forehand compared to last year

Also it looks like Poluta did not make herself available for Fed Cup this year.  South Africa named its team and I'm confident to say she is at a higher level than two of the five members on the team. Makes sense as this year Fed Cup dates are during indoor nationals (compared to last year where Texas was playing bottom of the league opponents) and Texas is a bit short handed with the roster.

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Aleemay

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3 minutes ago, perfectchaos007 said:

Watched Tijana play some doubles and she plays just how I expected. Big strokes, big serve, but can spray some errors. She came through in doubles today though as Texas takes the doubles point against Ohio State. Singles about to start

She was missing so many forehand returns lol. Thank goodness it started working again when they were down match point. (saved 2 in the tb)

In bad news, it looks like Granic is in a boot

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perfectchaos007

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Texas wins 4-3 over tOSU. Looked like we were going to blow them out after winning the doubles point and 5 of 6 first sets in singles (and in the set we lost Anna was up 4-1 in the tiebreak) but that’s where momentum shifted. When the overall match score was 3-3, Bianca came through with a 3 set victory at line 1 to clinch. Up next @ Michigan, a place we have never won. 

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Aleemay

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Good win considering there was so many factors against the Horns: Road trip in the middle of the polar vortex, playing indoors, Petra injured, short roster (walk ons didn't come for the road trip), Katie having to step in and delivering not only in singles but also doubles with a new partner (interesting sight seeing the tallest and shortest playing together)

A win is a win and Texas will get the 10% road bonus in the computer rankings

No time to rest as Michigan is on Sunday

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perfectchaos007

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51 minutes ago, Aleemay said:

Good win considering there was so many factors against the Horns: Road trip in the middle of the polar vortex, playing indoors, Petra injured, short roster (walk ons didn't come for the road trip), Katie having to step in and delivering not only in singles but also doubles with a new partner (interesting sight seeing the tallest and shortest playing together)

A win is a win and Texas will get the 10% road bonus in the computer rankings

No time to rest as Michigan is on Sunday

Wow so that tells me Granic injured herself sometime between leaving Austin for Columbus and match time because no way would Joffee take just 6 healthy players to a match when he has a pretty capable walkon he could have brought for some depth. I'm guessing during warmups earlier in the day she injured herself. With only 6 healthy players left on this road trip, we'll have to start defaulting lines if anyone else gets injured. Walk on eggshells ladies

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Aleemay

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Looks like the injury bug is hitting not only Texas but also Oklahoma State. A day after a stunning loss to Arkansas (picked to finish last in the SEC after 5 of their starting 6 didn't return this year), they are currently down 3-1 to UCLA with two losses coming from retiring mid-match.

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Aleemay

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Loss to UM, bummer. But let's not forget how Texas lost to (a less talented) Illinois team and went 0-3 last year at indoor nationals before turning things around in the outdoor season

Still a good win against Ohio State this weekend with a shorthanded team

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Aleemay

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Just now, Js1 said:

Played Tree tough. Losing 4-3 to #1 is nothing to be sad about 

Stanford returned every member from last year's championships team in May (and then promptly added 2 blue chip freshmen)

Poluta beating Janice Shin (who was 15-1 before today's match at line 5) and Tijana beating Higuchi (who was 33-1 before today's match at line 6) shows how deep this team can be. Add in the fact that Petra's status is unknown, this is a good sign of how high the ceiling can be for this team.

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spystud13

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Singles – Order of finish (4-1-2-6-3-5)

  1. #113 Bianca Turati (UT) def. #66 Michaela Haet (Rice), 6-0, 6-3
  2. #41 Anna Turati (UT) def. Victoria Smirnova (Rice), 6-2, 6-3
  3. #100 Bojana Markovic (UT) def. Anastasia Smirnova (Rice), 6-4, 5-7, 6-2
  4. Fernanda Labraña (UT) def. Anna Bowtell (Rice), 6-2, 6-2
  5. #94 Katie Poluta (UT) def. Priya Niezgoda (Rice), 7-5, 3-6, 7-5
  6. #92 Tijana Spasojevic (UT) def. Linda Huang (Rice), 6-0, 3-6, 6-3

 

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perfectchaos007

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Our next 5 matches are at home so if there's inclimate weather we can play at our indoor facility. Interesting how since the new facility by the baseball field opened, the indoor facility is really only there for backup. Don't think the men or women are scheduled to play matches at our indoor courts this year

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Aleemay

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Big series of home matches for the Horns these next few weeks. Really important to get some wins against top 40 opponents. Texas is down in the ITA rankings due to having only three good wins. Baylor currently counts as a ranked win but they're not going to be in the rankings next week (now 5-11 and playing two walk-ons).

Florida State is very talented, having two French players with past rankings in the top 800.

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Js1

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2 hours ago, perfectchaos007 said:

We lost the doubles point to Florida State. We lost the doubles point to Rice last week. Needs practice 

Still won 4-1 so there we go.
#23 Pepperdine on the 16th

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