Tag: Ohio State Tennis

Ohio State men’s tennis takes over No. 1 spot in polls

The Ohio State men’s tennis team has completed the climb to the top. #GoBucks

Fresh off two top ten wins, including an upset of then No. 1 Tennessee, the Ohio State men’s tennis team has moved to No. 1 themselves according to both the ITA and the Tennis Channel / USTA College Tennis polls this week.

OSU has been among the best programs in the country over the last several years and consistently fought for that No. 1 spot, but it’s the first time since February 20 of 2019 that the Buckeyes have held the top spot. OSU fell short of a national title that season though, finishing at No. 3 in the polls.

This past weekend, Ohio State swept No. 1 Tennessee 4-0 before also taking care of No. 6 Virginia by the same score. The Buckeyes haven’t dropped a point in five matches.

OSU will next be in action against No. 10 Kentucky at the Ty Tucker Tennis Center on Friday. It’ll then be a quick turnaround to host No. 6 Wake Forest on Sunday.

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Men’s and women’s tennis move on to round of sixteen in Orlando

Both the Ohio State men’s and women’s tennis squads have moved on to the round of sixteen of the NCAA Championships in Orlando, Florida.

In case this has been in your blind spot (we don’t blame you), we are here to tell you that both the men’s and women’s tennis teams won their NCAA Tournament matches this weekend and will be heading to the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida, for the round of sixteen.

The men beat an old foe, No. 5 seed Wake Forest, at their place by a score of 4-1. The two programs have faced off before over the last few years with a lot on the line. The Deamon Deacons knocked off Ohio State back in 2018 in the national championship match. The Buckeyes won the indoor title over Wake Forest in 2019. And now this.

OSU started fast with the doubles points, then won some close matches to seal the deal.

For the women, they had a much more tenuous match, but were still victorious over Vanderbilt, coming from 2-0 behind to win 4-3, extending their match-winning streak to fifteen. The Big Ten champions and No. 15 seed Buckeyes lost the doubles point, but then rolled off four singles wins to advance.

The women are scheduled to play on Sunday, May 16 vs. No. 2 seed Texas at 1 pm, while the men take on No. 7 seed TCU Monday, May 17 at 1 pm.

Ohio State Tennis has huge weekend with two Top 5 wins

The Ohio State Buckeyes showed they are an elite tennis program with wins over Top 5 opponents by both the men’s and women’s teams.

The Ohio State Buckeyes continued to show off their elite tennis programs this weekend, as the men’s and women’s teams each scored Top 5 wins.

Ohio State women defeat No. 5 Duke

On Friday, the women’s team continued its strong start to the season with a win over No. 5 Duke. The Buckeyes started the season at the tail end of the Top 25, but quickly showed the error of that with two ranked wins last week, including a tight one over then-No. 10 Oklahoma State. An even stronger win over Duke, though, shows that the sky is the limit for these Buckeyes.

Shiori Fukuda showed that her national individual ranking of No. 11 might have been too low with a clear straight-sets victory over No. 10 Kelly Chen. Danielle Wolf and Kathleen Jones also picked up wins for the Buckeyes, to give Ohio State a 4-2 victory after winning the doubles point.

The women will next compete at the ITA National Indoors Championships next weekend, against some of the other top teams in the country.

Ohio State men defeat No. 1 Texas

The men’s team had a tough act to follow on Saturday, and they took full advantage of that opportunity against No. 1 Texas. Ohio State took the doubles point and only lost one singles match–a very respectable loss to No. 2 Yuya Ito. (Justin Boulais did also retire in his match against Eliot Spizzirri, so the final total team score was 4-2.)

Kyle Seelig, James Trotter, and Robert Cash all picked up singles wins for the Buckeyes, who are now 8-0 on the season.

The tests continue for Ohio State, who will face two more Top 10 teams–USC and Texas A&M–next Sunday and Tuesday, respectively. After that, it’s the men’s National Indoors Championships, which the Buckeyes won last year.

J.J. Wolf wins Noumea Challenger title

Former Buckeye J.J. Wolf won the third Challenger title of his career as he prepares for Australian Open qualifying.

Former Ohio State tennis standout J.J. Wolf captured his second straight Challenger Tour title this past week, winning the trophy in Noumea, New Caledonia. (New Caledonia is a French-administered territorial island not too far from Australia.) He easily defeated Top 100 player Yuichi Sugita in the final, 6-2 6-2. In fact, Wolf was dominant all week. The only set he dropped was a second-set tiebreaker to World No. 80 Roberto Carballes Baena.

Wolf is now on an 11-match winning streak, as he won the Champaign Challenger–on the campus of the University of Illinois back in November, before tennis’ off-season.

Wolf was the No. 1 NCAA player in the country for most of last season, and his transition to the professional circuit has been smoother than most college stars. The former Buckeye is not yet competing in top-level ATP Tour events, but he is consistently performing well and winning on the Challenger Tour, the sport’s second-highest professional circuit. Wolf now has won three Challenger Tour titles, including one at Ohio State in Columbus last year.

Last week also witnessed a Challenger tournament in Ann Arbor, where many former and current NCAA players competed. Like the Columbus Challengers, that tournament is one of a growing number of Challenger tournaments hosted by college tennis programs. Instead of staying near home to compete there (against a much weaker field), Wolf chose to play in New Caledonia because he will be competing in qualifying for the Australian Open this week.

With a career-high ranking of World No. 181, Wolf begins his qualifying campaign on Wednesday. He has to win matches on three consecutive days to reach the main draw. He will be joined in qualifying by former Buckeyes Blaz Rola and Mikael Torpegaard, who are also ranked inside the Top 200.

On the women’s side, former Buckeye Francesca Di Lorenzo is ranked No. 121 in the world and is seeded 14th in the qualifying draw. She begins her qualifying campaign on Tuesday against Julia Grabher.

Ohio State men’s tennis checks in at No. 6 to start the season

The Ohio State men’s tennis team will start the team portion of the season as preseason No. 6.

The Ohio State men’s tennis program has been one of the best in the country over the last few years. It has a couple of indoor titles, and has come achingly close to winning an outdoor title over the last five years. There’s a bit of turnover this season, but it should be another one in which the Buckeyes contend for another Big Ten title and more.

On that note, OSU men’s tennis has opened up as the No. 6 ranked squad in the Oracle ITA Division I Men’s Team Rankings for the team portion of the year. Leading up to it in the fall, the Buckeyes brought home hardware in all four collegiate tournaments with individual play.

After all the individual showings, four Buckeyes found themselves in the final fall ITA singles rankings. Freshman Cannon Kinglsey led the way at No. 16, followed by John McNally at No. 24, Ryan Seelig at No. 28 and James Trotter at No. 40. In doubles, McNally and Cash are ranked No. 2 after going 13-2 in the fall.

Now, Ohio State kicks off its season on January 15 as another top ten team. In fact, it hasn’t started lower than presason No. 6 over the last four years.

Maybe this time it can finish the deal and find a way to bring home that illusive outdoor crown.