2024-25 Shocker Women's Tennis

[SubGod22]

[SubGod22]

[1972Shocker]

Pretty good first day for the Shockers in singles.. To recap the 4 Shockers in the qualifying draw who each played 2 matches went a combined 7-1 with Giorgia Roselli, Kristina Kudryavtseva and Anne Knuetel each going 2-0 to advance to the main draw. Theodora Chantava went 1-1 and drops to the C Draw where she will play Jimena Gomez (Arkansas) on Thursday. Xin Tong Wang received a bye from qualifying as the #12 seed in the main draw.

In the B Draw, which I presume to be lower ranked players, Clara Whitaker won her only match of the day over a player from Lindenwood and will join teammate Sati Aubakirova, who received a first round bye in the B Draw, in the round of 16 of this draw.

Overall an 8-1 day in singles for the Shocks. Likely to be much tougher here on out but about as good of a start as the Shocks could have hoped for.

[SubGod22]

[1972Shocker]

Round of 64 Doubles Results.

Clara Whitaker and Sati Aubakirova fall to an OU team 8-1

Xin Tong Wang and Kristina Krudryavtseva ground out an 8-7 (7-1TB) over Iowa State. Will play an Arkansas duo tomorrow.

Theodora Chantava and Giorgia Roselli pick up an 8-6 win over an Iowa pair. Will play a Tulsa duo tomorrow.

[SubGod22]

[1972Shocker]

Other Round of 64 Main Draw results:

Anne Knuettel drops a 1-6, 2-6 match to Tulsa's Lily Hutchings.

Kristina Kudryavtseva also falls to a Tulsa player by a score of 3-6, 3-6.

Giorgia Roselli lost a close match to University of Oklahoma player by scores of 5-7, 5-7.

Anne, Kristina and Giorgia all drop to the Consolation bracket of the Main Draw.

In the B Draw round of 16 matches:

Sati moves on to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-1 win over a St. Louis University player.

Clara Whitaker loses her match 2-6, 4-6. Clara drops into the 32 player E Draw but appears to have withdrawn due to illness.

In the C Draw round of 32 Theodora wins over an opponent from Tulsa 7-5, 4-6. 10-6 STB to move the the round of 16 in that draw.

So in singles play on Thursday the Shocks went 3-4. So they Shocks are 11-5 in singles matches.

[1972Shocker]

In the Round of 32 doubles play Xin Tong and Kristina lose a tough match in a tiebreaker to an Arkansas duo 8-7 (7-3 TB).

In the Singles Main Draw Xin Tong moves on to the Sweet 16 with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Oklahoma's Ava Catanzarite, who I believe was the higher ranked player. XTW off to a good start in her sophomore year. XTW plays Tulsa's Mariana Velasquez at 3:00 this afternoon.

Sati Aubakirova advances to the semifinals of the B-Draw with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Arkansas State's Ariadna Fernandez. Sati will play Missouri's Gian Octa at 4:00 this afternoon.

In the Main Draw Consolation Bracket Round of 32:

Anne Knuettel defeated a very complicated name from Central Arkansas 6-2, 3-6 (10-7 STB). Anne moves on to the round of 16 in the this bracket and will play Minnesota's Aiva Schmitz at a yet to be schedule time.

Kristina Kudryavtseva earned a 6-1, 7-5 win over KU's Heike Janse Van Vuuren. Kristina will play Iowa's Pia Kranholdt at 3:00 this afternoon in the round of 16.

Giorgia Roselli joins Anne and Kristina in the Main Consolation Bracket round of 16 with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Minnesota's Anali Kocevar.

In the C Draw I am not sure when Theodora Chantava will play her round of 16 match.

[1972Shocker]

Friday Afternoon's Action:

XTW knocks of Tulsa's Mariana Velasquez 6-2, 6-3 and moves on to the Main Draw quarterfinals where she will face Iowa State's Anna Kuearum at 9 am on Saturday.

In the Main Draw Consolation bracket Kristina Kudryavtseva was at 6-6 in the first set and leading 5-4 in the tiebreaker when her opponent, Iowa's Pia Kranholdt, retired due to injury as Kristina advances to Consolation quarterfinals. Anne Knuettel and Giorgia Roselli are in the Consolation bracket round of 16 but did not play Friday afternoon. Their matches are yet to be scheduled.

Sati Aubakirova lost in the B-Draw semifinals to Missouri's Gian Octa 0-6, 7¹¹-6⁹, (8-10 STB). Sati battle back pretty well after getting skunked in the first set.

So on Saturday the Shocks were 6-1 in singles play (not counting Kristina's afternoon match in which her opponent retired due to injury). That brings them to 17-6 for the tournament.

'

[1972Shocker]

Saturday's Action:

XTW grinds her way into the Main Draw semifinals with a 7⁷-6⁵, 4-6, 7-5 win over Iowa State's Anna Kuearum. XTW will play Iowa's Tereza Dejnozkova Sunday at 10:00 am. It looks like Dejnozkova advanced when her opponent, apparently the #1 seed, withdrew due to injury prior to the start of their scheduled match.

It looks like Kristina Kudryavtseva, Giorgia Roselli, Theodora Chantava, Sati Aubakirova and Clara Whitaker have all moved into the Round of 64 of what is called the Saturday Draw. I am not sure what Anne Knuettel is looking at although there are still 9 slots open in the Saturday draw.

Saturday Draw Round of 64 Results:

Theodora Chantava defeated Minnesota's Nora Knezivic 6-2, 6-4.

Kristina Kudryavtseva defeated Nebraska's Lucy Loy 6-0, 6-2.

Clara Whitaker defeated Tulsa's Eda Numanoglu 6-3, 4-6, [11-9 STB]

Sati Aubakirova lost to Missouri's Lailaa Bashir 3-6, 4-6.

If I have tracked everything correctly, a big if, I have the Shockers singles record in this tournament at 21-7.

[1972Shocker]

Wang Punches Ticket to Nationals, Will Play for Central Region Singles Title

Wichita State women's tennis sophomore Xin Tong Wang punched her ticket to the 2024 NCAA Fall National Championships with a resunding 6-1, 6-1 victory in the ITA Central Region Singles Semifinals on Sunday afternoon over iowa's Tereza Denjozkova.

Wang qualified for nationals after defeating five opponents in three days at the 2024 ITA Central Region Championships to reach the championship match. Both singles championship match participants in each region championship automatically qualify for fall nationals.

Wang will be the seventh Shocker all-time to compete in singles in an NCAA Individual National Championships event and the first since Fatima Bizhukova in 2018. She will also be only the second Shocker in team history to play for the Central Region Championship, joining Sandy Sadler, who won the title in 1983.

She will vie for the Central Region Championship against Oklahoma State's Anastasiya Komar, #2 seed in the Central Region, who defeated #5 seed Alina Shcherbinina of Oklahoma 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. This would be a huge upset if XTW could pull this off. The match is schedule for 10 am Monday.

The 2024 NCAA National Championships begins on November 19 at Baylor's Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas.

A list of Wang's singles victories in the Main Draw for the week;

Round of 64: Wang (WSU def. Nikita Vishwase (Iowa) 6-3, 6-0
Round of 32: Wang (WSU) def. Ava Catanzarite (Oklahoma) 7-5, 7-5
Round of 16: Wang (WSU) def. Mariana Velasquez (Tulsa) 6-2, 6-3
Quarterfinls: Wang (WSU) def. Anna Kuearum (Iowa State) 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-5
Semifinals: Wang (WSU) def. Tereza Dejnozkova (Iowa) 6-1, 6-1

[WuDrWu]

4-6, 6-4 but since the 3rd set started, Komar has been razor sharp, mixing up her shots and frustrating Wang a ton. She's incredibly frustrated right now and is going to be very, very lucky to turn things around and get back in this deciding set.

Komar has come up with every big shot she's needed in this last set. She's serving at 4-0 and frankly, it's just a matter of time.

[1972Shocker]

4-6, 6-4 but since the 3rd set started, Komar has been razor sharp, mixing up her shots and frustrating Wang a ton. She's incredibly frustrated right now and is going to be very, very lucky to turn things around and get back in this deciding set.

Komar has come up with every big shot she's needed in this last set. She's serving at 4-0 and frankly, it's just a matter of time.

Komar finishes off the match at 6-0 in the 3rd set. I wonder if XTW ran out of gas a bit if that final stretch. In any case, I really wasn't expecting XTW to win this match and, in fact, was a happy to see that she basically played Komar dead even over the first 2 sets.

All-in-all XTW had a terrific weak and is off to a very good start to her sophomore season. By making the finals XTW joins Komar and the 30 other finals from the other 15 regions in the NCAA National Individual Championships November 18th - 23rd in Waco, Texas. That's pretty tasty icing on the cake for XTW.

I would think Coach Cooper has to be well pleased with the Shocks' 22-8 performance in this tournament led by XTW's 5-1 record.

Next up for the Shockers are the AAC Individual Tennis Championships hosted by Rice on October 24th - 27th. All 13 AAC women's teams will compete in the individual championships. Each team will send two singles competitors and one doubles tandem. Not sure who that will involve for the Shocks outside of XTW.

[WuDrWu]

Wang went into the tank a bit in that 3rd set. The first 2 games didn't go very well, and her frustration boiled over into a kind of rudderless approach to the last 4 games. Trying to do too much, cranking when frustrated and as I mentioned, the OSU player came up with big shot after big shot.

An absolutely fantastic tournament for the sophomore from Hangzhou, China. She probably feels like she's in the sticks in Wichita.....Hangzhou is the 11th largest city in China with a population between 9-13 million depending, spread out over 3100 square miles which would be about an area from Newton to Hutchinson, south to Anthony and east to South Haven back north to Newton. Very roughly.

[1972Shocker]

the OSU player came up with big shot after big shot.

Perhaps to be expected from the pre-season #11 nationally ranked player. Preseason singles rankings require all returning, nationally ranked (top 125) players from the previous year to remain in order. The removal of graduating players & players not competing in the fall is the only change to this ranking from the previous year. The remaining spots in the top 125 singles rankings are determined by a vote of the National Tournament Committee.

Now that UCF and Houston have moved to the Big 12 the AAC has no players ranked in the preseason top 125. UCF had 4 players in those rankings and Houston has 1.

The only new rankings in the fall are released at the end of the fall season on or around November 27th.

https://wearecollegetennis.com/ita-rankings/