New year. New name. Same teams on top.

 

The first edition of the weekly Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25 Rankings of 2019 features the defending-NCAA champion Wake Forest men and Stanford women ranked No. 1, with Wake Forest receiving the maximum number of points atop the men's poll. 

 

With Tennis Channel on board as a partner for the first time, the Demon Deacons lead six ACC programs in the men's Top 25 and remain the team to unseat, with a 16-point cushion over 2018 runners-up Ohio State and star junior JJ Wolf (Cincinnati). Junior Brandon Holt (Rolling Hills, Calif.) and the USC Trojans lead three Pac-12 teams in the Top 10, while Mississippi State, tied for third with USC, and No. 5 Florida, led by sophomore Oliver Crawford (Spartanburg, S.C.) and freshman Sam Riffice (Orlando, Fla.), are among the seven SEC programs ranked in the men's poll, the most of any conference.

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The defending-champion Cardinal, who return their entire singles and doubles lineup from last year's NCAA title squad, grace the top of the Week 1 women's poll for the second straight year, with 2018 runner-up Vanderbilt beginning the year at No. 4. Second-ranked Duke and third-ranked North Carolina each have two of the ITA's Top 10 women's singles players, as the Blue Devils, with No. 8 Maria Mateas (Fr., Chapel Hill, N.C., pictured above) and No. 10 Meible Chi (Jr., Weston, Fla.), and the Tar Heels, led by No. 2 Makenna Jones (Jr., Greenville, S.C.) and No. 4 Sara Daavettila (Jr., Williamston, Mich.) lead eight teams from the ACC in the Top 25. Bookending the Top 5 with California schools, meanwhile, is UCLA and blue-chip freshmen Taylor Johnson (Prescott, Ariz.) and Elysia Bolton (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.).

 

Each team's point total, specified below, is the sum of its ranking points from the USTA's panel of 14 voters (listed below). Each voter ranked 25 teams from Nos. 1 to 25, with the first-place team receiving 25 points and the last place team receiving one. For control, the highest and lowest outlying ranking for each team on the ballot was removed. Therefore, the maximum number of points a team can receive is 300. First-place votes were not tallied.

 

The full list of voters participating in the 2019 rankings includes: Casey Angle (former Intercollegiate Tennis Association Director of Championships); Jordan Bishop (The News Press; Stillwater, Okla.); Virgil Christian (USTA Collegiate Tennis); Richard Croome (The Eagle; Bryan, Texas); Sonny Dearth (Daily Press; Newport News, Va.); Granger Huntress (Texas College Tennis); David Fish (Universal Tennis Ratings); Andy Katz (NCAA.com); Bobby Knight (College Tennis Today); Brandon Moglen (Tennis Channel); Shannon Wrege (Tennis Recruiting Network); Michael Patrick (former University of Tennessee women’s head coach), Lisa Stone (Parenting Aces) and Caitlin Thompson (Racquet Magazine).

 

A number of these programs will be showcased nationally this season on Tennis Channel, via the live College MatchDay series from the USTA National Campus in Orlando. The College MatchDay schedule begins with a matchup between the Florida and Florida State men on Saturday, Feb. 2, at 6 p.m. ET. For more on the Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25, visit the USTA collegiate Top 25 homepage. 

 

Men's Poll

Rank (End of 2018 Ranking) – Points

1. (1) Wake Forest – 300

2. (2) Ohio State – 284

T3. (5) Mississippi State - 258

T3. (6) USC – 258

5. (8) Florida – 246

6. (3) UCLA – 243

7. (9) North Carolina – 238

8. (11) Texas – 214

9. (12) Stanford – 196

10. (19) Baylor – 172

11. (7) Illinois – 167

12. (14) Columbia – 148

13. (NR) Virginia – 145

14. (4) Texas A&M – 140

15. (NR) Notre Dame – 122

16. (11) TCU – 120

17. (T25) Tulane – 117

18. (20) Alabama – 100

19. (15) Florida State – 96

20. (18) Oklahoma – 86

21. (13) Michigan – 54

22. (22) Tennessee – 41

23. (23) Oklahoma State – 40

24. (NR) NC State – 14

T25. (T25) Georgia – 13

T25. (21) Vanderbilt – 13 

Receiving Votes: Tulsa 10, Oregon 8, Dartmouth 7, Minnesota 6, Arizona State 2, Kentucky 2, Memphis 2

Dropped Out (from 2018): Harvard, Minnesota, Mississippi

 

Women's Poll

Rank (End of 2018 Ranking) – Points

1. (1) Stanford – 299

2. (3) Duke – 283

3. (6) North Carolina – 269

4. (2) Vanderbilt – 268

5. (5) UCLA – 247

6. (8) Georgia – 236

7. (9) Pepperdine – 224

8. (10) Texas – 223

9. (18) Oklahoma State – 185

10. (13) South Carolina – 149

11. (7) Texas Tech – 139

T12. (11) Florida State – 121

T12. (NR) Ohio State – 121

14. (14) Northwestern – 110

15. (NR) LSU – 105

16. (20) Kansas – 103

17. (NR) Syracuse – 96

18. (15) Miami (Fla.) – 84

19. (NR) NC State – 77

20. (16) Florida – 59

21. (19) Michigan – 53

T22. (4) Georgia Tech – 52

T22. (25) Virginia – 52

24. (22) Baylor – 47

25. (NR) USC – 38

Receiving Votes: Mississippi 29, California 27, Tennessee 27, UCF 25, Auburn 18, Kentucky 15, Wake Forest 12, Oklahoma 10, Arizona State 8, Texas A&M 5, Purdue 3, Tulsa 3

Dropped Out (from 2018): Illinois, Mississippi, Oregon, Tulsa, UCF.

 

In addition to the polls above, each week this space will highlight the former and current American collegians in the ATP's and WTA's Top 300. The below reflects the rankings released on Jan. 28, 2019, with current college players in bold.

 

ATP

No. 9 John Isner (Georgia)

No. 34 Steve Johnson (USC)

No. 75 Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee)

No. 82 Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA)

No. 87 Bradley Klahn (Stanford)

No. 150 Noah Rubin (Wake Forest)

No. 157 Chris Eubanks (Georgia Tech)

No. 247 Marcos Giron (UCLA)

No. 257 JC Aragone (Virginia)

No. 266 Dennis Novikov (UCLA)

No. 267 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia)

No. 291 JJ Wolf (Ohio State)

No. 295 Collin Altamirano (Virginia)

No. 296 Kevin King (Georgia Tech)

No. 297 Alex Sarkissian (Pepperdine)

 

WTA

No. 23 Danielle Collins (Virginia)

No. 117 Jennifer Brady (UCLA)

No. 139 Nicole Gibbs (Stanford)

No. 153 Danielle Lao (USC)

No. 162 Francesca Di Lorenzo (Ohio State)

No. 176 Jamie Loeb (North Carolina)

No. 220 Kristie Ahn (Stanford)

No. 283 Robin Anderson (UCLA)

No. 298 Maria Mateas (Duke)

 

(Photo courtesy of Duke University)