Auburn’s freshman star Jaeda Daniel was highly recruited out of high school after achieving a WTA professional singles ranking as high as 615. She has lived up to the hype and started the spring season 5-0 in singles for the Tigers. The Port Charlotte, Florida native is currently ranked number 49 in the country in singles and will be one of the top players at Blue Gray this year.
Freshman Patrick Kaukovalta is currently ranked as the number two player in Finland. Kaukovalta has been ranked as high as number 108 in the ITF world junior rankings, with titles at the TATS Open, ITF Kramfors Junior Challenge, and Swedish Junior Open. At only 18 years old, Kaukovalta has already achieved an ATP singles ranking and has notable wins over two top 500 players. The Tider was a part of the Finnish Davis Cup team and had the opportunity to play an exhibition point against his idol, Roger Federer, in front of 13,000 people in Helsinki, Finland.
Freshman Megan Bertrands, who hails from Lummen, Belgium, has had a fall season that is turning heads. Megan finished her inaugural fall season ranked 102 in the nation. This is the first time a freshman has been nationally ranked for the Blazers since 1998, and a great accomplishment for a player, who has only been in the U.S. for a few months.
The Rice Owls are led by Sophomore Eric Rutledge, who was last year’s Blue Gray Most Valuable Player. The Fort Worth native and Honor Roll student is the only starter returning from last year’s Blue Gray championship team and is currently undefeated at the number one position for the Owls.
Junior Andie Daniell has been an integral part of the Alabama tennis program since her arrival. She won 34 singles and 32 doubles matches in her first two years. Daniell opened the 2017 fall season ranked number 37 on the ITA preseason list and finished fall play at 9-2, with a win over a top 50 player. This spring season, Daniell has been scorching hot with a 9-1 record in singles at the number one position and a 10-1 mark in doubles play.
Tad Maclean of Cornwall, England has made an immediate impact since arriving at Auburn. He is 7-2 in singles in dual matches so far this year. A top 50 player in Great Britain, this freshman is the second youngest British player to earn a professional ATP point and sports an ITF ranking of 406. Maclean’s biggest tennis moment was winning the Home Nations for England, where England beat Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
Illinois’ Mia Rabinowitz was a top recruit, being ranked 19 in the country according to tennisrecuiting.net. She won the 2017 Maccabi Games in Israel. Playing as a freshman for the Illini, Mia made it to the quarter-finals of the ITA Regional Tournament, has been ranked as high as number 92 in college singles rankings, and was recently named Big 10 Athlete of the Week.
Senior Xander Veys finished last season with an overall record of 20-11 and a dual record of 16-9, playing the number one position, including a ten match winning streak to end the year. Veys was named to the All-Mountain West Singles team and the spring 2017 Academic All-Mountain West Team. Xander has been ranked as high as number 84 in the junior World ITF rankings and number one in Belgium. Veys brings one of the biggest serves in college tennis to Blue Gray.
Wake Forest freshman Eliza Omirou hails from Nicosia, Cyprus, where she was ranked number one in the 16’s, 18’s and Women’s Open divisions. Omirou has played Fed Cup for Cyprus since 2014, when she was just 14 years old. She holds her country’s record for most total wins in Fed Cup competition. In her first college tennis match, she knocked off the number four ranked player in the country!
Michael Geerts is the lone senior on Arizona State’s newly reinstated tennis team. Geerts is from Antwerp, Belgium and is Captain of the Sun Devils squad. He has played tennis in 40 different countries and has been ranked as high as 435 in singles and 390 in doubles on the ATP tour. Michael is an outstanding ball-striker and can hurt his opponent from anywhere on the court. Geerts is one of three Arizona State players currently ranked in the top 100 in college singles.
Freshman Samantha Martinelli has had a great start to her career as a Bulldog. The blue chip recruit out of Las Vegas’s No Quit Tennis Academy won the Bulldog Invitational this fall and has several key wins playing number one for Yale in dual match play. Samantha grew up in Denver, Colorado and loves Marvel movies!
Princeton freshman Ryan Seggerman is a San Diego native, who got off to a hot start this year playing the number one position for the Tigers. He has been ranked as high as 114 in the nation in singles. Seggerman was a highly regarded recruit from Southern California, where he held a number one ranking as a junior in the 12’s, 14’s, 16’s, and 18’s.
Standing at 5’3”, Bianca “Beast Mode” Mok is known to be one of the biggest hitters in college tennis. The Boise, Idaho native has an 80% winning percentage at Denver, was named Conference Freshman of the Year in 2016, and has earned four Conference Player of the Week awards. Only a junior, Bianca has numerous ranked singles wins, including a win over the number one ranked player in college tennis.
Arizona freshman, Igor Karpovets, hails from Kiev, Ukraine, where he represented Ukraine in the Junior Davis Cup. Karpovets has been ranked as high as 152 in the International Tennis Federation Junior rankings and won a doubles Futures title in 2016. Karpovets can speak 3 languages, and when he is not on the court, he enjoys studying Astronomy.
