10-29-2021, 08:03 AM
I can't help but wish Ma had been pushed a bit more in this tournament, but I think we all got a sense as to why she was the no-doubt #1 recruit in the class. Yepifanova is an incredible talent herself, and she knocked off a top 15 player and the #1 seed in this tournament, but Ma just rolled right over her.
Ma is a unicorn in junior tennis. A sparkling talent, but one who rarely tested that talent against the best. For her family, school--she attended Dublin High School's Biomedical Academy--came first, and there would be no alternatives like online high school or sports academies like other elite players have found to free up more time for training, practice, and tournaments. She was always a student first, and frankly, it's almost unimaginable how she's gotten so good with relatively few matches against other elite players. So, with fewer tournaments, eventually she didn't qualify for the rankings, even though everyone knew that Connie Ma was still the best.
And that foolishness led the ITA to leave her off the newcomer rankings, where Cal's Alsola ranked 7th and Yepifanova ranked 8th. But it's not like Ma forgot how to play tennis, folks. In June, when Stanford's incoming class became the first unanimous #1 class in the 15-year history of the Tennis Recruiting Network rankings, her UTR (Universal Tennis Ranking, a number that increases when you beat good players and decreases when you lose to worse ones) stood at 11.87. The next-highest? Yepifanova at 11.62. And then only a handful of other players before you get to Xu at 11.31. Tennis folks knew. It's more than a little mind-boggling that the ITA ignored her.
Excited for Fall Nationals and to see what these two can do there. When the final fall rankings come out (usually mid-November to take into account Fall Nationals), you'll see their names on there.
Ma is a unicorn in junior tennis. A sparkling talent, but one who rarely tested that talent against the best. For her family, school--she attended Dublin High School's Biomedical Academy--came first, and there would be no alternatives like online high school or sports academies like other elite players have found to free up more time for training, practice, and tournaments. She was always a student first, and frankly, it's almost unimaginable how she's gotten so good with relatively few matches against other elite players. So, with fewer tournaments, eventually she didn't qualify for the rankings, even though everyone knew that Connie Ma was still the best.
And that foolishness led the ITA to leave her off the newcomer rankings, where Cal's Alsola ranked 7th and Yepifanova ranked 8th. But it's not like Ma forgot how to play tennis, folks. In June, when Stanford's incoming class became the first unanimous #1 class in the 15-year history of the Tennis Recruiting Network rankings, her UTR (Universal Tennis Ranking, a number that increases when you beat good players and decreases when you lose to worse ones) stood at 11.87. The next-highest? Yepifanova at 11.62. And then only a handful of other players before you get to Xu at 11.31. Tennis folks knew. It's more than a little mind-boggling that the ITA ignored her.
Excited for Fall Nationals and to see what these two can do there. When the final fall rankings come out (usually mid-November to take into account Fall Nationals), you'll see their names on there.