07-25-2022, 12:58 PM
Always nice to have them signed, sealed, and delivered, that's for sure. Here's what I wrote about Blokhina and Sun back in May:
* In terms of what's coming in the door, we have the #2 class in the nation (behind USC, unfortunately). Alexis Blokhina is currently the #6 recruit in the country (has peaked as high as #4 in the class), and Emma Sun has charged up the rankings year by year, and she's now the #11 recruit (having peaked at 10).
* First, Blokhina. She's a hard-hitting lefty even though she's not super tall. She's compact but powerful, a little reminiscent of Caroline Lampl when Lampl was at her best. She's currently the 32nd-ranked junior in the world, having peaked a few weeks ago at 25th. That's nearly 20 spots higher than her previous career high, and the reason why is she just won the Easter Bowl, one of the preeminent junior tennis tournaments in the country. She did it in exciting fashion, too, knocking off UNC-bound Reese Brantmeier, who is arguably the top recruit in the country this year, in a third-set tiebreaker. She's 1-1 in her career against our own Alexandra Yepifanova, beating Sasha 6-2, 6-4 in March of 2021. She lost in three sets to Valencia Xu last August, around the same time she was partnering with Xu at the U.S. Open girls' tournament. She has some three-set wins against some top NCAA competitors, including a win over UGA's Mell Reasco, who mostly played #2 for Georgia this year but took over the #1 spot as a freshman down the stretch for the Bulldogs, though that win is aging a bit, coming in February 2020. In the $25K Sarasota tournament last week, she knocked off Adriana Reami in three sets (Reami just finished up a terrific career at NC State a year ago, where she finished as the program's all-time leader in singles wins, playing in the top half of the lineup her whole career (mostly at #3 singles). She has a few three-set losses against elite NCAA players like South Carolina's Sara Hamner and Iowa's Alexa Noel. When she was 13, she became the youngest-ever Florida 18U state champion. She's got an interesting tennis profile, as she lacks a lot of history against other American blue chip recruits, but unlike Ma, it's because she has been playing a ton of international competition, focusing on European ITF junior tournaments. Seems like she's intent on a pro career, so she may be a risk to move on early, but perhaps she reconsiders when she doesn't vault over Ma and Yepifanova in our lineup.
* Looking at Emma Sun, she has something of a Ma-like profile in that she focused on high school tennis to the exclusion of a lot of tournament play. Unlike Blokhina (who is very active on Instagram), Sun's instagram profile gives little hint she's an elite tennis player. Just six posts, three of which are related to high-level piano competitions, and just one related to tennis--her Stanford commitment post. Looking at this old LA Times article, she seems like she's close to the platonic ideal of a Stanford student-athlete, where school and music often come first: https://www.latimes.com/sports/highschoo...nd-a-stage . I wouldn't expect her to come in and play near the top of the lineup by any means, but she strikes me as a player who has a lot of untapped potential and someone who could climb in the lineup as she devotes more of her life to tennis. But my current expectations from her are slightly higher than I had for Choy coming in.
If we think about where they slot in, here's what I'd do in singles:
1. Connie Ma (So.)
2. Alexandra Yepifanova (So.)
3. Angelica Blake (Sr.)
4. Valencia Xu (So.)
5. Alexis Blokhina (Fr.)
6. Ana Geller (Jr.)
Bench: India Houghton (Jr.), Emma Sun (Fr.)
There's a lot more uncertainty in the back half of the lineup than there normally is. If Geller comes back healthy and in form, she could not only play #4 but dominate at that line. But we didn't see her healthy or in form last year. The ordering of Xu and Blokhina in the lineup is also very much in up the air, but I'd give the edge to Xu there. So much will depend on how they look this fall, tournament play from now until early January, and who has taken a jump in development. Sun is a wild card, too--so much less competition against elite players than we usually see, so once she's on campus, we could see her development take off like a rocket.
* In terms of what's coming in the door, we have the #2 class in the nation (behind USC, unfortunately). Alexis Blokhina is currently the #6 recruit in the country (has peaked as high as #4 in the class), and Emma Sun has charged up the rankings year by year, and she's now the #11 recruit (having peaked at 10).
* First, Blokhina. She's a hard-hitting lefty even though she's not super tall. She's compact but powerful, a little reminiscent of Caroline Lampl when Lampl was at her best. She's currently the 32nd-ranked junior in the world, having peaked a few weeks ago at 25th. That's nearly 20 spots higher than her previous career high, and the reason why is she just won the Easter Bowl, one of the preeminent junior tennis tournaments in the country. She did it in exciting fashion, too, knocking off UNC-bound Reese Brantmeier, who is arguably the top recruit in the country this year, in a third-set tiebreaker. She's 1-1 in her career against our own Alexandra Yepifanova, beating Sasha 6-2, 6-4 in March of 2021. She lost in three sets to Valencia Xu last August, around the same time she was partnering with Xu at the U.S. Open girls' tournament. She has some three-set wins against some top NCAA competitors, including a win over UGA's Mell Reasco, who mostly played #2 for Georgia this year but took over the #1 spot as a freshman down the stretch for the Bulldogs, though that win is aging a bit, coming in February 2020. In the $25K Sarasota tournament last week, she knocked off Adriana Reami in three sets (Reami just finished up a terrific career at NC State a year ago, where she finished as the program's all-time leader in singles wins, playing in the top half of the lineup her whole career (mostly at #3 singles). She has a few three-set losses against elite NCAA players like South Carolina's Sara Hamner and Iowa's Alexa Noel. When she was 13, she became the youngest-ever Florida 18U state champion. She's got an interesting tennis profile, as she lacks a lot of history against other American blue chip recruits, but unlike Ma, it's because she has been playing a ton of international competition, focusing on European ITF junior tournaments. Seems like she's intent on a pro career, so she may be a risk to move on early, but perhaps she reconsiders when she doesn't vault over Ma and Yepifanova in our lineup.
* Looking at Emma Sun, she has something of a Ma-like profile in that she focused on high school tennis to the exclusion of a lot of tournament play. Unlike Blokhina (who is very active on Instagram), Sun's instagram profile gives little hint she's an elite tennis player. Just six posts, three of which are related to high-level piano competitions, and just one related to tennis--her Stanford commitment post. Looking at this old LA Times article, she seems like she's close to the platonic ideal of a Stanford student-athlete, where school and music often come first: https://www.latimes.com/sports/highschoo...nd-a-stage . I wouldn't expect her to come in and play near the top of the lineup by any means, but she strikes me as a player who has a lot of untapped potential and someone who could climb in the lineup as she devotes more of her life to tennis. But my current expectations from her are slightly higher than I had for Choy coming in.
If we think about where they slot in, here's what I'd do in singles:
1. Connie Ma (So.)
2. Alexandra Yepifanova (So.)
3. Angelica Blake (Sr.)
4. Valencia Xu (So.)
5. Alexis Blokhina (Fr.)
6. Ana Geller (Jr.)
Bench: India Houghton (Jr.), Emma Sun (Fr.)
There's a lot more uncertainty in the back half of the lineup than there normally is. If Geller comes back healthy and in form, she could not only play #4 but dominate at that line. But we didn't see her healthy or in form last year. The ordering of Xu and Blokhina in the lineup is also very much in up the air, but I'd give the edge to Xu there. So much will depend on how they look this fall, tournament play from now until early January, and who has taken a jump in development. Sun is a wild card, too--so much less competition against elite players than we usually see, so once she's on campus, we could see her development take off like a rocket.