[Jamesy]

I would wager that we see neither Basavareddy nor Yepifanova playing this year.

A question for Colorado Tree or anyone else who may know the answer.

I do not follow tennis and have no real idea of how deep the highschool talent pool is now days.  So how much better is a top 5 talent versus say those ranked around 50 and those around 100?  Is the pool deep enough that the 50th ranked player has a decent chance to beat a top 5 and so on. Thanks in advance for any insight.

Many of the top tennis teams are barely recruiting US high school players. They are mostly recruiting outside the US. As an example, Georgia beat Stanford last year (and made it to the national championship match) with a line up of players from the Czech Republic, Germany, Ecuador, Ukraine, Uruguay and Thailand. North Carolina State beat Stanford in the NCAAs the year before with a team of players from Russia, Maryland, England, Florida, Tennessee and Germany. Oklahoma State went undefeated last year and was top ranked until a surprising Super Regional loss with a team of players from Belarus, Japan, Argentina, Florida, Japan and Slovenia.

I think you could also ask "How do the best players in the US match up against the best players from outside the US?"

In amateur golf, there is a worldwide ranking system so we can see objectively where US players stack up against non-US players. I don't know if there is a similar system for tennis.

Thanks, I was unaware that Tennis and Golf handled things differently.  International players are going to play a role in almost any sport nowdays outside of Football. If rankings do not include similar overseas players, then they are sort of worthless. Anne Walker has figured it out and recruits internationally. Sports like golf, tennis, soccer and probably swimming are pretty much international sports nowdays.  If you want to field the best team you have to recruit internationally. I know Stanford has recruited many international tennis players, but one has to wonder how hard they work at it, when you look at the women's golf team. With the world as recruiting source versus just the USA you can see how hard it might be to stay competitive in many sports unless you join in the international effort in a big way.

I think Stanford relies a lot less on international players than pretty much any other top teams. Both tennis teams usually have just 1-2 international players at most, same with the water polo and golf teams whereas most of the other top teams in those sports have majority or substantial numbers of international players. I think those Stanford teams have been very successful without a heavy international recruiting component to them.

[Jamesy]

I would wager that we see neither Basavareddy nor Yepifanova playing this year.

A question for Colorado Tree or anyone else who may know the answer.

I do not follow tennis and have no real idea of how deep the highschool talent pool is now days.  So how much better is a top 5 talent versus say those ranked around 50 and those around 100?  Is the pool deep enough that the 50th ranked player has a decent chance to beat a top 5 and so on. Thanks in advance for any insight.

Many of the top tennis teams are barely recruiting US high school players. They are mostly recruiting outside the US. As an example, Georgia beat Stanford last year (and made it to the national championship match) with a line up of players from the Czech Republic, Germany, Ecuador, Ukraine, Uruguay and Thailand. North Carolina State beat Stanford in the NCAAs the year before with a team of players from Russia, Maryland, England, Florida, Tennessee and Germany. Oklahoma State went undefeated last year and was top ranked until a surprising Super Regional loss with a team of players from Belarus, Japan, Argentina, Florida, Japan and Slovenia.

I think you could also ask "How do the best players in the US match up against the best players from outside the US?"

In amateur golf, there is a worldwide ranking system so we can see objectively where US players stack up against non-US players. I don't know if there is a similar system for tennis.

Thanks, I was unaware that Tennis and Golf handled things differently.  International players are going to play a role in almost any sport nowdays outside of Football. If rankings do not include similar overseas players, then they are sort of worthless. Anne Walker has figured it out and recruits internationally. Sports like golf, tennis, soccer and probably swimming are pretty much international sports nowdays.  If you want to field the best team you have to recruit internationally. I know Stanford has recruited many international tennis players, but one has to wonder how hard they work at it, when you look at the women's golf team. With the world as recruiting source versus just the USA you can see how hard it might be to stay competitive in many sports unless you join in the international effort in a big way.

I think Stanford relies a lot less on international players than pretty much any other top teams. Both tennis teams usually have just 1-2 international players at most, same with the water polo and golf teams whereas most of the other top teams in those sports have majority or substantial numbers of international players. I think those Stanford teams have been very successful without a heavy international recruiting component to them.