[Sakibomb25]

My point in highlighting the international players on the rosters of other top tennis teams was that recruiting statements such as "Stanford has commitments from 3 of the top 5 recruits" may not be as meaningful as if the rankings included international players.

When Bernard Muir hires a new head women's tennis coach, I hope that he gives consideration to their experience recruiting internationally.

That is an interesting point. Do international tennis players comprise more of the top collegiate players now than in years past? (I have no idea personally). We've been very successful historically in women's tennis, M/W water polo, and more distantly men's tennis, relying mostly on US players. Is part of the reason for our decreased success in men's tennis due to better international players playing in the US or our diminished recruiting prowess with US players? Is our current 5 year (and counting) gap in women's tennis championships for that same reason? We've been selectively successful in getting international women's tennis players over the years (Barnes, Zhao, Arbuthnott) who are key contributors to our lineup.

For women's tennis, we still get the cream of the crop, consistently landing Top 10 players in every class (often multiple Top 10 players). And while the international players have definitely affected the game, the new darling of women's tennis, UNC, had no international players in its championship season two years ago. When Texas won three years ago, they had two international players, with one cracking the doubles and singles line-up.

International players in tennis have long been a cheat code for a lot of universities. When all the top tier universities (i.e. Stanford) are signing all the top American talent, a lot of universities use international players to help build up their program rather quickly. Once you start winning, then you can start attracting the top American talent. A lot of sport due this, but I think it's more prevalent in tennis.

With the men, we are also getting top tier talent, but for whatever reason, it's just not translating. I think the top international talent supersedes the top US talent... otherwise I think Stanford would be doing much better. Than again, in recent years, Stanford has signed top international talent in men's tennis as well.

[Sakibomb25]

My point in highlighting the international players on the rosters of other top tennis teams was that recruiting statements such as "Stanford has commitments from 3 of the top 5 recruits" may not be as meaningful as if the rankings included international players.

When Bernard Muir hires a new head women's tennis coach, I hope that he gives consideration to their experience recruiting internationally.

That is an interesting point. Do international tennis players comprise more of the top collegiate players now than in years past? (I have no idea personally). We've been very successful historically in women's tennis, M/W water polo, and more distantly men's tennis, relying mostly on US players. Is part of the reason for our decreased success in men's tennis due to better international players playing in the US or our diminished recruiting prowess with US players? Is our current 5 year (and counting) gap in women's tennis championships for that same reason? We've been selectively successful in getting international women's tennis players over the years (Barnes, Zhao, Arbuthnott) who are key contributors to our lineup.

For women's tennis, we still get the cream of the crop, consistently landing Top 10 players in every class (often multiple Top 10 players). And while the international players have definitely affected the game, the new darling of women's tennis, UNC, had no international players in its championship season two years ago. When Texas won three years ago, they had two international players, with one cracking the doubles and singles line-up.

International players in tennis have long been a cheat code for a lot of universities. When all the top tier universities (i.e. Stanford) are signing all the top American talent, a lot of universities use international players to help build up their program rather quickly. Once you start winning, then you can start attracting the top American talent. A lot of sport due this, but I think it's more prevalent in tennis.

With the men, we are also getting top tier talent, but for whatever reason, it's just not translating. I think the top international talent supersedes the top US talent... otherwise I think Stanford would be doing much better. Than again, in recent years, Stanford has signed top international talent in men's tennis as well.