05-13-2022, 12:40 PM
FYI, Lele gave an interview to Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets and you can hear that interview here:
https://www.tennis.com/news/podcasts/cracked-interviews
A good listen and just 29 minutes if you just skip the general podcast intro that has nothing to do with Stanford and start at the 5:20 mark.
But for those who don't want to spend the time listening, here are the key takeaways:
* On Gordon, Lele thought she'd have her on the team as of last summer, but with Gordon's grad school schedule and working part-time for the company she's going to be working for going forward, there just wasn't enough time. But with injuries to Madurawe and Geller (just what those injuries were is unclear), by the time of Pac-12s, we were down to six healthy players, so Lele went back to Michaela and asked her if she could make it work the rest of the way, and her schedule allowed for it. Gordon had been hitting with the club tennis team, so she's not quite herself, but she's working back into form.
* Ma was adjusting to school/tennis balance in that part of the dual match season where she dropped four in a row, but she's worked through it and Lele thinks she's all systems go right now.
* Yepifanova's potential is through the roof and Lele has really enjoyed working with her so far.
* Blake might be the most improved player, and we need to remember she's still pretty new to the NCAA process given the pandemic interruptions, even though she's a junior. Choy has been impressive as well.
* Lele strongly prefers having the Round of 16 at one final site like it used to be--the additional travel required and the amount of school that's missed by breaking the round of 16 across two weeks is unacceptable to her. The interviewer noted that it creates a great atmosphere for the Round of 16 matches that is somewhat lacking when you have 9:00am matches with a couple dozen people present, and Lele pushed back, saying that's an easy problem to fix--just have NCAAs at a place like the USTA National Tennis Center in Lake Nona, FL that can accommodate 32 teams. Facilities exist that don't require you to shunt matches early or late. Give college tennis a permanent championship home.
https://www.tennis.com/news/podcasts/cracked-interviews
A good listen and just 29 minutes if you just skip the general podcast intro that has nothing to do with Stanford and start at the 5:20 mark.
But for those who don't want to spend the time listening, here are the key takeaways:
* On Gordon, Lele thought she'd have her on the team as of last summer, but with Gordon's grad school schedule and working part-time for the company she's going to be working for going forward, there just wasn't enough time. But with injuries to Madurawe and Geller (just what those injuries were is unclear), by the time of Pac-12s, we were down to six healthy players, so Lele went back to Michaela and asked her if she could make it work the rest of the way, and her schedule allowed for it. Gordon had been hitting with the club tennis team, so she's not quite herself, but she's working back into form.
* Ma was adjusting to school/tennis balance in that part of the dual match season where she dropped four in a row, but she's worked through it and Lele thinks she's all systems go right now.
* Yepifanova's potential is through the roof and Lele has really enjoyed working with her so far.
* Blake might be the most improved player, and we need to remember she's still pretty new to the NCAA process given the pandemic interruptions, even though she's a junior. Choy has been impressive as well.
* Lele strongly prefers having the Round of 16 at one final site like it used to be--the additional travel required and the amount of school that's missed by breaking the round of 16 across two weeks is unacceptable to her. The interviewer noted that it creates a great atmosphere for the Round of 16 matches that is somewhat lacking when you have 9:00am matches with a couple dozen people present, and Lele pushed back, saying that's an easy problem to fix--just have NCAAs at a place like the USTA National Tennis Center in Lake Nona, FL that can accommodate 32 teams. Facilities exist that don't require you to shunt matches early or late. Give college tennis a permanent championship home.