Part I of NCAA Roundtable; Final Pre-Tournament D-I Rankings Include New No. 1; Big-12, Ivy, Pac-12 Men's Conference Awards; Jovic and Urhobo Advance at Bonita Springs W100; US Teens McNeil, Quan and Woestendick Reach Pro Circuit Quarterfinals

I've been contributing to the Tennis Recruiting Network's NCAA Division I roundtable every year at this time since 2007, and the research necessary to answer the questions posed always leaves me better prepared for the tournament, as does the insight of the others who contribute. In today's Part I, we offer our best story lines of the season, and what Super Regional matchups we're looking forward to. Part II, with possible upsets and dark horses, and championship predictions will be published on Friday.

The final pre-NCAA rankings were released today, and although we got a glimpse of them on Monday and Tuesday with the team and individual selections, the NCAA seedings do not follow them. 

In the men's team rankings, No. 3 Texas and No. 2 Virginia were swapped in the NCAA seedings, and No. 16 South Carolina saw No. 17 Texas A&M jump two spaces in front of them to get the opportunity to host the first two rounds. This is all done automatically, via the criteria that has been in place for years, which can be found here.

Men's Team Top 17 May 2, 2024:

1. Ohio State
2. Virginia
3. Texas
4. TCU
5. Kentucky
6. Wake Forest
7. Tennessee
8. Columbia
9. Arizona
10. Florida State
11. Oklahoma
12. Harvard
13. Duke
14. NC State
15. Mississippi State
16. South Carolina
17. Texas A&M

In the women's team rankings, No. 6 Virginia is seeded No. 5, with No. 5 Pepperdine dropping to 6, and No. 14 NC State and No. 15 Florida switched places due to this mandatory adjustment procedure.

Women's Team Top 16 May 2, 2024:

1. Oklahoma State
2. Stanford
3. Michigan
4. North Carolina
5. Pepperdine
6. Virginia
7. Georgia
8. UCLA
9. Texas
10. Cal
11. Southern Cal
12. Ohio State
13. Texas A&M
14. NC State
15. Florida
16. Tennessee

This same criteria is used in the singles and doubles seeding, and there were three changes in the top eight of the men's seedings. No. 4 Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc is the No. 3 seed, switching spots with Chris Rodesch; Toby Samuel is the No. 5 seed, switching spots with Micah Braswell, who is undefeated this year at line 2, and No. 8 Oliver Tarvet is elevated above No. 7 Jake Fearnley.

The obvious lesson from this is that you need to play No. 1 for your team to avoid being downgraded, with Braswell and Fearnley both feeling the impact of being at line 2.

As we suspected from Tuesday's seeding, Johannus Monday has taken over the No. 1 spot from Eliot Spizzirri, but he is No. 1 in both the rankings and the seedings.

Men's Singles

1. Johannus Monday, Tennessee

2. Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

3. Chris Rodesch, Virginia

4. Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State

5. Micah Braswell, Texas

6. Toby Samuel, South Carolina

7. Jake Fearnley, TCU

8. Oliver Tarvet, San Diego

9. Ozan Baris, Michigan State

10. Alex Martinez, Oklahoma State

11. Murphy Cassone, Arizona State

12. Andres Martin, Georgia Tech

13. Jack Pinnington Jones, TCU

14. Radu Papoe, Cornell

15. Cooper Williams, Harvard

16. Nishesh Basavareddy, Stanford

The women's singles had just one adjustment, with Alexa Noel, No. 10 in singles, moving to No 8. in the seedings (No. 4 Reese Brantmeier is not in the NCAA singles field) over No. 9 Carolyn Ansari, who was bumped to a 9-16 seed. 

Women's Singles

1. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

2. Amelia Rajecki, NC State

3. Ange Oby Karjuru, Oklahoma State

4. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

5. Kari Miller, Michigan

6. Fiona Crawley, North Carolina

7. Connie Ma, Stanford

8. Rachel Gailis, Florida

9. Carolyn Ansari, Auburn

10. Alexa Noel, Miami

11. Ayana Akli, South Carolina

12. Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine

13. Celia-Belle Mohr, Vanderbilt

14. Sofia Caezas, Tennessee

15. Lisa Zaar, Pepperdine

16. Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia

17. Irina Cantos Siemers, Ohio State

There were also changes in doubles, a minor one in men's, with Robert Cash and JJ Tracy, No. 3 in the rankings, switched to the No. 4 seed, with No. 4 Joshua Lapadat and JJ Mercer moving to the No. 3 seed. 

The change is the women's doubles was more significant, with Melodie Collard and Elaine Chervinsky, ranked No. 8, losing the No. 8 and final seed to ninth-ranked Kari Miller and Jaeden Brown. I don't know what is going to happen to the No. 1 seed, with Brantmeier out for the season, but it would be brutal if Scotty was not able to play doubles, having made two finals and won a championship in 2021.

Women's Doubles

1. Elizabeth Scotty and Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

2. Janice Tjen and Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine

3. Ange Oby Kajuru and Anastasiya Komar, Oklahoma State

4. Alina Shcherbinina and Dana Guzman, Oklahoma

5. Metka Komac and Avelina Sayfetdinova, Texas Tech

6. Fiona Crawley and Carson Tanguilig, North Carolina

7. Mary Stoiana and Mia Kupres, Texas A&M

8. Melodie Collard and Elaine Chervinsky, Virginia

9. Jaedan Brown and Kari Miller, Michigan

Men's Doubles

1. Garrett Johns and Pedro Rodenas, Duke

2. DK Suresh and Holden Koons, Wake Forest

3. Robert Cash and JJ Tracy, Ohio State

4. Joshua Lapadat and JJ Mercer, Kentucky

5. Inaki Montes and James Hopper, Virginia

6. Sebastian Dominiko and Jean Marc Malkowski, Notre Dame

7. Johannus Monday and Angel Diaz Tennessee

8. Etienne Donnet and Natan Rodrigues, Louisville

The tournament begins tomorrow morning with men's first round matches. See collegetennisranks.com for the schedules and links to scoring. Cracked Racquets will be providing its CrossCourt coverage on YouTube.

Approved lineups for the 64 men's teams are here; for the 64 women's teams click here.

Five more conference awards announcements were made in the past two days, with the Ivy League, Big 12 and Pac-12 men posting their awards and all-conference teams. With those that were released last week, only the ACC women and the Pac-12 women have not yet announced.

May 1, 2024

Ivy League Men's Awards

Player of the Year: Radu Papoe, Cornell

Rookie of the Year: Paul Inchauspe, Princeton

Coach of the Year: Howard Endelman, Columbia

May 2, 2024

Ivy League Women's Awards

Player of the Year: Esha Velaga, Penn

Rookie of the Year: Esha Velaga, Penn

Coach of the Year: Jamea Jackson, Princeton

Pac-12 Men's Awards

Player of the Year: Nishesh Basavareddy, Stanford

Freshman/Newcomer of the Year: Spencer Johnson, UCLA

Doubles Team of the Year: Colton Smith and Jay Friend, Arizona

Coach of the Year: Clancy Shields, Arizona

Big 12 Men's Awards

Player of the Year: Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

Freshman of the Year: Gilles Arnaud Bailly, Texas

Newcomer of the Year: Jonah Braswell, Texas

Coach of the Year: Bruce Berque, Texas

Big 12 Women's Awards

Player of the Year: Ange Oby Kajuru Oklahoma State

Freshman of the Year: Olivia Lincer, Central Florida

Newcomer of the Year: Anastasiya Komar, Oklahoma State

Coach of the Year: Chris Young, Oklahoma State

It was another fantastic day for young Americans at the USTA Pro Circuit tournaments in Florida, with six of them advancing to the quarterfinals of the three events.

Qualifier Iva Jovic and wild card Akasha Urhobo advanced in contrasting fashion at the W100 in Bonita Springs, with the 16-year-old Jovic cruising past 2015 NCAA singles champion Jamie Loeb(North Carolina) 6-1, 6-3, while the 17-year-old Urhobo defeated qualifier Whitney Osuigwe 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3). 

Jovic will face 18-year-old Maya Joint of Australia in Friday's quarterfinals, with Joint, who is up to 230 in the WTA live rankings, beating Liv Hovde 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-1. Urhobo wlll face No. 2 seed Lulu Sun(Texas) of Switzerland in the quarterfinals.

Louisa Chirico kept her winning streak going, with last week's Charlottesville W75 champion advancing to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-1 win over qualifier Emily Appleton of Great Britain. In order to keep her hopes for the USTA Roland Garros wild card alive, she will need to beat No. 3 seed Ann Li, who holds a 3-0 advantage in their head-to-head.

Christasha McNeil defeated fellow qualifier Ariana Pursoo 6-2, 6-2 in the second round of the W35 in Boca Raton and will face another qualifier, fellow teen Mayu Crossley of Japan in the quarterfinals. Crossley defeated No. 3 seed Hiroko Kuwata of Japan 6-2, 6-0. Crossley defeated McNeil 7-6 in the third in their 2022 first round match at the ITF J300 in College Park.

A third teenager, 19-year-old Kayla Cross of Canada, the No. 7 seed, has also reached the quarterfinals.

No. 5 seed Angella Okutoyi of Kenya, the sophomore at Auburn, won again today and will face top seed Allie Kiick in the quarterfinals. She will not be able to compete with her team in the first round of the NCAAs tomorrow.

At the $15,000 men's tournament in Orange Park, Cooper Woestendick and Rudy Quan advanced to the quarterfinals. Wild card Quan, who reached the quarterfinals last week in Vero Beach, advanced via a walkover from Jonas Pelle Hartenstein of Germany, while Woestendick made his first Pro Circuit quarterfinal with a 7-5, 7-6(5) win over No. 6 seed Will Grant(Florida). Woestendick will play another former Gator in the quarterfinals, No. 4 seed Duarte Vale of Portugal. Quan will play Vale's teammate, No. 2 seed Andres Andrade of Ecuador, who beat the 18-year-old UCLA recruit 6-0, 6-1 in the first round of a $15K last fall in Las Vegas.

Jovic Beats Top Seed Day at Bonita Springs W100, Urhobo Reaches Second Round; First ATP Points for Meecah Bigun, Matisse Farzam at Orange Park $15K; McNeil Posts First Pro Win at Boca Raton W35

This week's USTA Pro Circuit tournaments have drawn scores of juniors to the Har-Tru in Florida, with the women competing at a W100 in Bonita Springs and a W35 in Boca Raton and the men at another $15K, this time in Orange Park.

Sixteen-year-old Iva Jovic, competing for the first time since she won the ITF J300 in San Diego in March, qualified for the Bonita Springs main draw with a 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 win over WTA No. 341 Kateryna Volodko of Ukraine yesterday. Today, she got what is by far her biggest win on the Pro Circuit, taking down top seed and WTA 84 Kayla Day 6-2, 6-4. It's Jovic's first WTA Top 100 win; her only other match against a WTA Top 100 player came in the qualifying of Indian Wells this year, where she lost to Taylor Townsend 6-1, 6-2.  Jovic will face Jamie Loeb(North Carolina) in the second round Thursday.

Seventeen-year-old Akasha Urhobo, who like Jovic is currently ranked in the WTA Top 600, received a wild card into Bonita Springs and played her first round match yesterday. She defeated No. 8 seed and WTA 244 Varvara Lepchenko 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to advance to a second round meeting with qualifier Whitney Osuigwe. Urhobo, who made the semifinals and final of two W35s last month, is still in the running for the USTA Roland Garros Wild Card, although she would have to win the title this week to pass current leader Sachia Vickery. 

Louisa Chirico, who won the Charlottesville W75 last week, has to reach the semifinals to pass Vickery. She won her first round match over No. 5 seed Valentini Grammatikopoulou of Greece today 7-5, 7-5 and will play qualifier Emily Appleton of Great Britain in the second round Thursday. 

Eighteen-year-old Liv Hovde is also still mathematically alive for the Roland Garros wild card, having won the Boca Raton W35 two weeks ago. She also needs a title to catch Vickery; she beat No. 7 seed Justina Mikulskyte(Kentucky) of Lithuania 7-6(2), 6-3 today and will play 17-year-old Maya Joint of Australia next. 

With Bonita Springs going on at the same time, the field for the Boca Raton W35 isn't as strong as it normally would be, with No. 675 Jaeda Daniel(Auburn/NC State) the No. 8 seed. She lost in the first round today to 18-year-old qualifier Ariana Pursoo 6-2, 6-2, with Pursoo picking up her second win on the USTA Pro Circuit. The University of Texas signee won her first main draw Pro Circuit match last month at the W35 in Mississippi. 

Pursoo will face fellow New Yorker Christasha McNeil in the second round, after the 17-year-old McNeil earned her first win on the Pro Circuit as a qualifier. McNeil, who received a wild card into qualifying, defeated WTA No. 706 Berta Bonardi of Argentina 6-2, 6-4 today. McNeil had shown that she has the level to compete on the Pro Circuit when she held match points on WTA Top 100 player Bernarda Pera in the Indian Wells women's qualifying before falling 7-6 in the third. 

Two other teenaged wild cards won their opening matches today, with 17-year-old Kate Fakih beating Louise Kwong(Illinois) of Canada 6-4, 6-4 and 15-year-old Shannon Lam defeating Maria Kononova(North Texas) of Russia 6-0, 6-3. UCLA recruit Mayu Crossley of Japan also qualified and reached the second round, with Marine Partaud of France retiring trailing 6-1, 4-1. She next plays No. 3 seed Hiroko Kuwata of Japan, who at age 33 is nearly twice her age.

Auburn sophomore Angella Okutoyi of Kenya is the No. 5 seed in Boca Raton, and she is trying to earn a spot in the Olympics, which she can do, as the African Games champion, if she can get her WTA ranking to 400 by June 10. Currently at 549, every point matters, but Auburn is playing in the NCAA regionals Friday and Saturday at Cal, so her continued success this week would be bittersweet for her team. After beating wild card Claire An 6-4, 6-3 today, she plays qualifier Lilian Poling(Boise State/Mississippi State) Thursday and then perhaps top seed Allie Kiick in the quarterfinals.

The last two $15Ks have proven very productive for American junior boys, with Mitchell Lee and Cooper Woestendick picking up their first ATP points last week in Vero Beach, and qualifiers Matisse Farzam and Meecah Bigun getting their first ATP points with wins today in Orange Park.

The 17-year-old Farzam, who has verbally committed to Ohio State, defeated Ryan Dickerson(Duke, Baylor) 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 in three hours and 11 minutes for his first point. Seventeen-year-old Meecah Bigun, the twin brother of Kaylan and a Princeton recruit, beat fellow qualifier Lucas Castillo Sanchez, a St. Mary's(Texas) recruit, 6-2, 6-3.  Bigun faces top seed Corentin Denolly of France in Thursday's second round, Farzam will play No. 4 seed and former Florida star Duarte Vale of Portugal.

Woestendick earned his second ATP point today, beating Drew Van Orderlain 6-3, 6-1 and will play No. 6 seed Will Grant(Florida). Wild card Rudy Quan continued to have success; after reaching the quarterfinals last week in Vero Beach, the 18-year-old UCLA signee defeated Vero Beach finalist and No. 5 seed Victor Lilov 6-4, 6-4. His opponent in the second round is Jonas Pelle Hartenstein of Germany.

Andres Andrade(Florida) of Ecuador has gone from the Savannah Challenger 75 final Sunday to this $15K, where he is the No. 2 seed.

Tennessee's Monday, Texas A&M's Stoiana No. 1 as NCAA D-I Singles and Doubles Fields and Seeds Announced; Roland Garros Junior Championships Acceptances Include 13 Americans

The NCAA Division I fields were announced today for the singles and doubles championships next month in Stillwater Oklahoma, with the seeds also revealed. Every player listed below has now earned All-American status by virtue of receiving a seed. Those not seeded can earn All-American status by reaching the third round in the tournament or by finishing in the Top 20 of the ITA's final rankings.

In the men's singles rankings, Johannus Monday of Tennessee has overtaken Eliot Spizzirri of Texas for the No. 1 seed, and Spizzirri, who reached the doubles final last year with Cleeve Harper, is currently an alternate with Harper, the 2022 NCAA doubles champion, in doubles.

No. 1 Ohio State has no seeds in the men's singles, and 2023 singles quarterfinalist Alex Bernard did not qualify. The North Carolina women have five participants in singles, with Fiona Crawley the only seed. As was the case last year, the No. 1 seed in the women's singles will be playing No. 2 on her team. That was Crawley last year and will be Mary Stoiana this year, with Reese Brantmeier and Carson Branstine playing at the No. 1 positions in the team tournaments.

I checked the Newcomer rankings from last fall to see how many of those 10 players made the 64-player draw. Four men are in the field: Dylan Dietrich(Virginia), Edward Winter(Pepperdine), Cooper Williams(Harvard) and Jeremy Jin(Florida). Just two women on the Newcomer list are currently in the field: Luciana Perry(Ohio State) and Alexandra Vecic(Georgia). Williams is the only one seeded. 2023 Kalamazoo finalist Trevor Svajda, who started at SMU in January, is in the field as a freshman, as is 2023 Orange Bowl champion Danil Panarin of Vanderbilt, who also started in January. Esha Velaga of Penn is a freshman who made the women's field. If there are other freshmen I've overlooked, please let me know.

Reese Brantmeier of North Carolina, who is out for the season, is still listed as No. 1 in the women's doubles seedings; maybe this is due to the automatic nature of her selection, as she and Scotty remained the highest-ranked team in the ACC.

Defending NCAA women's singles champion Fangran Tian of UCLA is not seeded.

The complete list of women's selections is here. The complete list of men's selections is here.

2024 NCAA Division I Seeds:

WOMEN:

Singles:

1. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

2. Amelia Rajecki, NC State

3. Ange Oby Kajuru, Oklahoma State

4. Kari Miller, Michigan

5. Fiona Crawley, North Carolina

6. Connie Ma, Stanford

7. Rachel Gailis, Florida

8. Alexa Noel, Miami

9-16 seeds, alphabetical

Ayana Akli, South Carolina

Carolyn Ansari, Auburn

Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine

Sofia Cabezas, Tennessee

Celia-Belle Mohr, Vanderbilt

Irina Cantos Siemers, Ohio State

Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia

Lisa Zaar, Pepperdine

Doubles:

1. Reese Brantmeier & Elizabeth Scotty, North Carolina

2. Savannah Broadus & Janice Tjen, Pepperdine

3. Ange Oby Kajuru & Anastasiya Komar, Oklahoma State

4. Dana Guzman & Alina Shcherbinina, Oklahoma

5-8 seeds, alphabetical by institution:

Jaedan Brown & Kari Miller, Michigan

Fiona Crawley & Carson Tanguilig, North Carolina

Mia Kupres & Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

Metka Komac & Avelina Sayfetdinova, Texas Tech

MEN:

Singles:

1. Johannus Monday, Tennessee

2. Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

3. Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State

4. Chris Rodesch, Virginia

5. Toby Samuel, South Carolina

6. Micah Braswell, Texas

7. Oliver Tarvet, San Diego

8. Jake Fearnley, TCU

9-16 seeds alphabetical:

Ozan Baris, Michigan State

Nishesh Basavareddy, Stanford

Murphy Cassone, Arizona State

Andres Martin, Georgia Tech

Alex Martinez, Oklahoma

Radu Papoe, Cornell

Jack Pinnington Jones, TCU

Cooper Williams, Harvard

Doubles:

1. Garrett Johns, Pedro Rodenas - Duke

2. Holden Koons, Dhakshineswar Suresh - Wake Forest

3. Joshua Lapadat, JJ Mercer - Kentucky

4. Robert Cash, JJ Tracy - Ohio State

5-8 seeds alphabetical by institution:

Etienne Donnet, Natan Rodrigues - Louisville

Sebastian Dominko, Jean Marc Malkowski - Notre Dame

Angel Diaz, Johannus Monday - Tennessee

James Hopper, Inaki Montes de la Torre - Virginia

The times for this weekend's first two rounds have been posted, with the women's here and the men's here. I've spotted at least one error, so make sure you double check the school's website if you are following a particular team. All men's first round matches are Friday and second round Saturday; some women play Friday and Saturday, while other women's regionals have Saturday-Sunday dates. Cracked Racquets will be providing CrossCourt coverage this weekend on their YouTube Channel.

The acceptances for the Roland Garros Junior Championships were posted today, with eight US boys and five US girls in the main draw.

As is always the case for Roland Garros, the fields are strong, with nine of the top 10 boys and eight of the top 10 girls entering. The boy missing is No. 4 Joao Fonseca of Brazil, now up to 225 in the ATP live rankings; the two Top 19 girls missing are, like Fonseca, junior slam champions: 2023 Australian and Roland Garros girls champion Alina Korneeva of Russia, who has just had surgery, and 2023 Wimbledon champion Clervie Ngounoue. 

Both of this year's Australian Open champions have entered: No. 1 Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia and No. 2 Rei Sakamoto of Japan.

The US boys in the main draw: Kaylan Bigun, Cooper Woestendick, Jack Kennedy, Ian Mayew, Maxwell Exsted, Jagger Leach, Alexander Razeghi and Roy Horovitz.  The US girls in the main draw: Tyra Grant, Kaitlyn Rolls, Iva Jovic, Kristina Penickova and Thea Frodin. 

US players in qualifying are Matthew Forbes, Kase Schinnerer, Nikita Filin, Noah Johnston, Shannon Lam, Kate Fakih, Christasha McNeil, Monika Ekstrand and Mia Slama.

The boys cutoff for the main draw was 47; for the girls main draw it was 50. For qualifying, the boys cutoff was 73 and the girls 78.

There are two boys main draw entries that are showing not their ATP ranking but the World Tennis Number as the basis for their acceptance. Lorenzo Carboni of Italy(ATP 707) and Mae Malige(ATP 737) have high enough ATP rankings (top 750) to make the main draw under the previous rules in place; I don't see anything in the Rules and Regulations that changes that to World Tennis Number.

The same goes for Victoria Mboko of Canada, who is 338 in the WTA rankings; any girls with a ranking of 400 or better is accepted into the main draw. Mboko played her first competitive match this year at the end of March in qualifying at a W75 in France, but has not played since.

There is one girls main draw acceptance, Anna Maria Fedotova of the Dominican Republic, via this ITF regulation:

In addition, if any region – South America; North America; Central America and Caribbean; Europe; Asia; Africa; and Oceania - does not have any players accepted under a) or b) above, the highest ranked entrant from that region shall be accepted for main draw if their ranking is 80 or higher or qualifying if their ranking is 150 or higher.

Fedotova is currently 71 in the ITF junior rankings. Joaquin Guilleme of Nicaragua is 86 in the ITF junior rankings, so he received entry into the qualifying. 

Ohio State Men, Oklahoma State Women Head into This Weekend's NCAA Team Championships as Top Seeds; Moreno De Alboran Wins USTA's Roland Garros Wild Card; Gardality Reaches Final at IMG's Future Stars U12 Event

The NCAA Division I tennis committee released the brackets for the 2024 Team Championships tonight on ncaa.com, with the Ohio State men and Oklahoma State women the top seeds going into this weekend's first two rounds at 16 regional sites.

The complicated process by which the committee selects those top 16 (and top eight, who will have an opportunity to host a SuperRegional) means that the rankings that come out Thursday will not match the seeds below. The No. 17 Texas A&M men won the tiebreaker the committee uses, and will host over No. 16 South Carolina, who just reached the SEC conference tournament final.  That was the most significant departure from the rankings, but there were two changes to the women's positions as well, with Virginia moving from 6 to 5, switching with Pepperdine, and No. 15 Florida switching with No. 14 North Carolina State.

As always, thanks are in order to Chris Halioris at CollegeTennisRanks.com for providing the projections prior to the selection show. Once again, he had the 16 men's and women's hosts and the last teams to make the tournament exactly right, which reduces the anxiety for everyone as they watch the selecton show.

NCAA D-I Men's Seeds

1. Ohio State
2. Texas
3. Virginia
4. TCU
5. Kentucky
6. Wake Forest
7. Tennessee
8. Columbia
9. Arizona
10. Florida State
11. Oklahoma
12. Harvard
13. Duke
14. NC State
15. Texas A&M
16. Mississippi State

NCAA D-I Women's Seeds

1. Oklahoma State

2. Stanford

3. Michigan

4. North Carolina

5. Virginia

6. Pepperdine

7. Georgia

8. UCLA

9. Texas

10. Cal

11. Southern Cal

12. Ohio State

13. Texas A&M

14. Florida

15. NC State

16. Tennessee

The details of the regionals will be forthcoming; if you have an opportunity, try to attend one in your area.  

The men's bracket is here; the women's bracket is here.

I will be making my annual contribution to the Tennis Recruiting Network NCAA Roundtable later this week, and will link to that when it is published.

The selections for the singles and doubles tournament, the last one that will be combined with the team event for at least two years, will be announced Tuesday.

The USTA officially confirmed today that former UC-Santa Barbara All-American Nicolas Moreno de Alboran has won its annual Roland Garros wild card Challenge and will be competing in the main draw in Paris for the first time next month.  The women's race, in its last week, is still up for grabs, with two WTA 125s in Europe that have US women entered, as well as the USTA Pro Circuit W100 in Bonita Springs, likely to produce more points for the top contenders.

Men's Standings -- Final (current ranking in parentheses)
1. Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (138) -- 75
2. Mitchell Krueger (239) -- 63
3. Michael Mmoh (114) -- 50

Women's Standings -- One Week Remaining
1. Sachia Vickery (129) -- 110
2. Robin Montgomery (183) -- 83
3. Louisa Chirico (283) -- 76
4. Shelby Rogers (352) -- 67
5. Hailey Baptiste (110) -- 60
6. Katrina Scott (407) -- 58
7. Katie Volynets (105) -- 57

The IMG Future Stars event in Athens Greece, now in its third year, was earlier on the calendar than the previous two years, with the competition for 12-and-under players concluding on Sunday.

The United States had four boys and one girl competing in the tournament: Camelot Carnello, Liam Dent, Rex Kulman, Daniel Gardality and Christina Li. Gardality, 11, reached the final, where he lost to Yanru Li of China 6-1, 6-4.

Another 11-year-old from China, Ketong Guo, won the girls title, beating Elizaveta Anikina of Estonia 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the final. 

More detalis on the tournament, including the many seminars and activities included, and the visit from top ATP pros Holger Rune and Francisco Cerundolo, can be found in this Tennis Europe article.

Penickovas, Leach Earn ITF J300 Titles in Malaysia, Rolls Wins Doubles at J500 Offenbach; Johns, Chirico Claim USTA Pro Circuit Titles; Arizona Men Win Pac-12; Michigan Women and Ohio State Men Defend Big Ten Titles; NCAA Selection Shows Monday

While I was focused on the J500 in Offenbach Germany and the J100 in Delray Beach this past week, I completely missed the title runs by American juniors at the J300 in Malaysia.

Fourteen-year-old Kristina Penickova swept the singles and doubles titles in Kuching, with the top seed earning her first J300 title in singles after making two finals earlier this year at that level in Costa Rica and San Diego. She defeated 15-year-old Kanon Sawashiro of Japan, the No. 13 seed, 6-2, 6-0 in the final, and didn't lose more than three games in any of the 10 sets she won. Kristina and twin sister Annika won the doubles title, their sixth on the ITF Junior Circuit and the biggest, with the top seeds defeating No. 2 seeds Reina Goto of Japan and Junhan Zhang of China 6-0, 6-1 in the final.

Sixteen-year-old Jagger Leach, seeded No. 4 and playing in his first J300 final, defeated No. 6 seed Ivan Iutkin of Russia 6-4, 7-6(2) after taking out top seed Hayden Jones of Australia 7-6(7), 5-7, 7-5 in the semifinals. Jones had beaten Leach 6-4, 6-0 in the second round of the Australian Open Junior Championships in January.

The titles should guarantee both Leach and Kristina Penickova a spot in the main draw of the Roland Garros Junior Championships, with the entry deadline this coming Tuesday.

Katie Rolls and her partner Jeline Vandromme of Belgium won the doubles title at the J500 in Offenbach Germany today. The No. 5 seedsd defeated top seeds Hannah Klugman and Mingge Xu of Great Britain 3-6, 6-0, 10-7 in the final.

The singles titles in Offenbach went to No. 6 seed Wakana Sonobe of Japan and No. 5 seed Max Mrva of the Czech Republic. The 16-year-old Sonobe won a rematch of last December's Eddie Herr J300, beating No. 9 seed Teodora Kostovic of Serbia again, this time by a score of 6-3, 3-1, retired. Mrva, also 16, defeated top seed Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway 6-2, 6-4 in the semifinals and won the title today in another retirement, with No. 2 seed Luca Preda of Romania retiring down 3-0 in the first set.

The boys doubles champions are Brazil's Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida and Vojtech Vales of the Czech Republic. They defeated Timofei Derepasko of Russia and Alexander Vasilev of Bulgaria 2-6, 7-5 10-8 in a battle between two unseeded teams.

There were two other ITF Junior Circuit singles titles last week for Americans, with Simon Caldwell, a 16-year-old from Grand Rapids, sweeping the singles and doubles at the J60 in Costa Rica this week. No. 5 seed Caldwell, a quarterfinals in Kalamazoo in the 16s, defeated top seed Zavier Augustin, also from the United States, 6-2, 6-2 in the final. Caldwell and Arnarv Bhadari won the doubles title, with the unseeded pair beating No. 3 seeds Augustin and Mason Taube 6-2, 6-0 in the final.

Americans swept the singles titles at the J30 in Jamaica, with 17-year-old James Weber and 14-year-old Ana Avramovic claiming their first singles titles on the ITF Junior Circuit. Weber, the No. 5 seed, defeated top seed Jose Argenal of Guatamela 6-1, 6-1 in the final, while top seed Avramovic beat No. 3 seed Brooke Wallman 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 for the title. Avramovic and Ciara Harding won the girls doubles title, with Joseph Hernandez and Arin Menon taking the boys doubles championship.

Duke senior Garrett Johns warmed up for the NCAA championships this weekend with his fifth Pro Circuit singles title at the $15,000 tournament in Vero Beach Florida. The 23-year-old, seeded No. 2, defeated No. 3 seed Victor Lilov 7-6(1), 6-2 in today's final. Johns, currently 22 in the ITA singles rankings and No. 1 in the doubles rankings with Pedro Rodenas, will return to Durham for next weekend's first two rounds of the NCAA team championships, which the 13th-ranked Blue Devils will host.

Unseeded Louisa Chirico last won a Pro Circuit title two years ago in Charlottesville Virginia and she demonstrated today how comfortable she is at the Boars Head Club, beating top seed Kayla Day 6-1, 7-5 in today's final at the W75 tournament. Chirico now has 75 points in the USTA's Roland Garros Wild Card race with one week remaining for the women, and she is scheduled to compete next week in the W100 in Bonita Springs Florida. 

Former University of Virginia standout Alexander Ritschard of Switzerland won his second ATP Challenger title today in Savannah Georgia, defeating former University of Florida Gator Andres Andrade of Ecuador, a qualifier, 6-2, 6-4 in the final of the Challenger 75 tournament. The 30-year-old is now at 169 in the ATP live rankings, just below his career-high of 160, and with his first Challenger title on clay, can now begin preparing for the Roland Garros qualifying.

The final conference tournaments concluded today, and the top seeds took both Big Ten titles. The Ohio State men defeated No. 2 seeds Michigan 4-1 at Northwestern, with the Buckeyes claiming the tournament title for second straight year and the Michigan women taking their third straight conference tournament title with a 4-2 win over Ohio State in Ann Arbor. In each case, it was the team they defeated today who had last denied them a conference title. 

Last night in Ojai, the final Pac-12 championship went to the Arizona men, who beat Stanford 4-0 to avenge a regular season loss to the Cardinal. It's the first Pac-12 title for the Wildcats, who will moving to the Big-12 next season. 

The Division I NCAA selection show, which will announce the particpants, seedings and hosting sites, begin tomorrow with the men at 6 p.m. Eastern time at ncaa.com. The women's selection show will follow at 6:30 p.m.

CollegeTennisRanks.com has provided a travel matrix for both men and women, with projections on who will host and who will go where based on the NCAA rules governing those choices.

Baierl, Lyutova Claim ITF J100 Titles in Delray Beach; Woestendick and Razeghi Win First Pro Circuit Title in Vero Beach; Stanford Capture Women's Pac-12 Title; Ohio State and Michigan Meet Sunday for Both Men's and Women's Big Ten Titles

Top seed Calvin Baierl and No. 3 seed Christina Lyutova won the singles titles today at the first of three ITF J100s in Florida, this one in Delray Beach.

Baierl, the 2022 Kalamazoo 16s and Eddie Herr 16s finalist defeated No. 7 seed Jack Satterfield 6-4, 6-4 to claim his third J100 title, but his first ITF Junior Circuit title of the year. Baierl, who will turn 17 next month, did not drop a set in his six victories this week.

It's the fourth title of the year for the 14-year-old Lyutova, who lives in the United States but currently represents Russia, the country where she was born. After winning three J30s already in 2024 and three J60s last year, this J100 is her biggest title on the ITF Junior Circuit and she had two tough matches to close it out. She defeated No. 16 seed Gabriella Vannessa Lindgren of Canada 7-5, 7-6(8) in the semifinals, and lost the first set to 13-year-old wild card Hannah Ayrault in today's final before claiming a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory. Ayrault had beaten top seed Nancy Lee 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(1) in the semifinals.

Satterfield and Jon Gamble, seeded No. 3, won the doubles title, beating the seventh-seeded Brazilian team of Lucca Acioly and Ettore Romeo Baggio Danesi 7-5, 6-3 in the final. 

The third-seeded girls team also emerged as the doubles champions, with Vessa Turley and Riley Crowder beating the unseeded team of Zaire Clarke and Canada's Clemence Mercier 6-2, 6-3 in the final.

The ATP Challenger 75 in Savannah will feature two former collegians, but no Americans in Sunday's singles championship, with former University of Virginia Cavalier Alexander Ritschard of Switzerland facing former University of Florida Gator Andres Andrade of Ecuador. Ritschard, the No. 5 seed, defeated Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan 6-4, 7-6(4); Andrade, a qualifier, beat unseeded Maxime Janvier of France 7-5, 6-0. The 30-year-old Ritschard is looking for his second Challenger title; the 25-year-old Andrade had never reached a Challenger quarterfinal prior to this week.

No. 3 seeds Christian Harrison and Marcus Willis of Great Britain ended the winning streak of Johannes Ingildsen(Florida) of Denmark and Simon Freund(LSU/UC Santa Barbara) in today's doubles final, posting a 6-3, 6-3 victory. Ingildsen and Freund had beaten Harrison and Willis in the semifinals last week at the Tallahassee Challenger, en route to the title.

Cooper Woestendick and Alexander Razeghi dropped their first set of the week at the men's $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Vero Beach, but the 17-year-olds recovered to capture their first pro title, beating brothers Miles and Alex Jones 6-4, 4-6, 10-3 in today's final. 

In the singles semifinals, No. 3 seed Victor Lilov, the 2021 Wimbledon boys finalist, will face Duke senior Garrett Johns, the No. 2 seed, after Lilov defeated Miles 6-4, 0-6, 6-1 and Johns beat No. 5 seed Will Grant(Florida) 6-3, 7-5. 

The W75 in Charlottesville will also feature two Americans, with unseeded Louisa Chirico facing top seed Kayla Day. Chirico defeated 18-year-old Maya Joint of Australia 7-6(6), 6-1 and Day beat No. 3 seed Lulu Sun(Texas) of Switzerland 7-5, 6-2. Chirico will move into the picture in the USTA Roland Garros Wild Card race with a title, with one more week to go for the women. Day is already into the Roland Garros main draw.

Quinn Gleason(Notre Dame) and Great Britain's Emily Appleton, the top seeds, won the doubles title, beating unseeded Maria Kononova(North Texas) and Maria Kozyreva(St. Mary's) of Russia 7-6(5), 6-2 in today's final. 

The last two Power 5 conference tournaments conclude this weekend, with the No. 2 seed Stanford women blanking No. 4 seed Cal with the doubles point and straight-sets wins at the top 3 singles spots. Cal had upset top seed UCLA in the semifinals. 

The top-seeded Stanford men play No. 2 seed Arizona later tonight in Ojai.

The Big Ten's women's final Sunday will be, as expected, No. 1 seed Michigan versus No. 2 Ohio State, in Ann Arbor. Michigan defeated No. 4 Wisconsin 4-0 in Saturday's semifinals, with Ohio State beating No. 3 Northwestern 4-1. 

The top-seeded Ohio State men defeated surprise semifinalist Nebraska 4-1 to advance to the final, where they'll play No. 2 seed Michigan. Michigan came from 3-1 down to defeat Michigan State this evening at Northwestern, winning at singles lines 2, 4, 5 and 6.