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Tuesday, November 10, 2020

ITA Downsizes Kickoff Weekend and ITA Team Indoor Fields; Orlando $25K Qualifying Produces Surprises; Galarneau Rolls On at Cary Challenger; ITA Fall Circuit Week Eight Winners

The ITA announced today that its annual Division I Kickoff Weekend will feature half the teams it normally does, meaning that there will be only eight teams competing in the National Team Indoor Championships scheduled for February.

Last year's National Team Indoor Championships did get played, with the Southern California men and the North Carolina women claiming the Division I titles. Sixteen teams were onsite for those tournaments last February; this year just eight teams will advance to Champaign, where the men's tournament will be held February 12-14, and Seattle, where the women's tournament will be held February 5-7.

"Over the last few months it became clear that a 16-team final site would be too large a hurdle to overcome,"  said Cory Brooks, ITA Senior Director of Championships. "We believe that the size reductions will provide us the best chance at successfully completing a Kickoff Weekend and Team Indoor Championships in a safe and responsible manner."

Seven of the eight teams will be determined at Kick Off Weekend January 22-25, with the Illinois men and Washington women receiving direct entry as hosts. The draft to decide which teams will play in which of the seven regionals is scheduled for Monday, December 7th. The hosts for those regionals have not yet been announced; previously they have been determined by the previous seasons final rankings, but there may be more deviation from that this year, depending on the status of the pandemic. 

The ITA's announcement is available here.

The first round of qualifying at the $25,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit event at the USTA's National Campus was completed today after a rainout yesterday, with several surprising results posted.  Pepperdine's Jessica Failla, who lost in the semifinals of the ITA Fall National Championships on Saturday, defeated No. 2 seed Sophie Chang 6-3, 3-6, 10-4; 16-year-old Eleana Yu took out No. 4 seed Maria Mateas(Duke) 7-6(4), 2-6, 10-5; 14-year-old wild card Brooklyn Olson won her first match in a Pro Circuit event, beating Marine Partaud of France 1-6, 6-4, 10-7; 16-year-old wild card Ashlyn Krueger defeated No. 16 seed Maria Paulina Perez-Garcia of Colombia 6-0, 6-4.

After a day off to get from Fayetteville Arkansas to Cary North Carolina, North Carolina State's Alexis Galarneau extended his winning streak, with the wild card beating No. 8 seed Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA) 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 at the ATP Atlantic Tire Challenger 80 tournament. The fifth-year senior from Canada will take on unseeded Brandon Nakashima next, after the 19-year-old Californian overcame a 3-1 deficit in the final set to beat fellow Virginia alum Thai Kwiatkowski 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.  Below is the tweet Galarneau posted after his win Sunday in Arkansas.

Week Eight of the ITA Tour Fall Circuit by UTR is in the books with 14 sites holding competitions across the country. For more on the week's results, see this article from the ITA.

ITA Fall Circuit Week Eight Winners:

Greensboro: Men, Carter McWhorter; Women, Brianna Baldi
Wichita: Men, Murkel Dellien; Women, Isabel Gallego
Surprise: Men, Joaquin Arredondo
Parker: Men, James Davis; Women, Karolina Jacobson
Des Moines: Men, Benjamin Lott; Women, Claire Gu
Winter Park: Women, Savannah Webster
Chagrin Falls: Men, Galen Mast; Women, Catherine Petrovich
Ojai: Men, Saahith Jayaraman; Women, Melissa Lamette
Nicholasville: Men, Alex Wesbrooks; Women, Abigail Solomon
La Habra: Men, Leo Hibi; Women, Chui Kei Leung
Aurora: Men, Tomas Salgado; Women, Baluck Deang
Morgan Hill: Men, Lucca Liu; Women, Anna Bright
Lawrenceville: Men, Thomas Paulsell; Women, Mackenzie White
Beaumont: Men, Axel Vila Antuna; Women, Phonexay Chitdara

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