Few Changes in Latest Division I Team and Individual Rankings; Women's Boca Raton $25K Sole USTA Pro Circuit Event This Week; Krueger Qualifies for BNP Paribas Open; Saints and Diamondbacks Win USTA National Brewer Team Cup Titles

Today's edition of the ITA Division I rankings show very little change among the Top 10 for either men or women. Blockbuster men's matches were few last week, with the postponement of the TCU-Texas men's match, which is now scheduled for March 22. And the big women's match, with Pepperdine beating Michigan, didn't have much of an impact on their respective rankings. NCAA champion Texas, the preseason No. 1, fell out of the Top Ten, to No. 12.

The singles and doubles rankings also look similar to the last set of individual rankings on February 21, with North Carolina's Fiona Crawley and Texas's Eliot Spizzirri still No. 1. Full ranking lists are available by clicking on the headings.

ITA Women's Division I Team Top Ten
(previous week's rankings in parentheses)

March 7, 2023

1. North Carolina(1)
2. Texas A&M(2)
3. Georgia(6)
4. Ohio State(3)
5. NC State(4)
6. Michigan(5)
T7. Auburn (8)
T7. Pepperdine(9)
9. Duke(11)
10. Iowa State(7)

Singles Top Ten

1. Fiona Crawley, North Carolina

2. Daria Frayman, Princeton

3. Chloe Beck, Duke

4. Madison Sieg, Southern California

5. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

6. Connie Ma, Stanford

7. Ayana Akli, South Carolina

8. Carol Lee, Georgia Tech

9. Alana Smith, NC State

10. Lea Ma, Georgia

Doubles Top Five

1. Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen, Pepperdine

2. Jaedan Brown and Kari Miller, Michigan

3. Fiona Crawley and Carson Tanguilig, North Carolina

4. Carson Branstine and Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

5. Adel-Byanu Abidulleina and Eliza Askarov, Delaware

ITA Men's Division I Team Top Ten

1. TCU(1)

2. Texas(2)

3. Michigan(3)

4. Ohio State(4)

5. South Carolina(6)

6. Kentucky(5)

7. Georgia(9)

8. Southern California(8)

9. North Carolina(10)

10. Harvard(7)

Singles

1. Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

2. Ethan Quinn, Georgia

3. Nishesh Basavareddy, Stanford

4. Antoinie Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State

5. Connor Thomson, South Carolina

6. Toby Samuel, South Carolina

7. Johannus Monday, Tennessee

8. Max Basing, Stanford

9. Andrew Fenty, Michigan

10. Ondrej Styler, Michigan

Doubles

1. Toby Samuel and Connor Thomason, South Carolina

2. Andrew Lutschaunig and JJ Tracy, Ohio State

3. Cleve Harper and Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

4. Pat Harper and Johannus Monday, Tennessee

5. Edoardo Graziani and Kevin Zhu, Penn

The only USTA Pro Circuit tournament this week is a women's $25,000 event in Boca Raton Florida. Qualifying concluded today, with three Americans advancing to the main draw: Sofia Sewing(Miami), Vivian Wolff(Georgia/UCLA) and Makenna Jones(UNC). The latter two play each other in Wednesday's first round. Also qualifying today was 17-year-old Sayaka Ishii of Japan, a semifinalist at the Australian Open Junior Championships this year. Last week's champion at the $25K in Spring Texas, Yulia Starodubtseva(Old Dominion) of Ukraine, did not get a special exemption in the main draw and had to play her first qualifying match on Monday. She won that, but fell 2-6, 6-2, 10-6 today to Alexandra Vecic of Germany, who is on the Georgia roster, but has not been cleared to play for the Bulldogs.

Wild cards were given to Samantha Crawford, Katerina Stewart, Elvina Kalieva and 15-year-old Delray Beach resident Monika Ekstrand, a semifinalist at the Orange Bowl 16s in December. Kalieva, the No. 8 seed, and Ekstrand will meet in the first round.

The top seed is Maria Carle(Georgia) of Argentina, with Louisa Chirico the No. 2 seed. 

Qualifying hasn't gone well for Americans at the BNP Paribas Open, with just three US men and three US women making today's second and final round. Emilio Nava and Zachary Svajda both lost, as did Liv Hovde and Caroline Dolehide. Ashlyn Krueger is the only American to post a win today, with Tennys Sandgren is playing Rinky Hijikata(UNC) of Australia tonight.

Krueger, the 2021 USTA National 18s champion, defeated No. 12 seed Laura Pigossi of Brazil 6-4, 6-4 yesterday and took out No. 13 seed Magdalena Frech of Poland 6-2, 6-0 today. Krueger, a wild card into qualifying, also qualified for the main draw in Indian Wells last year.

Main draw play begins tomorrow at 11 a.m. Pacific time. The schedule is here.

Although I no longer cover it, the USTA Spring National Team Tournament is still going strong in Mobile Alabama. The event, now called in the Brewer Team Cup in honor of longtime USTA junior competition manager Lew Brewer, combines 14s, 16s and 18s, with two from each age division competing in singles and doubles. The teams are selected via the waterfall method, and a compass draw assures every competitor four matches over the four-day event. Below are the rosters of the teams in today's finals. The Saints defeated the Bears 6-1 for the boys title, and the Diamondback defeated the Red Hawks 6-1 to win the girls tournament.

Boys Brewer Team Cup

Saints 6

Coach: Andy Pinkus

B14s 

Colin McPeek

Colter Amey

B16s

Alex Feies

Shaan Patel

B18s 

Nikola Parichkov

Krish Gupta

Bears 1

Coach: William Brown

B14s

Kai Abarca

Anthony Dry

B16s

Jack Di Menna

Sammy Nieder

B18s 

Tygen Goldammer

Adam Sun

Girls Brewer Team Cup

Diamondbacks 6

Coach Christopher Tran

G14s

Bella Gopen

Alyson Shannon

G16s

Hayley Roberts

Kady Tannenbaum

G18s

Sophia Webster

Savannah Webster

Red Hawks 1

Coach Fanni Varga

G14s

Maya Diyasheva

Kori Montoya

G16s

Alex Ackman

Addison Bowman

G18s

Trinetra Vijayakumar

Maeve Thornton

Links to complete team rosters and draws can be found here.