April Aces; NCAA Division I Singles and Doubles Selections Announced; Quevedo Qualifies for Bonita Springs $100K; Seven Teens Competing at Orange Park $15K

My monthly Aces column for Tennis Recruiting Network is up today, with 17 players--juniors, collegians and former collegians--in the spotlight for their accomplishments in April.

One of those featured in the April Aces, Miami's Dan Martin, will be competing later this month in the NCAA singles tournament in Lake Nona. The NCAA revealed the selections today, as well as the seeds; the draws will not come out until the day before the tournament, which begins Monday May 22nd and runs through Saturday May 27th. 

Below are the seeds, in singles and doubles; click on the headings to see the full list of selections.

2022 finalist Connie Ma of Stanford is not seeded, just like last year. The University of Texas, the two-time defending team champions and No. 8 seeds this year, do not have any players qualifying for singles. North Carolina leads the women with five Tar Heels in the 64-player draw. Ohio State also has five in the men's draw. 

It's encouraging to see some of the top US juniors make the men's field after their freshman year of college: Ozan Baris of Michigan State, Samir Banerjee and Nishesh Basavareddy of Stanford, Michael Zheng of Columbia and Alex Bernard of Ohio State. (Not to mention red shirt freshman and No. 2 seed Ethan Quinn of Georgia). Reese Brantmeier of North Carolina and Maddy Sieg of Southern California are the two US freshman to make the singles field.

WOMEN:

Singles:
1. Fiona Crawley, North Carolina
2. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M
3. Lea Ma, Georgia
4. Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia
5. Alexa Noel, Miami
6. Chloe Beck, Duke
7. Diana Shnaider, NC State
8. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

9-16, alphabetical

Ayana Akli, South Carolina

Daria Frayman, Princeton

Anastasiya Komar, LSU

Carol Lee, Georgia Tech

Maddy Sieg, Southern California

Alana Smith, NC State

Fangran Tian, UCLA

Janice Tjen, Pepperdine

Doubles:

1. Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen, Pepperdine

2. Carson Branstine* and Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

3. Jaedan Brown and Kari Miller, Michigan

4. Diana Shnaider and Alana Smith, NC State

*out for the year, release has explanation

5-8

Kylie Collins and Anastasiya Komar, LSU

Reese Brantmeier and Elizabeth Scotty, North Carolina

Carmen Corley and Ivana Corley, Oklahoma

Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle, UCLA

MEN:

Singles:

1. Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

2. Ethan Quinn, Georgia

3. Arthur Fery, Stanford

4. Melios Efstathiou, Wake Forest

5. Johannus Monday, Tennessee

6. Andres Martin, Georgia Tech

7. Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State

8. Ondrej Styler, Michigan

9-16 alphabetical

Nishesh Basavareddy, Stanford

Sebastian Dominko, Notre Dame

Liam Draxl, Kentucky

Garrett Johns, Duke

Cannon Kingsley, Ohio State

Chris Rodesch, Virginia

Today Samuel, South Carolina

Connor Thomson, South Carolina

Doubles:

1. Toby Samuel and Connor Thomson, South Carolina

2. Jake Fearnley and Luc Fomba, TCU

3. Cleeve Harper and Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

4. Trent Bryde and Ethan Quinn, Georgia

5-8

Will Grant and Axel Nefve, Florida

Andrew Fenty and Gavin Young, Michigan

Pat Harper and Johannus Monday, Tennessee

Ryan Goetz and Inaki Montes, Virginia

There are two USTA Pro Circuit tournaments in the United States this week at opposite sides of the state and at opposite ends of the prize money spectrum, with the women competing at a $100,000 tournament in Bonita Springs Florida and the men at a $15,000 tournament in Orange Park Florida.

Qualifying was completed today at both events, with four Americans advancing to the main draw at Bonita Springs, including 17-year-old Kaitlin Quevedo. Quevedo, currently No. 15 in the ITF junior rankings, defeated No. 2 qualifying seed Yuki Naito of Japan yesterday 6-2, 7-6(0), and today beat Tiphanie Lemaitre(Kentucky/Ole Miss/TCU) of France, the No. 13 seed, 6-3, 6-3. She will play wild card Grace Min in the first round Wednesday.  The other American qualifiers are Maria Mateas(Duke), Victoria Hu(Princeton), and Raveena Kingsley.

In addition to Min, wild cards were given to Hina inoue, Makenna Jones(North Carolina) and Florida Gulf Coast senior Emma Bardet of France. 

Nao Hibino of Japan is the top seed, with Yue Yuan of China the No. 2 seed.

In Orange Park, American qualifiers are Elijah Strode, Jake Van Emburgh(Oklahoma/Ohio State), Oren Vasser(William and Mary/Miami), 19-year-old Jelani Sarr and Ryan Haviland(Stanford). Jaycer Lyeons, the finalist Sunday at Vero Beach, received a special exemption entry. Wild cards went to Jacob Brumm(Cal/Baylor), Matthew Segura, Thomas Brown(South Carolina/UNC Charlotte) and No. 2 seed Govind Nanda(UCLA). Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan is the top seed.

Junior reserved spots went to Kaylan Bigun, Rei Sakamoto of Japan and Yi Zhou of China. Zhou defeated Segura 6-4, 6-4 in first round action today. Eighteen-year-old Duke recruit Alex Visser received entry as a lucky loser; 18-year-old Aidan Kim got in on his own ranking and 19-year-old Bruno Kuzuhara is the No. 8 seed.