Final ITA Division I Rankings Put NCAA Team Champions No. 1, but Not Individual Winners; Roland Garros Junior Qualifying Begins Thursday with Six Americans in Draw; Stearns Beats Former Champion to Reach Roland Garros Round Three

The final ITA rankings were released today for team, singles and doubles. As is always the case, the NCAA champions finish No. 1 in the team rankings. Not so in the individual rankings, where none of the four NCAA singles and doubles champions finished No. 1. Below are the Top 16 in the final team rankings, with the Top 15 getting to host the Kickoff Weekend in January for the National Team Indoor Championships. (The men are in New York and the women are in Seattle; with No. 13 Columbia men hosting and therefore getting an automatic bid, No. 16 Mississippi State should get the final host spot). I've listed the Top 20 in singles and Top 10 in doubles because those rankings determined All-American status. It looks as if both 19 and 20 in the men's and women's rankings earned All-American status via the Top 20 final ranking criteria. 

The men's top 20 is significant for the ATP Accelerator Program, which you can read about here. A similar program for women has yet to be implemented by the ITF and WTA.

The full ranking lists can be found here.

D-I Men's Team Top 16:
1. Virginia
2. Ohio State
3. Texas
4. TCU
5. Kentucky
6. Michigan
7. Georgia
8. South Carolina
9. Tennessee
10. Southern California
11. Duke
12. Harvard
13. Columbia
14. North Carolina
15. Arizona
16. Mississippi State

D-I Women Team Top 16:

1, North Carolina

2. Georgia

3. Texas A&M

4. North Carolina State

5. Stanford

6. Michigan

7. Texas

8. Iowa State

9. Pepperdine

10. Ohio State

11. Duke

12. Virginia

13. Oklahoma

14. Tennessee

15. Florida

16. Miami

D-I women's singles Top 20:

1. Fiona Crawley, North Carolina

2. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

3. Lea Ma, Georgia

4. Diana Shnaider, NC State

5. Maddy Sieg, Southern California

6. Alexa Noel, Miami

7. Chloe Beck, Duke

8. Fangran Tian, UCLA

9. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

10. Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia

11. Ayana Akli, South Carolina

12. Daria Frayman, Princeton

13. Anastasiya Komar, LSU

14. Carol Lee, Georgia Tech

15. Layne Sleeth, Oklahoma

16. Alana Smith, NC State

17. Amelia Rajecki, NC State

18. Janice Tjen, Pepperdine

19. Celia-Belle Mohr, Vanderbilt

20. Sara Dahlstrom, Florida

D-I women's doubles Top 10:

1. Savannah Broadus/Janice Tjen, Pepperdine

2. Reese Brantmeier/Elizabeth Scotty, North Carolina

3. Carson Tanguilig/Fiona Crawley, North Carolina

4. Kari Miller/Jaedan Brown, Michigan

5. Diana Shnaider/Alana Smith, NC State

6. Julia Adams/Melodie Collard, Virginia

7. Carson Branstine/Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

8. Kylie Collins/Anastasiya Komar, LSU

9. Eryn Cayetano/Maddy Sieg, Southern California

10. Ivana Corley/Carmen Corley, Oklahoma

D-I men's singles Top 20:

1. Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

2. Ethan Quinn, Georgia

3. Arthur Fery, Stanford

4. Ondrej Styler, Michigan 

5. Chris Rodesch, Virginia

6. Johannus Monday, Tennessee

7. Melios Efstathiou, Wake Forest

8. Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State

9. Andres Martin, Georgia Tech

10. Toby Samuel, South Carolina

11. Liam Draxl, Kentucky

12. Cannon Kingsley, Ohio State

13. Murphy Cassone, Arizona State

14. Andrew Fenty, Michigan

15. Sebastian Dominko, Notre Dame

16. Nishesh Basavareddy, Stanford

17. Connor Thomson, South Carolina

18. Garrett Johns, Duke

19. Jake Fearnley, TCU

20. Alafia Ayeni, Kentucky

D-I men's doubles Top 10:

1. Toby Samuel/Connor Thomson, South Carolina

2. Eliot Spizzirri/Cleeve Harper, Texas

3. Ethan Quinn/Trent Bryde, Georgia

4. Jake Fearnley/Luc Fomba, TCU

5. Gavin Young/Andrew Fenty, Michigan

6. Andrew Lutschaunig/James Trotter, Ohio State

7. William Grant/Axel Nefve, Florida

8. Pat Harper/Johannus Monday, Tennessee

9. Natan Rodrigues/Fabien Salle, Louisville

10. Ozan Baris/Max Sheldon, Michigan State

Qualifying for the Roland Garros Junior Championships, which begin Sunday June 4, starts Thursday, with six Americans attempting to make the main draw.

Although Tyra Grant is now 32 in the ITF junior rankings, primarily due to her title at the J300 in Santa Croce, she wasn't even accepted into qualifying at Roland Garros prior to the freeze date. She did get into qualifying, however, and she is, of course, the No. 1 seed. The other American girls in qualifying are Anya Murthy, Thea Rabman[5] and Ashton Bowers[6]. Alexia Harmon was accepted into qualifying, but she is still competing at the J300 in Belgium, reaching the singles quarterfinals and the doubles semifinals. She may be eligible for a special exemption entry into the Roland Garros main draw, but with qualifying beginning so early, there are a lot of players in the running for those two spots so it's impossible to predict. Alanis Hamilton, who had been accepted into qualifying, did not play this week in Belgium and is not in the qualifying draw.

The two US boys in the Roland Garros qualifying are Cooper Woestendick[14] and Maxwell Exsted[16]. Charlie Camus of Australia is the No. 1 seed in the boys qualifying.

The ITF Junior Circuit website's Roland Garros preview is here.

2022 NCAA singles (and team) champion Peyton Stearns was a big story in the women's second round today at Roland Garros, with the 21-year-old American defeating 2017 champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the no. 17 seed, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. According to No-ad, No-problem's John Parsons, the former Texas Longhorn is the first woman's NCAA champion since Stanford's Debbie Graham in 1991 to make the third round at Roland Garros the year after her title. Today was the first time Stearns had played a Top 20 player (she earned her first Top 50 win in the first round over the Czech Republic's Katerina Siniakova); on Friday she will face her first Top 10 opponent in Daria Kasatkina of Russia.

Tennis Channel's Jon Wertheim interviewed Stearns after her win, and when asked how she managed to stay calm in all the chaos, she credited her college tennis experience. The Tennis Channel tweet featuring the brief interview is here.

I interviewed Stearns last fall at the WTA 125 in Midland for the Tennis Recruiting Network. That article can be found here(subscription required for full access.)

Wednesday's second round results of Americans:

Jessica Pegula[3] d. Camila Giorgi(ITA) 6-2, ret.

Peyton Stearns d. Jelena Ostapenko[17](LAT) 6-3, 1-6, 6-2

Sloane Stephens d. Varvara Gracheva(RUS) 6-2, 6-1

Sebastian Ofner[Q](AUT) d. Sebastian Korda[24] 6-3, 7-6(1), 6-4

Thursday's second round matches featuring Americans:

Claire Liu v Iga Swiatek[1](POL)

Kayla Day[Q] v Madison Keys

Bernarda Pera v Donna Vekic[22](CRO)

Coco Gauff[6] v Julia Grabher(AUT)

Emma Navarro[WC] v Bianca Andreescu(CAN)

Lauren Davis v Lesia Tsurenko(UKR)

Frances Tiafoe[12] v Aslan Karatsev[Q](RUS)

Tommy Paul[16] v Nicolas Jarry(CHI)

Marcos Giron v Jiri Lehecka(CZE)

Taylor Fritz[9] v Arthur Rinderknech(FRA)