USTA Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge Standings; Bigun Advances at Sarasota Challenger; Bowers Beats No. 3 Seed Chirico at Boca Raton W35; Ohio State Men, Oklahoma State Women Remain No. 1 in Latest ITA Rankings

I guess I missed the USTA's announcement of its annual Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge but it began with the tournaments last week, so the standings were sent out yesterday.

Former University of California-Santa Barbara All-American Nicolas Moreno de Alboran is in the lead for the men, after qualifying for the ATP 250 in Morocco and advancing to the quarterfinals, a first ATP quarterfinal appearnce for the 26-year-old from New York.

Michael Mmoh is in second place after reaching the quarterfinals at the U.S. Men's Clay Courts ATP 250 in Houston. 2019 USTA National 18s champion Katie Volynets leads the women's standings after qualifying and winning a round at the WTA 500 in Charleston last week.

Men's Standings(current rankings in parentheses)

1. Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (134) -- 63
2. Michael Mmoh (110) -- 50
T3. JJ Wolf (102) -- 25
T3. Aleks Kovacevic (96) -- 25
5. Aidan Mayo (286) -- 16

Women's Standings

1. Katie Volynets (104) -- 57
2. Katrina Scott (485) -- 35
T3. Amanda Anisimova (238) -- 32
T3. Shelby Rogers (353) -- 32
5. Hailey Baptiste (107) -- 30

The best three results in a four-week stretch for the men and a five-week stretch for the women will determine the winner of the USTA's reciprocal wild card for Roland Garros. Points won at the ATP and WTA events at the ITF W35/25K level and above will determine those best three results. The last week of the competition for men begins April 22; the last week in the women's race begins April 29.

The first of three ATP Challenger 75s, which often determine the men's Roland Garros wild card winner, is this week in Sarasota, followed by tournaments in Tallahassee and Savannah. 

Seventeen-year-old Kaylan Bigun, who qualified for his first ATP Challenger main draw yesterday in Sarasota with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Viktor Durosovic of Norway, won his first ATP Challenger match, with a 6-3, 6-4 win over lucky loser Durosovic today. Bigun was down 2-0 in the opening set, but won five straight games to take it; the UCLA signee got the only break of the second set at 4-all and a couple of big serves at 30-30 in the final game gave him the win. He will play No. 4 seed and ATP 111 Zizou Bergs of Belgium on Wednesday evening. 

Top seed JJ Wolf(Ohio State) lost to Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan 7-6(5), 6-1 last night; Tristan Boyer(Stanford) defeated ITF Junior No. 1 Joel Schwaerzler of Austria 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 today to advance to the second round; qualifier Stefan Kozlov defeated Denis Kudla 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 and will play NCAA champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia) Wednesday.

While the only men's USTA Pro Circuit event this week is the Sarasota Challenger, the only women's event is another W35, this one in Boca Raton Florida.

Qualifying was completed today, with Adriana Reami(NC State) the only American to advance to the main draw, although Victoria Osuigwe did receive entry as a lucky loser. ITF Junior No. 19 Mayu Crossley qualified, beating Malkia Ngounoue 6-4, 6-3 in today's final round. 

Wild cards were awarded to Monika Ekstrand, Usue Arconada, Ashton Bowers and Akasha Urhobo. Ekstrand and Urhobo play their first round matches tomorrow, while Arconada and Bowers were in action today.  The 18-year-old Bowers, a University of Texas signee, defeated No. 3 seed Louisa Chirico 6-3, 7-6(3) for her first WTA Top 300 win. The 25-year-old Arconada, who was out for almost all of 2022 and 2023, lost to No. 5 seed Liv Hovde 6-4, 6-4.

Alana Smith(NC State) and Varvara Lepchenko[4] also advanced to Thursday's second round with wins today. 

Elvina Kalieva is the top seed; Katrina Scott, last week's champion in Mississippi, received a special exemption into the main draw.

The latest ITA Division I rankings were released today, with no change at the top of the team or individual rankings. 

The University of Oklahoma men moved into the Top 10 for the first time this year; the Pepperdine women fell from 3 to 7 after their losses to Stanford and Cal.  Alex Martinez of Oklahoma went from 16 to 10 in singles; Antoine Cornut-Chavinc of Florida State suffered his first (correction: second) loss of the season, to Wake Forest's Fillipo Moroni, and fell from No. 2 to 4. Interesting to note that the highest ranking of a player from No. 1 Ohio State is JJ Tracy at 16. Celia-Belle Mohr of Vanderbilt and Alexa Noel of Miami have moved into the Top 10, with Pepperdine's Savannah Broadus and Lisa Zaar falling to 13 and 14 respectively. Click on the headings below to see the full rankings lists.

ITA Division I Men's Team Top 10, April 9, 2024:

1. Ohio State

2. TCU

3. Virginia

4. Texas

5. Kentucky

6. Tennessee

7. Wake Forest

8. Arizona

9. Oklahoma

10. Columbia

ITA Division I Men's Singles Top 10:

1. Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

2. Micah Braswell, Texas

3. Johannus Monday, Tennessee

4. Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State

5. Oliver Tarvet, San Diego

6. Murphy Cassone, Arizona State

7. Chris Rodesch, Virginia

8. Jack Pinnington Jones, TCU

9. Jake Fearnley, TCU

10. Alex Martinez, Oklahoma

ITA Division I Men's Doubles Top 5:

1. DK Suresh and Holden Koons, Wake Forest

2. Robert Cash and JJ Tracy, Ohio State

3. Garrett Johns and Pedro Rodenas, Duke

4. Sebastian Gorzny and Pedro Vives, TCU

5. Hunter Heck and Karlis Ozolins, Illinois

ITA Division I Women's Team Top 10:

1. Oklahoma State

2. Michigan

3. Stanford

4. North Carolina

5. Virginia

6. Georgia

7. Pepperdine

8. Texas

9. Cal

10. Southern Cal

ITA Division I Women's Singles Top 10:

1. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

2. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

3. Kari Miller, Michigan

4. Ange Oby Kajuru, Oklahoma State

5. Amelia Rajecki, NC State

6. Carolyn Ansari, Auburn

7. Ayana Akli, South Carolina

8. Celia-Belle Mohn, Vanderbilt

9. Alexa Noel, Miami

10. Connie Ma, Stanford

ITA Division I Women's Doubles Top 5:

1. Elizabeth Scotty and Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

2. Janice Tjen and Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine

3. Alina Shcherbinina and Dana Guzman, Oklahoma

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

5. Ange Oby Kajuru and Anastasiya Komar, Oklahoma State