Qualifying for the 2024 Roland Garros Junior Championships begins Thursday, at the Cercle Athlétique Montrouge, with six American girls and two American boys in the 32-player draws.
This year the tournament maintains its position as the most difficult one to obtain direct entry, with almost no movement in the main since the initial acceptances at the end of last month. One girl moved into the main draw with the withdrawal of Victoria Mboko of Canada; that left Shannon Lam as the first player out, but special exempts were filled from the J300 in Belgium, so Lam is in qualifying. Not a single boy withdrew, and again the special exempts were filled from players still competing in Belgium, although it's not clear who they are, with a host of candidates given that the both genders' singles semifinals, the girls doubles semifinals and the boys doubles quarterfinals sare still to played.
The US girls competing in Thursday's first round are Lam, the No. 3 seed, Claire An, Monika Ekstrand, Mia Slama, Kate Fakih, the No. 7 seed, and No. 10 seed Christasha McNeil. The US two boys are Kase Schinnerer, the No. 7 seed, and Noah Johnston.
Main draw play in the Roland Garros Junior Championships will begin Sunday. For a list of the junior main and qualifying singles wild cards, all but three of whom are from France, can be found here.
The final ITA Division I rankings were released today, and with the Accelerator program now in its second year, those rankings are even more significant than ever. Previously the rankings were anticipated for their implications for All-America status (Top 20) and for positioning, for those with eligibility remaining, for next fall's preseason rankings. The team rankings also are important for selecting hosts for the ITF Kickoff Weekend, which determines the National Team Indoor Championships participants, with that draft coming soon. Click on the headings for the full ranking lists. The list of seeded players at the just completed NCAA individual championships can be found here. They received All-America status when those seeds were announced.
The top 14 in the Division I team rankings (SMU and Baylor, the two host teams, receive byes into the National Team Indoor)
MEN:
Team:1. TCU
2. Texas
3. Ohio State
4. Virginia
5. Kentucky
6. Wake Forest
7. Tennessee
8. Columbia
9. Arizona
10. Florida State
11. Oklahoma
12. Harvard
13. Mississippi State
14. Duke
1. Eliot Spizzirri, Texas
2. Johannus Monday, Tennessee
3. Micah Braswell, Texas
4. Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State
5. Ozan Baris, Michigan State
6. Jack Pinnington Jones, TCU
7. Chris Rodesch, Virginia
8. Jake Fearnley, TCU
9. Toby Samuel, South Carolina
10. Michael Zheng, Columbia
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11. Oliver Tarvet, San Diego
12. Nishesh Basavareddy, Stanford
13. Murphy Cassone, Arizona State
14. Cooper Williams, Harvard
15. Alex Martinez, Oklahoma
16. Colton Smith, Arizona
17. Filip Planinsek, Alabama
18. JJ Tracy, Ohio State
19. Andres Martin, Georgia Tech
20. Radu Papoe, Cornell
All 20 had earned All-American honors earlier, either by being seeded at the NCAAs or by reaching the round of 16 in the singles tournament. The Top 10 will receive 6 or 8 main draw ATP Challenger wild cards at 50 or 75 level tournaments, depending on whether they are still in school, according to the Accelerator terms,
explained here. Those with final rankings of 11-20 will receive qualifying wild cards. Ohio State rising junior Jack Anthrop, who finished with a ranking of 28, also will get the benefit of the Accelerator Program, as a quarterfinalist.
1. Robert Cash and JJ Tracy, Ohio State
2. Garrett Johns and Pedro Rodenas, Duke
3. DK Suresh and Holden Koons, Wake Forest
4. Etienne Donnet and Natan Rodrigues, Louisville
5. Joshua Lapadat and JJ Mercer, Kentucky
6. Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez, Mississippi St
7. Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc and Joshua Dous Karpenschif, Florida St
8. Johannus Monday and Angel Diaz, Tennessee
9. Hunter Heck and Karlis Ozolins, Illinois
10. Tyler Zink and Isaac Becroft, Oklahoma State
Two teams not listed above received All-America status by reaching the quarterfinals last week: Cassone and Jacob Bullard of Arizona State and Bozo Barun and Jared Horwood of Arkansas. The above teams from Illinois and Oklahoma State earned All-American status by finishing in the top 10 in the final rankings. All seeded doubles teams at the NCAAs had already earned All-America status. There is no ATP/ITA Accelerator program for doubles.
WOMEN:
1. Texas A&M
2. Oklahoma State
3. Georgia
4. Stanford
5. Michigan
6. Pepperdine
7. North Carolina
8. Virginia
9. UCLA
10. Cal
11. Texas
12. Tennessee
13. Southern Cal
14. Florida
The
ITA/ITF Women's Accelerator Program is much less generous, with only the top five, plus the NCAA singles finalists, qualifying for wild cards. This is obviously not a good look, when gender equity is major point of contention in women's college athletics; let's hope an improved program for women is coming, sooner rather than later. Singles finalist Anastasiia Lopata, who finished No. 30 in the final rankings, up from 70 at the beginning of the NCAAs, will qualify for the Accelerator Program, as well as the Top 5 below.
1. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M
2. Amelia Rajecki, North Carolina St
3. Alexa Noel, Miami
4. Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia
5. Kari Miller, Michigan
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6. Celia-Belle Mohr, Vanderbilt
7. Connia Ma, Stanford
8. Ange Oby Kajuru, Oklahoma St
9. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina
10. Rachel Gailis, Florida
11. Sofia Cabezas, Tennessee
12. Ayana Akli, South Carolina
13. Irina Cantos Siemers, Ohio St
14. Carolyn Ansari, Auburn
15. Fiona Crawley, North Carolina
16. Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine
17. Malaika Rapolu, Texas
18. Elizabeth Scotty, North Carolina
19. Lisa Zaar, Pepperdine
20. Alexandra Yepifanova, Stanford
For a list of all the singles players who earned All-America status by reaching the round of 16 last week,
see my post from May 21.
1. Janice Tjen and Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine
2. Ange Oby Kajuru and Anastasiya Komar, Oklahoma St
3. Mary Stoiana and Mia Kupres, Texas A&M
4. Ayesegul Mert and Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia
5. Elizabeth Scotty and Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina
6. Fiona Crawley and Carson Tanguilig, North Carolina
7. Sofia Cabezas and Elza Tomase, Tennessee
8. Metka Komac and Avelina Sayfetdinova, Texas Tech
9. Alina Shcherbinina and Dana Guzman, Oklahoma
10. Fangran Tian and Elise Wagle, UCLA
The UCLA team received All-America status by this final Top 10 ranking; No. 10 Mohr and Anessa Lee of Vanderbilt earned it via their run to the semifinals last week.
ITA Player of the Year honors go to the top-ranked player in singles; the rest of the ITF year-end awards, which for many years were revealed right before the team finals, have yet to be announced.
The Tennis Recruiting Network posted
an article today on the Division II Team Championships, which were played last week in Altamonte Springs Florida, with neither No. 1 seed prevailing. No. 3 seed Valdosta State won the
men's title, their third, beating No. 1 seed Flagler 4-3. The No. 2 seeded Nova Southeastern
women ended the six-year run of No. 1 seed Barry 4-2 to claim the program's first title.
This is big local news for me, with
Western Michigan University announced yesterday that Joelle Kissell has been named head coach of the women's program, succeeding Ryan Tomlinson, who coached the team from 2015 until September of 2023, with assistant Jimmy Beckwith serving as interim coach this season. Prior to Tomlinson's tenure, Betsy Kuhle, sister of Chuck and Lornie Kuhle, had coached the Broncos for 33 years. Kissell, a former standout at North Carolina State, comes to Kalamazoo from Wichita State, where she was an assistant for the past two seasons.
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