Kennedy and Arseneault Post Wins at 2026's First USTA Pro Circuit Tournament in Winston-Salem; Zampardo Signs with UNC, Exsted Joins USC; Jovic Reaches Quarterfinals at WTA 250 in Auckland

The first tournament of the year on the USTA Pro Circuit is an M25 in Winston-Salem North Carolina, with qualifying concluding today and four first round matches played. 

Seventeen-year-old Jack Kennedy, the ITF junior No. 3, will be playing primarily on the ITF men's and ATP Challenger tour in his last year of junior eligibility, as he prepares to begin his collegiate career in the fall at the University of Virginia. As a wild card this week in Winston-Salem, Kennedy defeated Karl Poling(Princeton, UNC) 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 in the first round of the tournament, which is being played on the Wake Forest indoor hard courts.

University of Kentucky freshman Nicolas Arseneault of Canada, who received main draw entry based on his ATP ranking of 501, defeated No. 2 seed Alex Rybakov(TCU) 7-6(4), 6-3.

Arizona State junior Bor Artnak of Slovenia, the No. 6 seed, defeated wild card Will Grant(Florida) 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 and No. 3 seed Daniel Milavsky(Harvard) beat Alan Magadan(UTSA) of Mexico 7-6(4), 6-1.

The other wild cards were awarded to two Wake Forest players: junior Luca Pow of Great Britain and freshman Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands. At this time last year, Rottgering was No. 1 in the ITF junior rankings and was not interested in playing college tennis, but with NIL and fewer eligibility hurdles, many current and former top juniors are taking another look at the collegiate option. Rottgering will face Ryan Fishbach(Virginia Tech) in the first round Wednesday; Pow's opponent is qualifier Daniil Kakhniuk(New Mexico).

In addition to Kakhniuk, the American qualifiers are Theodore Dean(Yale, Cal), Matthew Thomson(Wake Forest), Zeke Clark(Illinois) and Ryan Colby(USC, Georgia).  The other three qualifiers: Serbia's Aleksa Ciric(Georgia Gwinnett), NC State sophomore Jules Leroux of France, and Nicola Ion of Canada.

Stefan Dostanic, who led Wake Forest to the NCAA title last spring in his final season of collegiate eligibility, is back in action after shutting down his season after September's Winston-Salem Challenger due to an arm injury. He will play former Texas A&M standout Raphael Perot, the No. 4 seed, who went 20-2 on the USTA Pro Circuit last September and October.

Arizona senior Jay Friend, the No. 7 seed, plays Ciric in the first round Wednesday; Andres Andrade of Ecuador is the top seed and the former University of Florida standout has drawn recent NC State graduate Braden Shick, who went 17-2 in M15s in Asia to close out the year.

After Maddy Zampardo left NC State after her sophomore season, where she would end up was the subject of much speculation, especially when she didn't enroll in the fall. But the Michigan native didn't end up going very far, with North Carolina announcing last Friday that she was joining the Tar Heels. Zampardo adds to UNC's already impressive doubles talent, and she may reunite with junior doubles partner Susanna Maltby. The pair won two USTA gold balls in the 18s, at the Indoors in 2022 and the Easter Bowl in 2023. With Anna Frey joining the Tar Heels this month as well, UNC will be formidable once again this year.

Speaking of doubles talent, Max Exsted will be joining USC for this dual match season. According to this post on X, the two-time Australian Open doubles champion is on campus and ready to go. Exsted and Cooper Woestendick won the Kalamazoo 18s title and a round at the US Open, and Exsted has won four M15 titles with four different partners since then. Although adjusting to college as a January freshman is a challenge, Exsted's doubles skills should help the Trojans immediately.

Last month Iva Jovic turned 18, so she is starting 2026 free of WTA age restrictions for the first time. The youngest player in the WTA Top 100, Jovic is at 35 in the WTA rankings despite having reached only one WTA quarterfinal. That was last September, when she won the WTA 500 in Guadalajara; she now has reached quarterfinal No. 2 this week at the WTA 250 ASB Classic in Auckland New Zealand. The No. 3 seed, Jovic defeated Gabriela Knutson(Syracuse) of the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-1, 6-0 in the first round and Wednesday beat fellow teenager Sara Bejlek of the Czech Republic 7-6(3), 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals. Jovic will face the winner of the second round match between two qualifiers: Kaitlin Quevedo, the American-born player who now represents Spain and Sofia Costoulas of Belgium.