Day, Townsend, Vidmanova and McDonald Qualify for BNP Paribas Open; Herea, Dietrich Take Over Top Spots in ITA D-I Singles Rankings; No. 3 and 4 Seeds in Both Draws Lose at J200 Las Vegas; WTA Tournament Returns to Memphis This Summer
After three days of play, qualifying for the BNP Paribas Open is complete, with three Americans making it through to the main draw.
Kayla Day, who received a wild card into qualifying only when Elvina Kalieva did not need hers when she got in on her own ranking, defeated two seeds to advance. The 26-year-old left-hander beat No. 17 seed Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus 6-2, 7-5 in the first round and No. 9 seed Darja Semenistraja of Latvia 6-2, 6-1 in today's final round of qualifying. She will play Francesca Jones of Great Britain, whom she beat in the second round of the Wimbledon Junior Championships back in 2016.
Taylor Townsend won the battle of the players who competed in finals on Sunday, with the ATX Open finalist and doubles champion beating Arcadia W35 winner Akasha Urhobo 6-0, 7-6(5) this afternoon.
2024 NCAA singles champion Dasha Vidmanova(Georgia), will make her Masters 1000 debut, with the 23-year-old Czech defeating Priscilla Hon of Australia 7-5, 7-6(4) to qualify. Vidmanova will face Cristina Bucsa of Spain, who won the WTA 500 last week in Mexico, in the first round.
Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA) and wild card Trevor Svajda(SMU) were the only two US men to advance to the final round of qualifying and they played each other tonight, with McDonald earning a 6-4, 6-2 victory. Svajda had beaten No. 12 seed and ATP No. 135 Luca Nardi of Italy 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-3 in the first round of qualifying Monday night.
An even dozen Americans are seeded in Indian Wells:
7. Taylor Fritz
8. Ben Shelton
21. Frances Tiafoe
23. Tommy Paul
25. Learner Tien
28. Brandon Nakashima
4. Coco Gauff
5. Jessica Pegula
6. Amanda Anisimova
15. Madison Keys
18. Iva Jovic
20. Emma Navarro
The men's singles draw is here; the women's singles draw is here. The order of play for Wednesday is here.
The ITA Division I release today includes both team and individual rankings; the No. 1 teams remain the same, with the Georgia women and Ohio State men continuing to hold the top spot since the computer rankings took over three weeks ago. But with the previous singles No. 1s both losing on Sunday--North Carolina's Reese Brantmeier fell to Amelie Van Impe of SMU 6-1, 6-2 and SMU's Trevor Svajda was beaten by Dylan Dietrich of Virginia 3-6, 6-1, 6-3--they dropped to No. 2. Dietrich moved to No. 1, while Texas's Carmen Herea took over the top spot from Brantmeier.
When the NCAA singles and doubles championships were in the spring, the rankings were important for entry into those events, but now the rankings are just to determine All-American status (a top 20 season-ending ranking) and the ATP and to a lesser extent, the ITF Accelerator programs. Of course they are also part of a player's legacy in their program, which is also significant.
ITA Division I Women's rankings, March 3, 2026
(previous week's ranking in parentheses, link to full lists in headings)
1. Georgia (1)
2. Ohio State (2)
3. North Carolina (3)
4. LSU (9)
5. Auburn (13)
6. UCLA (5)
7. Tennessee (14)
8. Texas A&M (4)
9. NC State (27)
10. Cal (7)
1. Carmen Herea, Texas
2. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina
3. Luciana Perry, Ohio State
4. Teah Chavez, Ohio State
5. Lucciana Perez, Texas A&M
6. Aysegul Mert, Georgia
7. Ange Oby Kajuru, North Carolina
8. Savannah Dada-Mascoll, Appalachian State
9. Valerie Glozman, Stanford
10. Anastasiia Grechkina, Pepperdine
1. Roisin Gilheany and Gloriana Nahum, Oklahoma
2. Gabriella Broadfoot and Victoria Osuigwe, NC State
3. Melodie Collard and Vivian Yang, Virginia
4. Reese Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton, North Carolina
5. Sophia Webster and Celia-Belle Mohr, Vanderbilt
ITA Division I Men's rankings, March 3, 2026
1. Ohio State (1)
2. Texas (4)
3. Virginia (2)
4. Wake Forest (3)
5. Mississippi (5)
6. LSU (7)
7. TCU (6)
8. Georgia (13)
9. UCF (10)
10. Baylor (8)
1. Dylan Dietrich, Virginia
2. Trevor Svajda, SMU
3. Jay Friend, Arizona
4. Sebastian Gorzny, Texas
5. Paul Inchauspe, Princeton
6. Aidan Kim, Ohio State
7. Michael Zheng, Columbia
8. Petar Jovanovic, Mississippi State
9. Duncan Chan, TCU
10. Max Dahlin, Michigan
1. Brandon Carpica and Nikita Filin, Ohio State
2. Manfredi Graziani and Aaron Sandler, Penn
3. Mans Dahlberg and Dylan Dietrich, Virginia
4. DK Suresh and Andrew Delgado, Wake Forest
5. Benito Sanchez Martinez and Petar Jovanovic, Mississippi State
While the top two seeds in the boys and girls draw have advanced to the round of 16 at the ITF J200 in Las Vegas, the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds have been eliminated. No. 3 seed Roshan Santhosh lost to Dhakshish Aryan Basavaraju 6-4, 6-4; Aryan Basavaraju won back-to-back J60s last month in Guatemala. No. 4 seed Cooper Kose of Australia lost in the first round yesterday to Gadin Arun 6-4, 7-6(3). Advay Singh defeated No. 5 seed Mauricio Schtulmann Gasca of Mexico 6-1, 7-6(4).
Girls No. 3 seed Olivia Traynor lost to Carlota Moreno, who made the semifinals of a W15 last month, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 today, while Charlize Celebrini of Canada defeated No. 4 seed Capucine Jauffret 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Celebrini is the younger sister of the NHL San Jose Sharks star Macklin Celebrini, a member of the Canadian Olympic hockey team.
Girls top seed Nancy Lee defeated Ava Quincy Brewer 1-6, 6-3, 6-0 to advance to a meeting with No. 14 seed Caroline Shao. Boys top seed Ryan Cozad beat Ilhan Basar Senel of Turkey 7-6(3), 6-4 and will face 16s Orange Bowl champion Matias Reyniak, the No. 15 seed, in the round of 16.
The WTA announced Monday that its 250 tournament, which had been played in Cleveland in late August, would be moving to Memphis for 2026 and will take place in late July. The Leftwich Tennis Center, which opened in 2023, will host the tournament; the previous WTA event in Memphis was indoors; this will be outside, and I can tell you from when I attended the USTA Girls 18s National Clay Courts there in July, it will be uncomfortably warm.
For more on this new event, see this article.
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