USTA Announces Participants for June's American Collegiate US Open Playoff; Nine Americans in Roland Garros Junior Championships Qualifying Thursday; Tu and Lee Advance to Semis at ITF J300 Belgium; Stearns, Paul and Michelsen Reach RG Third Round

I have been struggling with home internet problems the past five days, so I apologize for the delay in my NCAA D-I Athens post, but those issues are now resolved, which means I'll have it ready for tomorrow.

The USTA announced the fields for the second annual American Collegiate US Open Wild Card Playoffs, which included the surprising information that two-time NCAA champion Michael Zheng of Columbia would not be participating.

Zheng, who qualified for both the Australian Open and Roland this year, lost in the final of the inaugural Collegiate Playoffs last year. He is already assured of a spot in US Open qualifying after his run of three straight Challenger titles last summer and fall, and he has not had a stellar record against fellow collegians this spring, so he may be banking on getting his ranking, currently 146, into the Top 100 by the late July cutoff for the US Open. Last year, Arizona's Colton Smith declined his invitation to the playoff, which was won by Wake Forest's Stefan Dostanic, but Smith lost in the first round of qualifying at the US Open.

Although the committee formed to choose the participants can use other factors, all the invitees were chosen based solely on their ITA rankings. All those in the release below were the top-ranked Americans in the final ITA rankings.

STANDOUT FIELD ANNOUNCED FOR AMERICAN COLLEGIATE 

PLAYER WILDCARD PLAYOFFS

 

Top American Collegians to Compete for Six US Open Wild Card Entries June 16-18 

at the USTA National Campus

 

ORLANDO, Fla., May 27, 2026 – The USTA today announced the field of standout American collegiate players that will compete for entry into the US Open at the American Collegiate Player Wildcard Playoffs set to be held at the USTA National Campus’ Collegiate Center June 16-18.

Six wild card entries into the 2026 US Open (four singles, two doubles) will be awarded via the second-year playoff event. The winners of the four-player men’s and women’s singles playoff and four-team men’s and women’s doubles playoff will earn US Open main draw singles and doubles wild cards, respectively, while the men’s and women’s singles finalists will earn US Open Qualifying wild cards.

The full fields are below, listed by the schools with which each player or team competed in 2025-26. Players appearing in bold automatically qualified based on having reached the finals of the NCAA Singles or Doubles Championships in the fall. The remaining selections were made based on a number of criteria, including 2025-26 match record, ITA ranking, ATP/WTA ranking, professional and head-to-head results, and more.

All singles and doubles matches will be played with a best-of-three-set format featuring regular scoring, with a 10-point tiebreak at 6-all in the third set.

 

Admission is free. Cracked Racquets will provide streaming coverage.

2026 American Collegiate Player Wildcard Playoffs Field

 

Men's Singles
Trevor Svajda (SMU)
Sebastian Gorzny (Texas)
Aidan Kim (Ohio State)
*Matthew Forbes (Michigan State)

 

Michael Zheng (Columbia) automatically qualified, but declined his invitation.

 

Women's Singles
Reese Brantmeier (North Carolina)
Luciana Perry (Ohio State)
Piper Charney (Michigan)
Katrina Scott (Tennessee)

 

Men's Doubles
Brandon Carpico/Nikita Filin (Ohio State)
Alex Chang/Alex Razeghi (Stanford)
Michael Andre/Matteo Antonescu (Indiana)
Greyson Casey/Carter Pate (Northwestern)

 

Women's Doubles
DJ Bennett/Ava Esposito (Auburn)
Reese Brantmeier/Alanis Hamilton (North Carolina)
Valeria Ray/Bridget Stammel (Vanderbilt)
*Jessica Bernales/Lily Jones (Michigan)

 

* Indicates player has transferred schools for the 2026-27 season; Forbes to Ohio State and Bernales to UCLA.

 

Competition Schedule

*All matches are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. each night, subject to change*

Tuesday, June 16
Men’s and Women’s Singles Semifinals

Wednesday, June 17
Men’s and Women’s Doubles Semifinals

Thursday, June 18
Men’s and Women’s Singles Finals
Men’s and Women’s Doubles Finals

Qualifying for the Roland Garros Junior Championships begins Thursday in Paris, with four US boys and five US girls attempting to reach the main draw.

Safir Azam, the No. 3 seed in qualifying, plays wild card Evan Giurescu of France; Agassi Rusher faces No. 5 seed John Bothma of South Africa; Navneet Raghuram plays No. 6 seed Kunanan Pantaratorn of Thailand and Michael Savano faces No. 7 seed Mustafa Ege Sik of Australia. Benjamin Azar of Canada in the top seed in qualifying. 

Sarah Ye will play No. 11 seed Alena Kharchenko of Russia, Maggie Sohns is facing No. 4 seed Emily Eigelsbach of Germany, No. 9 seed Olivia Traynor plays French wild card Mila Bastianelli, Carrie-Anne Hoo faces No. 6 seed Veronika Sekerkova of Czechia and No. 15 seed Nancy Lee plays Ilary Pistola of Italy. Yu Jun Lin of China is the top seed in qualifying. 

Neither of the two Americans in the semifinals at this week's ITF J300 in Belgium were in Roland Garros Juniors qualifying as of the freeze deadline, so it's unlikely that either Jordan Lee or Anita Tu will receive special exempts into the main draw in Paris.

Lee, who missed the ITF J300s in the US this spring due to injury, defeated Oluwaseun Ogunsakin of Nigeria 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 to advance to a semifinal meeting with top seed Arnav Papakar of India. 

Safir Azam and Navneet Raghuram had to give a walkover in their doubles semifinal match in order to play qualifying in Paris, with the two boys special exempts going to the other two singles semifinalists: Matei Chelemen of Romania and Dan Brand of Israel were entered in RG qualifying but unable to play due to their semifinal in Belgium tomorrow.

Tu, who defeated qualifier Michelle Khomich of Germany 6-4, 6-1 today in Belgium to reach her first J300 semifinal, is the highest ranked player remaining in singles who was not in Roland Garros qualifying, so she could get a special exempt, but only if she ended up getting into qualifying when today's draw was made. 

Tu will play lucky loser Sofia Barhacova of Slovakia in the semifinals. 

Only three of the eight Americans in action Wednesday reached the third round at Roland Garros, with Hailey Baptiste suffering a serious injury in the first set that resulted in her retirement and a wheelchair exit from the court. Alex Michelsen repeated his 2022 Easter Bowl 18s finals win over Nishesh Basavareddy today in the only all-US matchup in Paris, coming through by the score of 7-6(5), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Peyton Stearns(Texas) and Tommy Paul are the Americans joining Michelsen in the third round.

Former Old Dominion All-American Yuliia Starodubtseva of Ukraine posted the biggest upset of the first four days at Roland Garros, beating No. 2 seed and reigning Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(4). 

Wednesday's Roland Garros second round results of Americans:

Belinda Bencic[11](SUI) d. Caty McNally 6-4, 6-0 

Marta Kostyuk[15](UKR) d. Katie Volynets 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3

Xiyu Wang[Q](CHN) d. Hailey Baptiste[26] 5-4, ret.

Viktorija Golubic(SUI) d. Alycia Parks 6-2, 6-2

Peyton Stearns d.  Daria Snigur(UKR) 6-4, 6-0

Tommy Paul[24] d. Lorenzo Sonego(ITA) 6-3, 6-2, 6-4

Alex Michelsen d. Nishesh Basavareddy[WC] 7-6(5), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3

Thursday's Roland Garros second round matches featuring Americans:

Learner Tien[18] v Facundo Diaz Acosta[Q](ARG)

Ben Shelton[5] v Raphael Collignon(BEL)

Frances Tiafoe[19] v Hubert Hurkacz(POL)

Brandon Nakashima[31] v Luca Van Assche(FRA)

Zachary Svajda v Adam Walton[WC](AUS)

Ann Li[30] v Diane Parry(FRA)

Iva Jovic[17] v Emma Navarro

Amanda Anisimova[6] v Julia Grabher(AUT)

Coco Gauff[4] v Mayar Sherif[Q](EGY)

McCartney Kessler v Diana Shnaider[25](RUS)

Claire Liu[Q] v Maria Sakkari(GRE)

Madison Keys[19] v Antonia Ruzic(CRO)