ITA All-American Fields Feature Top Ten Talent; Stolarczyk and Malacek Replay Kalamazoo 16s Final in J200 Montreal Semis; Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury Retire; Gorzny Beats Basavareddy at Tiburon Challenger

The first major tournament of the ITA Division I fall season is coming up, with the long-running All-American Championships set to begin with pre-qualifying this weekend. The locations remain the same as in years past, with the the women in Cary North Carolina and the men in Tulsa Oklahoma.

Preseason No. 1 Lucciana Perez of Texas A&M did not enter, suggesting she will again skip the fall season, although she will still have an opportunity to play events that would qualify her for November's NCAA championships later this fall.

The top eight players in the preseason rankings who have entered are:

Carmen Herea[2], Texas

Luciana Perry[3], Ohio State

Teah Chavez[4], Ohio State

Piper Charney[6], Michigan

Irina Balus[7], Duke

Mia Slama[10], NC State

Jana Hossam[11], Florida

Amelie Van Impe[12], SMU

The four women from the preseason Top 10 preseason who are not on the women's list are: 

Lucciana Perez[1], Texas A&M

Aysegul Mert[5], Georgia

Cadence Brace[8], LSU

Evialina Laskevich[9], Oklahoma

Main draw wild cards were given to Mimi Xu of Duke and Emma Dong of Georgia, who received the ITA wild cards, and Tori Osuigwe of NC State, who received the host wild card. Katie Rolls of Virginia apparently did not need the wild card she earned as the women's ITA National Summer champion.

Except for Xu, none of those on the preseason newcomer list received main draw entry, but most are in qualifying, or at the bottom of the main draw alternate list.

Qualifying wild cards were given to Amara Brahmbhatt of Michigan State, who received the ITA wild card; host wild cards went to Claire An of Duke and Alanis Hamilton of North Carolina.

Duke and Ohio State are tied for the most players in the main draw before qualifying with four. 

The men's list is also missing the preseason No. 1, with Virginia's Dylan Dietrich not entered.

The top eight men from the preseason rankings who have entered are:

Paul Inchauspe[2], Princeton

Devin Badenhorst[5], Baylor

Keegan Rice[6], Virginia

Aidan Kim[7], Ohio State

Theo Papamalamis[8], Texas A&M

Gabriel Debru[9], Texas

Matthew Forbes[10], Ohio State

Jakub Vrba[11], Arkansas

Dietrich, TCU's Duncan Chan[3] and Michigan's Max Dahlin[4] are the only Top 10 players not entered.

The wild cards are Baylor's Louis Bowden, who won the ITA National Summer Championships, TCU's Roger Pascual, and host wild card Alvaro Frutos of Tulsa.

As with the women, many of those on the newcomer list are in qualifying, including No. 1 Luca Preda of Virginia, although No. 4 newcomer Jamie Mackenzie of TCU is notably absent.

Ohio State has six players in the main draw, no other school has more than three.

At the J200 in Montreal, both Kalamazoo 16s champion Kamil Stolarczyk and finalist Daniel Malacek won their quarterfinal matches, with No. 5 seed Stolarczyk beating top seed Joshua Adamson of Canada 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 and No. 4 seed Malacek beating No. 7 seed Caden Colburne of Canada 6-3, 7-6(6). The Kalamazoo 16s doubles champions will meet in the semifinals, with Malacek hoping to avenge his 6-4, 6-2 loss to Stolarczyk last month in Kalamazoo.

An article on Stolarczyk's US Open Junior Championships debut by Zootennis contributor Michael Lewis can be found at the Long Island Press.

No. 3 seed Erik Schinnerer also advanced to the semifinals, beating No. 8 seed Antoine Clavel of Canada 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in today's quarterfinals. He will play No. 2 seed Antoine Genereux of Canada, who has beaten him twice in WT junior competition.

Two US girls have advanced to the semifinals, with No. 3 Ellery Mendell set to face top seed Avery Alexander of Canada and No. 4 seed Reiley Rhodes playing No. 2 seed Clemence Mercier of Canada.

Rajeev Ram, who won the 2003 NCAA doubles title as a freshman at Illinois, announced his retirement from professional tennis after he and Joe Salisbury lost in the semifinals of the men's doubles at the US Open last week. Today, Salisbury announced his retirement, at age 34, eight years younger than Ram. I was fortunate to be able to see them play the Ohio State team of Brandon Carpico and Nikita Filin in the third round of the US Open, and also was able to watch them compete on Louis Armstrong in 2023, when they went on to win their third straight US Open men's doubles title, after winning the Australian Open title in 2020.

Both are former ATP No. 1s, with two ATP Finals titles. Salisbury, who played his college tennis at Memphis, won 17 ATP titles, Ram 32. From 2020 to 2023, they were at the very top of the sport and although they have had success with other partners, it's difficult to think of one without the other given all their success over the past decade.

The ATP article on Ram's retirement ceremony at his last match is here; their coverage of Salisbury's retirement announcement today is here.

The first four quarterfinalists at the ATP Challenger 125 in Tiburon California have been determined after play today, with two wild cards advancing with wins over seeds.

This afternoon, JJ Wolf(Ohio State) continued his comeback with a 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-4 win over No. 8 seed Braden Shick(NC State); tonight Sebastian Gorzny(TCU, Texas) continued his summer of impressive results, beating No. 2 seed Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) 6-2, 6-4, by claiming the last four games of the match.

Gorzny and Wolf will play Friday in the quarterfinals.

The 2025 NCAA singles final will be played again Thursday, less than a year later, with top seed Michael Zheng(Columbia) facing Trevor Svajda(SMU). Zheng, who won his second NCAA singles title with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 win over Svajda at Baylor last November, advanced to the second round with a 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 win over qualifier Evan Zhu(UCLA) yesterday. Svajda defeated Blaise Bicknell(Florida, Tennessee) 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 to earn a rematch with Zheng.