Conference Masters Participants Announced; Fields Set for Inaugural ITA Division II Individual Championships; Pareja, Gowda, Konduri and Johnson Earn First Round Wins in World Tennis Pro Events

Four of the remaining 28 spots to fill in next month's NCAA singles championships will be decided next week at the Conference Masters Championships, with representatives from 31 women's conferences and 27 men's conferences gathering in Rome Georgia. The four semifinalists in singles and the two finalists in doubles will earn a place in the draw, while at the same time, the 24 remaining singles and 12 remaining doubles spots will be filled at the Sectional Championships.

The non-Power 4 conferences often have tournaments to decide their representatives at the Conference Masters, but I don't believe the Power 4 conferences have any competition to determine who is designated as their representative.

The men from the Power 4 conferences competing in singles are:

ACC: Alex Razeghi(Stanford)

Big Ten: Rudy Quan(UCLA) 

Big 12: Niksa Arsic(Texas Tech)

SEC: Bryan Hernandez Cortes(Mississippi State)

The women from Power 4 conferences competing in singles are:

ACC: Alexis Nguyen(North Carolina)

Big Ten: Reese Miller(Michigan)

Big 12: Kyoka Kubo(Kansas)

SEC: Linea Bajraliu(Georgia)

The full list of all 32 competitors is here. After using byes in the past two years, this year the final few spots available in the draws were filled by lottery, resulting in a second entry for the SEC men: Texas A&M's Amirkhamza Nasridinov.

The ITA will be overseeing a third big event next week, with the first Division II Singles and Doubles Championships scheduled for November 4-8 in Tuscaloosa Alabama. 

Both singles and doubles champions will be crowned for men and women, with 32 players competing for the singles title and 16 teams playing for the doubles title. 

The full list of competitors is here.

A conversation with 17-year-old Julieta Pareja is featured today in Jon Wertheim's weekly mailbag column in Sport Illustrated, with the 2025 Wimbledon girls finalist discussing her connection to Colombia, the influence of her older sisters and her favorite players. The final answer in the interview sounds as if she is not considering college tennis, but in the current environment, there is no pressure for her to make that decision right now.

After reaching the semifinals of the W100 in Edmond Oklahoma two weeks ago, Pareja is competing in the W100 in New Braunfels Texas this week, and she is through to the second round with a 6-3, 6-2 win over qualifier Diae El Jardi(Rice) of Morocco. She will face No. 7 seed Barbora Palicova of Czechia Thursday. 

No. 2 seed Kristina Liutova defeated qualifier Veronika Miroshnichenko(Loyola Marymount) of Russia 6-4, 6-4 today and No. 6 seed Akasha Urhobo beat Savannah Broadus(Pepperdine) 6-2, 6-4, but wild cards Melije Clarke and Thea Frodin and junior exempt entrant Kristina Penickova lost their opening matches, leaving just three teens in the second round.

Austin W50 champion Ella McDonald(LSU) of Great Britain continued her winning streak, advancing when No. 3 seed Elvina Kalieva retired trailing 6-1, 3-0.

At the W75 in Toronto, University of Michigan recruit Thara Gowda qualified for the main draw and won her first round match today, beating Anna Rogers(NC State) 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(6). In case you missed it, I wrote about Gowda's choice of Michigan in this article for Tennis Recruiting Network last week. Gowda will face No. 3 seed Katherine Sebov of Canada in Thursday's second round.

Reese Brantmeier, champion at last week's W75 in Saguenay Canada, is the No. 7 seed at this week's W75 in Toronto. North Carolina's 2025 NCAA champion defeated Hina Inoue 7-5, 6-0 today to set up a second round match with 20-year-old Clervie Ngounoue, who qualified and beat Jasmijn Gimbrere of the Netherlands 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in today's first round. 

Ngounoue and Brantmeier met in the quarterfinals of the W35 in Wichita in May, with Ngounoue winning the first set in a tiebreaker, but retiring with Brantmeier up 4-3 in the second set, with Brantmeier going on to win the title. Qualifier Carson Tanguilig(UNC), Madison Sieg(USC), Ayana Akli(Maryland, South Carolina) and Lea Ma(Georgia) are the other Americans through to the second round.

At the M25 in Las Vegas, 17-year-old wild card Tanishk Konduri advanced to the second round with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Nikola Djosic(Arizona State) of Switzerland. Konduri, who made the semifinals of the March M25 in Las Vegas, will play unseeded Felix Corwin(Minnesota) next.

No. 5 seed Andy Johnson defeated Djosic's Sun Devil teammate Xavi Palomar, a qualifier, 6-2, 6-2 today and will play Will Jansen(UNC, Ohio State, Georgia) of Great Britain Thursday.

Georgia sophmore Noah Johnston, a qualifier, beat Oliver Okonkwo(Iowa, Illinois) of Great Britain 0-6, 6-4, 7-6(1) and will face Virginia sophomore Andres Santamarta of Spain, who beat top seed Max Wiskandt of Germany in the first round yesterday.

The No. 2 seed is also out, with Ohio State junior Nikita Filin beating Andreja Petrovic(North Dakota, Florida State, Duke) of Norway 6-3, 7-6(5). He will play Micah Braswell(Texas) Thursday.