ITA Cup for D-III, JUCO and NAIA Fall Championships Begin Thursday; Vaughan Earns First ATP Point at Austin M25; Gowda Advances at W50 in Quebec; Rajeshwaran Revathi Feature

The annual ITA Cup, which serves as the fall individual championships for NCAA Division III, NAIA and Junior College schools, begins Thursday in Rome Georgia. The ITA has introduced separate NCAA Division II individual championships for the first time this year, which will be played in early November.

As with the NCAA Division I National Championships, regionals are played throughout the country to determine the 16 players who will compete in each of the ITA Cup men's and women's singles draws. Sixteen doubles teams also earn their spots in Rome via regional qualifying. A playoff to determine an over-all Small College champion had been discontinued.  The singles seeds are below; draws for singles and doubles for all three divisions can be found here.

Men's seeds:

Division III
1. Drew Goldman, Pomona Pitzer
2. Adamantios Stavrakas, Johns Hopkins
3. Alex Feies, Carnegie Mellon
4. Garv Bahl, Tufts

NAIA

1. Christian Sanchez, Xavier/LA

2. Kanan Gasimov, Georgia Gwinnett

3. Ching Wah Wai, Holly Cross/Notre Dame

4. Nicolas Cortes, Tennessee Wesleyan

JUCO

1. Willem de Waal, Tyler JC

2. Koshiro Nakamae, Pratt CC

3. Galo Gutierrez Matuk, Eastern Florida State

4. Matthew Harris, Pratt CC

Women's seeds:

Division III

1. Tina She, Amherst

2. Sophie Lau, Pomona-Pitzer

3. Rebecca Kong, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

4. Caitlin Bui, Washington St. Louis

NAIA

1. Maja Brnic, Xavier/LA

2. Suryanshi Suryanshi, Georgia Gwinnett

3. Seohyeon Jang, Concordia Nebraska

4. Maria Purizaca, Doane

JUCO

1. Dina Lipovski, Tyler JC

2. Emily Lederer, Hillsborough CC

3. Paola Cordero, Hillsborough CC

4. Mariia Ponochovna, Eastern Florida State

Seventeen-year-old Mason Vaughan passed a milestone today, with the Dallas resident earning his first ATP point at the M25 in Austin Texas. Vaughan, who received a main wild card this year after playing in the qualifying at the tournament last year, defeated University of Texas sophomore Abel Forger from the Netherlands, a qualifier, 6-3, 6-2 in first round action today. Vaughan will play qualifier Cosme Rolland de Ravel of France, who played at TCU last season, in the second round. Rolland de Ravel beat No. 2 seed Raphael Perot(Texas A&M) of France 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 in the first round today. 

Dominick Mosejczuk of Wake Forest continued his USTA Pro Circuit winning streak, with the Fayetteville M15 champion beating fellow qualifier Johan Rodriguez(Oklahoma) of Colombia 6-4, 6-4. Mosejczuk will play another qualifier Thursday, after former Baylor standout Zsombor Velcz of Hungary beat former Texas All-American Timo Legout of France, the No. 7 seed, 0-6, 6-3, 6-2.

ITA All-American champion Roger Pascual of Spain beat Texas freshman Tomasz Berkieta, a wild card, 6-4, 6-2, and will play former teammate Lui Maxted of Great Britiain in the second round. Maxted, the No. 8 seed, beat Aidan Kim(Ohio State) 6-3, 6-2.

At the M15 in Lexington Kentucky, junior exempt entry Gavin Goode advanced to the second round when top seed Blaise Bicknell(Florida, Tennessee) of Jamaica retired trailing 6-2, 6-0.

In addition to the W100 in Edmond, which is still in the midst of its first round with rain pushing back the start times today, and the W35 in Redding, there are a number of American women competing this week at the W50 in Quebec City. Through to the second round are 2025 NCAA champion Reese Brantmeier(UNC), who just missed being seeded, Victoria Hu(Princeton), qualifier Jamilah Snells(Louisville), No. 8 seed Ayana Akli(Maryland, South Carolina), Hina inoue, Madison Sieg(USC), and qualifier Thara Gowda. I'm preparing an article for Tennis Recruiting Network next week about Gowda's commitment to Michigan; her three-hour 6-4, 6-7(12), 6-2 win over Jasmijn Gimbrere of the Netherlands today is her second main draw victory at the W50 level.

The 17-year-old Gowda will play 29-year-old Francoise Abanda of Canada, who reached a career-high of 4 in the World Tennis junior rankings back in 2013. Abanda, who has played sporadically over the past five years, and not all in 2024, defeated top seed and fellow Canadian Katherine Sebov 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 tonight.

Another 17-year-old, Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi of India, won the first two World Tennis women's titles of her career last week at the W35 in Portugal. Rajeshwaran Revathi, who recently won the J500 Osaka doubles title with Jordyn Hazelitt, is No. 16 in the WT junior rankings, a career-high.  Rajeshwaran Revathi, who qualified for the main draw, beat top seed Justina Mukulskyte(Kentucky) of Lithuania in the first round 7-6(1), 6-1 and became the youngest Indian to claim a W35 or above title with a 6-4, 6-2 win over No. 7 seed Celia Cervino Ruiz of Spain. The 2025 Orange Bowl girls doubles champion partnered with fellow teenager Yelyzaveta Kotliar of Ukraine for the doubles title in Portugal.

For more on her historic title, see this article from the World Tennis website, and this feature from the Hindustan Times.