April Aces; NCAA Division III Team Championships Fields Announced; Alarms Sound Over Recent College Tennis Cuts; ITF J500 Offenbach Underway; Easter Bowl Champs Mendel and Kulkarni Claim ITF J100 Titles in Costa Rica

My column on the previous month's top performances is up today at the Tennis Recruiting Network, with ATP titles for former collegians and maiden USTA Pro Circuit singles titles for a trio of American juniors. Some of the April Aces I've covered when they've happened, but others I collect over the course of the month as I track the juniors and former collegians competing all over the globe.

The fields for the NCAA Division III Team Championships were announced today, with the first three rounds this weekend and the quarterfinals beginning for the women Monday May 18th and the men Tuesday May 19th in Chattanooga Tennessee. As an aside, both the men and the women in Division III get a day off after the semifinals, while in Division I only one gender gets a day off, after the quarterfinals, and that alternates each year. I think with the eight-team fields now at the final site for Division I, and no individual championships to follow, the NCAA D-I committee should consider adopting the Division III schedule.

Division III does not award seeds, which makes talking about the draws a bit awkward, but the top four teams in the ITA rankings are put in different quarters.

Third-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and second-ranked Denison, the defending champion, are on one side of the men's draw, with top-ranked Chicago and fourth-ranked Tufts on the other side.

In the women's draw, second-seeded Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and fourth-seeded Wesleyan are on one side, and top-ranked Chicago and third-seeded Washington-St. Louis are on the other side. Washington-St. Louis won the title last year.

The conversation that has arisen around college tennis's future since the elimination of the men's and women's programs at Arkansas hasn't died down, and I'm linking to three articles about the demise of college programs that I've seen in the last few days.  The Arkansas men played their last match in Fort Worth on Friday, and a reporter from WholeHogSports talked to all four coaches at the TCU regional for this article at the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

The Associated Press provided this article about the cuts, with a quote from USTA's Chairman and President Brian Vahaly. It also gives numbers I hadn't seen before on the cost per athlete, which I assume is higher in tennis due to the sport's small rosters.

Front Office Sports talked with Intercollegiate Tennis Association CEO Dave Mullins for its article on the number of college programs cut recently, and also quotes a similar statement from Vahaly, who played college tennis at the University of Virginia. 

I don't have much to add to this, but I do think the lack of a full-time college tennis advocate at the USTA has been sorely missed during this crisis, as they are organization with the budget and the clout to make a real difference in how college programs connect with their communities.

Before I get to the review of last week's results of Americans on the ITF Junior Circuit, there are two big tournaments this week with US juniors in the draw.

The new J200 in College Grove Tennessee has begun, with Agassi Rusher and Tucson ITF J300 champion Camille Allegre the top seeds.  Although these events are open to all nationalities, there are just three non-Americans in the girls draw and six in the boys draw.

This week's J500 in Offenbach Germany features four US girls, but no boys, with the four US boys that entered all withdrawing after the deadline. Maggie Sohns[16], Yael Saffar and Isabelle DeLuccia all won their first round matches today; Ireland O'Brien, the fourth US girl in the draw, lost to No. 5 seed Paola Pinera Celorio of Spain 6-3, 6-4. 

Brazil's Victoria Barros and Kazakhstan's Zangar Nurlanuly are the top seeds, and both advanced to the second round with wins today.

The ITF's preview of the tournament is here.

In other news, Jack Kennedy has withdrawn from the J500 in Milan, although he is still on the Roland Garros acceptance list.

I covered Jordan Lee and Hannah Ayrault's titles at the J200 in Sumter in Friday's post.

At the ITF J300 in Bulgaria, Olivia Traynor and Anita Tu made the singles quarterfinals and won the doubles title. Traynor and Tu, the No. 2 seeds, defeated No. 4 seed Polina Berezina of Russia and Dusica Popovski of Serbia 2-6, 7-5, 12-10 in the final. 

Americans swept the titles at the J100 in Costa Rica last week, among them two Easter Bowl champions. Girls 18s champion Ellery Mendell, the No. 3 seed, defeated doubles partner Aarini Bhattacharya, the No. 2 seed, 6-4, 6-4 in the final. It's the 16-year-old Mendell's third ITF singles title of the year, her fourth overall and the first above the J60 level.

Easter Bowl boys 16s champion Anay Kulkarni swept the boys titles, with the No. 4 seed defeating No. 3 seed Jayden Summers of South Africa 7-6(6), 6-4 in the final. He too has won four career ITF junior singles titles, with this his first above the J60 level. Kulkarni and partner Nicolas Pedraza, seeded No. 3, won the doubles title, beating unseeded Aaron Ascanio Prato of Venezuela and Xavier Tonioni of Italy 6-3, 6-2 in the final. 

Sixteen-year-old Ava Khalil won her second ITF Junior Circuit doubles title, with Korea's Sera Park. The unseeded pair defeated No. 3 seeds Azul Lopez Vazquez R of Mexico and Aurora Lugo of Puerto Rico 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 in the final.

At the J30 in Jamaica, 16-year-old Ross Johnson won an all-USA final, with the top seed claiming his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title with a 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-3 win over unseeded 15-year-old Krish Ferwani. Ferwani and Luca de Calice won the doubles title, unseeded, beating No. 2 seeds Danylo Glinnyi of Canada and Kai Lev of Israel 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

Fourteen-year-old wild card Ava Chua won the all-USA girls title, her first on the ITF Junior Circuit, beating No. 4 seed Alissa Jean-Baptiste 6-1, 6-4 in the final, after defeating the No. 1, No. 5 and No. 3 seeds, all in straight sets, to reach the championship match.

At the J30 in Rwanda, top seeds Eaden-Zack Harron and Legan Thomas won the doubles title, beating unseeded Angelo and Valentino Chiappero 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

Stanford Men Take out Texas A&M, All Eight Women's Seeds in Action Advance in Final Day of NCAA D-I Regionals; Super Regional Schedule Released; Honer Earns Second Straight W35 Title; Townsend Claims Third Straight 1000 Doubles Title in Madrid

In an NCAA Division I Regional weekend short on surprises, one upset was recorded today, with the Stanford men taking out No. 11 seed Texas A&M 4-2 in College Station. The Cardinal, No. 18 in the most recent ITA rankings, lost the doubles point, but got a quick 6-1, 6-1 win from Samir Banerjee, who is down to No. 2 in the lineup after a series of injuries this season, to pull even. Two more straight-sets wins, from Hudson Rivera at line 4 and Nico Godsick at line 3 were sandwiched around the Aggies victory at line 5, for a 3-2 Stanford lead.

By that time Stanford's Alex Razeghi, who started the year at the No. 5 position but has moved up to the No. 1 spot, was serving with a 6-4, 5-2 lead over Theo Papamalamis, as Alex Chang of Stanford had forced a third set at line 6. Razeghi didn't get to match point on his first attempt to serve it out, with a flurry of errors, and on his second attempt at 5-4, he also fell behind in that game with more errors. He did get to a deciding point/match point however, only to net a passing shot after a long rally featuring several net cords. Chang, who had played in the 1-5 positions during in the year, had lost his 4-2 lead in the third set, but Razeghi broke Papamalamis to give himself a third chance to serve it out, and this time he played a much more solid game to close out Stanford's win.

It's the fifth straight year that Stanford has advanced to the Super Regionals and in four of those, they have won their second round match on the road over the seeded host. Last year, as the No. 4 seed, Stanford hosted all three regional matches and went on to reach the semifinals at the final site in Waco. This year they will travel to TCU for the Super Regional.

Men's Regional Finals
(Sunday's result in italics)
*Wake Forest[1] d. Old Dominion[2] 4-0

UCF[1] d. Florida[2] 4-3
Oklahoma[1] d. Southern Cal[2] 4-0

*Arizona[1] d. Clemson[3] 4-2

*Mississippi State[1] d. Wisconsin[2] 4-0
Georgia[1] d. NC State[2] 4-0
South Carolina[1] d. Michigan State[2] 4-1
*Virginia[1] d. Columbia[2] 4-2
*Ohio State[1] d. Cal[3] 4-0
Illinois[1] d. Vanderbilt[3] 4-0
Stanford[2] d. Texas A&M[1] 4-2
*TCU[1] d. Cornell[2] 4-0
Pepperdine[2] d. LSU[1] 4-3
Baylor[1] d. Auburn[2] 4-1
San Diego[1] d. UCLA[2] 4-0
*Texas[1] d. SMU[2] 4-0

*Super Regional Host

Men's Super Regionals (all times Eastern)

Wake Forest[1] v UCF[16] 

Friday May 8th, 5 p.m. Winston-Salem NC

Oklahoma[9] v Arizona[8]

Saturday May 9th, 4 p.m. Tucson AZ

Mississippi State[5] v Georgia[12]

Saturday May 9th, 1 p.m. Starkville MS

South Carolina[13] v Virginia[4]

Friday, May 8th, 5 p.m. Charlottesville VA

Ohio State[3] v Illinois[14]

Friday May 8th, 5 p.m. Columbus OH

Stanford v TCU[6]

Saturday May 9th, 2 p.m. Fort Worth TX

Pepperdine v Baylor[10]

Friday May 8th, 7 p.m. Waco TX

San Diego[15] v Texas[2]

Friday May 8th, 7 p.m. Austin TX

The women's eight regional finals all went to the No. 1 seeds, although there were several close matches, with Michigan, Oklahoma and Texas earning 4-2 wins over Florida, SMU and Texas Tech respectively.

Women's Regional Finals

(Sunday's results in italics)

*Georgia[1] d. Charlotte[2] 4-0

UCLA[2] d. Arizona State[1] 4-3

Texas[1] d. Texas Tech[2] 4-2

*NC State[1] d. UCF[2] 4-0

*North Carolina[1] d. South Carolina 4-0

Michigan[1] d. Florida[2] 4-2

Southern Cal[1] d. Cal[2] 4-1

*Texas A&M[1] d. Baylor[3] 4-1

Vanderbilt[1] d. Clemson[2] 4-1

*Ohio State[1] d. Notre Dame[3] 4-0

Pepperdine[1] d. Stanford[2] 4-0

*Oklahoma[1] d. SMU[2] 4-2

*Virginia[1] d. Washington[2] 4-0

LSU[1] d. Rice[3] 4-1

*Auburn[1] d. Miami[2] 4-0

Duke[1] d. Tennessee[2] 4-1

*Host Super Regional

Women's Super Regionals (all times Eastern)

Georgia[1] v UCLA

Friday, May 8th, 4 p.m. Athens GA

Texas[9] v NC State[8]

Friday May 8th, 5 p.m. Raleigh NC

North Carolina[5] v Michigan[12]

Friday May 8th, 5 p.m. Chapel Hill NC

Southern California[3] v Texas A&M[4]

Friday May 8th, 3 p.m. College Station TX

Ohio State[3] v Vanderbilt[14]

Saturday May 9th, 1 p.m. Columbus OH

Pepperdine[11] v Oklahoma[6]

Friday May 8th, 6 p.m. Norman OK

Virginia[7] v LSU[10]

Saturday May 9th, 1 p.m. Charlottesville VA

Auburn[2] v Duke[15]

Friday May 8th, 6 p.m. Auburn AL

The men's draw is here; the women's draw is here.

Recent UC-Santa Barbara star Amelia Honer won her second consecutive W35 title today in Boca Raton, coming back from a lengthy rain delay in the third set to beat top seed Julia Riera of Argentina 7-5, 5-7, 7-5. Honer, an All-American at UCSB in 2024 and 2025, led 4-1 in the final set when rain interrupted play but Riera got back on serve at 3-4 only to be broken. Honer couldn't serve out the match, but held for 6-5 then broke for the title. The unseeded 23-year-old had also beaten the top seed in the final of the W35 in Charlotte NC last week. She now has four USTA Pro Circuit W35 titles and will move close to the WTA Top 400 when these points are added.

After clinching the USTA's Roland Garros wild card yesterday, a no doubt exhausted Akasha Urhobo lost in the final of the W100 in Bonita Springs Florida today to Angela Fita Boluda of Spain 6-3, 6-1. The 19-year-old from Florida was playing for a fifth consecutive week, picking up her first WTA main draw victory in Charleston in the first week and never going out before the quarterfinals in the next four tournaments. Not only has this run secured her a main draw wild card at Roland Garros, but she is now up to 183 in the WTA live rankings, meaning she will have no trouble getting into Wimbledon qualifying. 

In the Bonita Springs doubles final today, former Georgia teammates Dasha Vidmanova of Czechia and Mell Reasco of Ecuador won their first pro doubles title together. The unseeded pair defeated No. 2 seeds Anna Rogers(NC State) and Lia Karatancheva of Bulgaria 7-5, 6-3 in the final.

At the M15 in Orange Park Florida, No. 3 seed Nick Hardt of the Dominican Republic defeated No. 7 seed Andreja Petrovic(North Dakota, Florida State, Duke) of Norway 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 for his first title of the year.

Taylor Townsend partner Katarina Siniakova of Czechia added the Madrid women's doubles title to the Indian Wells and Miami titles they won earlier this spring with a 7-6(2), 6-2 win today over Diana Shnaider(NC State) and Mirra Andreeva of Russia. They will return to No. 1 and No. 2 in the WTA doubles rankings with their fourth 1000 title as a pair; they have also won the Australian Open and Wimbledon women's doubles titles. For more on their win in Madrid, see this article from the WTA website.

Pepperdine Men Shock No. 7 Seed LSU to Reach NCAA Division I Sweet 16; Urhobo and Basavareddy Claim USTA Roland Garros Wild Cards; Newman and Hazelitt Win Boca Raton W35 Doubles Title, Honer Reaches Second Straight W35 Final

Saturday featured a head-spinning number of matches in the NCAA Division I Team Championships, with 15 of the men's Sweet 16 and eight of the women's Sweet 16 decided today.

The biggest upset of the day came this evening, when the Pepperdine men, ranked 27, defeated No. 7 seed LSU 4-3 in Baton Rouge. LSU took the doubles point, but the Waves won five first sets in singles. LSU got the point at line 2, where they had won the first set, for a 2-0 lead, but Pepperdine responded with wins at lines 5 and 6. LSU retook the lead with a three-set win at line 1, but Pepperdine was up in the third sets at lines 3 and 4, and after freshman Gustavo Almeida tied it with a win at 4, sophomore Aleksa Pisaric clinched the Waves first Sweet 16 appearance since 2013 with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 win over Andrej Loncarevic.

With a Top 8 seed eliminated, a new Super Regional host is needed, with No. 10 Baylor now welcoming Pepperdine next weekend, rather than the Bears traveling to Baton Rouge.

At 11:30 p.m. Saturday night, in a match moved indoors at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, No. 16 seed UCF, down 3-0 to Florida, came all the way back to beat Florida, with senior Yassine Dlimi saving two match points at line 1 to clinch the 4-3 victory in a third set tiebreaker. Dlimi was serving to Florida's Adhithya Ganesan at 4-5 30-40 in the third set, but hit a good first serve to earn a deuce point, then another to set up a forehand Ganesan couldn't handle to keep UCF alive. After two holds, Dlimi and Ganesan traded mini-breaks early in the tiebreaker, but Dlimi kept his errors to a minimum and rode the home crowd support to a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) victory.

The Texas A&M men's regional was postponed Friday due to rain, so those two matches were played today.

Men's Saturday Round 1

Texas A&M Regional

Stanford[2] d. Penn[3] 4-1

Texas A&M[1] d. Wagner[4] 4-0

Men's Regional Finals/Super Regional Matchups

*Wake Forest[1] d. Old Dominion[2] 4-0

Florida[2] d. UCF[1]  

Oklahoma[1] d. Southern Cal[2] 4-0

*Arizona[1] d. Clemson[3] 4-2

*Mississippi State[1] d. Wisconsin[2] 4-0

Georgia[1] d. NC State[2] 4-0

South Carolina[1] d. Michigan State[2] 4-1

*Virginia[1] d. Columbia[2] 4-2

*Ohio State[1] d. Cal[3] 4-0

Illinois[1] d. Vanderbilt[3] 4-0

Texas A&M[1] v. Stanford[2]

*TCU[1] d. Cornell[2] 4-0

Pepperdine[2] d. LSU[1] 4-3

*Baylor[1] d. Auburn[2] 4-1

San Diego[1] d. UCLA[2] 4-0

*Texas[1] d. SMU[2] 4-0

*Host Super Regional

The only seeded women's team that failed to advance today was No. 16 Arizona State, who lost to UCLA in Tempe 4-3. It was the second consecutive day that UCLA had won a thriller, with Olivia Center clinching 6-3 in the third against San Diego State at line 5 on Friday and Ahmani Guichard clinching 6-4 in the third at line 6 against the Sun Devils today. UCLA will most likely travel to Georgia for the Super Regional, although the Bulldogs need to get by Charlotte in Athens Sunday. Other than Arizona State, no women's seed lost more than one point in their second round matches today.

Women's first round results

Saturday May 2:

(1)Georgia Regional

Charlotte[2] d. Elon[3] 4-0

Georgia[1] d. Alabama State[4] 4-0

(3)Ohio State Regional

Notre Dame[3] d. Arizona[2] 4-3

Ohio State[1] d. Youngstown State[4] 4-0

(4)Texas A&M Regional

Baylor[3] d. Wisconsin[2] 4-3

Texas A&M[1] d. Quinnipiac[4] 4-0

(6)Oklahoma Regional

SMU[2] d. Wichita State[3] 4-1

Oklahoma[1] d. Kansas[4] 4-0

(7)Virginia Regional

Washington[2] d. Liberty[3] 4-0

Virginia[1] d. St. Francis[4] 4-0

(9)Texas Regional

Texas Tech[2] d. Yale[3] 4-1

Texas[1] d. Tarleton State 5-1

(10)LSU Regional

Rice[3] d. TCU[2] 4-2

LSU[1] d. Stephen F. Austin[4] 4-0

(12)Michigan Regional

Florida[2] d. Toledo[3] 4-0

Michigan[1] d. Illinois State[4] 5-0

Women's Regional Finals/Super Regional Matchups

*Georgia[1] v Charlotte[2]

UCLA[2] d. Arizona State[1] 4-3

Texas[1] v Texas Tech[2]

*NC State[1] d. UCF[2] 4-0

*North Carolina[1] d. South Carolina 4-0

Michigan[1] v Florida[2]

Southern Cal[1] d. Cal[2] 4-1

**Texas A&M[1] v Baylor[3]

Vanderbilt[1] d. Clemson[2] 4-1

**Ohio State[1] v. Notre Dame[3]

Pepperdine[1] d. Stanford[2] 4-0

**Oklahoma[1] v SMU[2]

**Virginia[1] v Washington[2]

LSU[1] v Rice[3]

*Auburn[1] d. Miami[2] 4-0

Duke[1] d. Tennessee[2] 4-1

*Host Super Regional

**Host Super Regional if they win Sunday

See the ITA's  men's regional viewing page and a women's regional viewing page for times for Sunday's matches and the scores of all of Friday's first round matches.

Cracked Racquets will have multiple feeds of action from the remaining regionals at their YouTube Channel.

The USTA's men's Roland Garros wild card race was decided today, with Darwin Blanch, the only player remaining with a chance to catch Nishesh Basavareddy, falling in the semifinals of the Challenger 100 in Austria. Former Stanford All-American Basavareddy, who won the USTA's 2025 Australian Open wild card, finishes with 112 points after earning 75 as champion of the Savannah Challenger last Sunday.

The USTA's women's Roland Garros wild card will go to 19-year-old Akasha Urhobo, who defeated qualifier Madison Brengle 7-6(3), 6-3 in today's semifinals at the W100 in Bonita Springs Florida. With that win she clinched the wild card, with No. 6 seed Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) needing a win today and a loss by Urhobo to stay in the race. Stoiana lost to unseeded Angela Fita Boluda of Spain 6-3, 6-2. 

At the W35 in Boca Raton, 16-year-olds Welles Newman and Jordyn Hazelitt won their first Pro Circuit doubles title, with the wild cards defeating unseeded Kailey Evans(Texas Tech, San Diego) and Mexico's Jessica Hinojosa Gomez 7-6(8), 6-3 in the final.

Amelia Honer, the recent UC-Santa Barbara All-American, advanced to the singles final in Boca Raton, with last week's Charlotte W35 champion beating No. 3 seed Hibah Shaikh(Virginia) 6-3, 6-3. To win her second straight title, Honer will need to again beat the top seed in the final, as she did in Charlotte. No. 1 Julia Riera of Argentina beat unseeded Justina Maria Gonzalez Daniele of Argentina 7-6(5), 6-2 today to advance to the final.

Keaton Hance's run at M15s in Florida came to an end today in Orange Park, with the 18-year-old Southern Californian dropping a 6-3, 6-2 decision to No. 3 seed Nick Hardt of the Dominican Republic. Hardt will face No. 7 seed Andreja Petrovic(North Dakota, Florida State, Duke) of Norway, who beat top seed Raphael Perot(Texas A&M) of France 6-2, 6-3.

Former Illinois teammates Hunter Heck and Great Britain's Oliver Okonkwo won their first title as a pair, with the No. 3 seeds defeating unseeded Dakotah Bobo(LSU, Southern Miss) and Benjamin Koch(LSU) 7-5, 6-3 in the final. 

Few Upsets in First Round of NCAA D-I Championships; ELC Rolls Out for All USTA Pro Circuit Hard Court Events This Summer; Hance Reaches M15 Orange Park Semifinals; Lee and Ayrault Claim ITF J200 Titles in Sumter SC

The first day of the Division I NCAA Team Championships produced several minor upsets, with No. 3 seeds beating No. 2 seeds and a few 4-3 battles, but the host, the No. 1 seeds in their regionals cruised through their first round matches. The only exception was the San Diego men, who are hosting the consensus choice for the toughest field in the regionals. The No. 15 seeds defeated No. 4 seed UC-Santa Barbara, No. 35 in the country, 4-2 this afternoon.

Texas A&M, without indoor backup, had to postpone their first round men's matches until Saturday, with the women's first round matches also scheduled for Saturday.

See the ITA's  men's regional viewing page and a women's regional viewing page for times for Saturday's matches.

Cracked Racquets will have multiple feeds of action from most of the regionals at their YouTube Channel.

The men's draw is here; the women's draw is here.

D-I Men's first round regional results

(1)Wake Forest Regional:
Old Dominion[2] d. Gardner-Webb[3] 4-0
Wake Forest[1] d. Navy[4] 4-0

(2)Texas Regional

SMU[2] d. Princeton[3] 4-2

Texas[1] d. Texas A&M-Corpus[4] Christi 4-0

(3)Ohio State Regional

Cal[3] d. Kentucky[2] 4-3

Ohio State[1] d. Buffalo[4] 4-0

(4)Virginia Regional

Columbia[2] d. St. John's[3] 4-0

Virginia[1] d. Rider 4-0

(5)Mississippi State Regional

Wisconsin[2] d. Samford[3] 4-1

Mississippi State[1] d. Tennessee Tech[4] 4-0

(6)TCU Regional

Cornell[2] d. Arkansas[3] 4-3

TCU[1] d. Denver[4] 4-0

(7)LSU Regional

Pepperdine[2] d. Michigan[3] 4-2

LSU[1] d. Alabama State[4] 4-0

(8)Arizona Regional

Clemson[3] d. Ole Miss[2] 4-3

Arizona[1] d. Northern Arizona[4] 4-0

(9)Oklahoma Regional

Southern California[2] d. Duke[3] 4-2

Oklahoma[1] d. Utah State[4] 4-0

(10)Baylor Regional

Auburn[2] d. Santa Clara[3] 4-3

Baylor[1] d. Tulsa[4] 4-0

(11)Texas A&M Regional

Postponed until Saturday

Stanford[2] v Penn[3]

Texas A&M[1] v Wagner[4]

(12)Georgia Regional

NC State[2] d. Middle Tennessee[3] 4-2

Georgia[1] d. Elon[4] 4-0

(13)South Carolina Regional

Michigan State[2] d. North Carolina[3] 4-1

South Carolina[1] d. Richmond[4] 4-0

(14)Illinois Regional

Vanderbilt[3] d. Notre Dame[2] 4-1

Illinois[1] d. Yale[4] 4-0

(15)San Diego Regional

UCLA[2] d. Arizona State[3] 4-0

San Diego[1] d. UC-Santa Barbara 4-2

(16)UCF Regional

Florida[2] d. Stetson[3] 5-0

UCF[1] d. South Carolina State[4] 4-0

D-I Women's first round regional results

(1)Auburn Regional

Miami[2] d. North Florida[3] 4-0

Auburn[1] d. Bryant[4] 4-0

(5)North Carolina Regional

South Carolina[2] d. Maryland[3] 4-0

North Carolina[1] d. Charleston Southern[4] 4-0

(8)NC State Regional

UCF[2] d. Navy[3] 4-1

NC State[1] d. Morgan State[4] 5-0

(11)Pepperdine Regional

Stanford[2] d. BYU[3] 4-2

Pepperdine[1] d. UC-Santa Barbara 4-0

(13)Southern California Regional

Cal[2] d. Utah[3] 4-1

Southern California[1] d. Sacramento State[4] 4-0

(14)Vanderbilt Regional

Clemson[2] d. E Tennessee St[3] 4-1

Vanderbilt[1] d. Xavier[4] 4-0

(15)Duke Regional

Tennessee[2] d. Old Dominion[3] 4-2

Duke[1] d. VCU[4] 4-0

(16)Arizona State Regional

UCLA[2] d. San Diego State[3] 4-3

Arizona State[1] v Denver[4] 4-0

Play/Replay, the Electronic Line Calling System that has been in use for collegiate matches for the past year, has signed a five-year agreement with the USTA to provide ELC for all hard court events on the USTA Pro Circuit, beginning immediately.

Although the USTA Pro Circuit tournaments scheduled for most of this month are on clay and therefore not effected, there is a women's W35 in Wichita in the last week of this month that will be using this ELC system, and the men's and women's USTA SoCal Pro Series(see the dates on the banner to the left) are also hard court events that will have the system. From yesterday's release:

USTA to Feature PlayReplay Electronic Line-Calling at all USTA Pro Circuit Men’s

and Women’s ITF World Tennis Tour Hard-Court Events over the Next Five Years

ORLANDO, Fla., April 30, 2026  

The USTA today announced that all men’s and women’s hard-

court ITF World Tennis Tour tournaments on the USTA Pro Circuit will feature electronic line-

calling (ELC) for the first time ever. The USTA will utilize the ELC system developed by tennis

technology company PlayReplay – the first company invested in by USTA Ventures -- on every

match court of a USTA Pro Circuit hard-court ITF World Tennis Tour event for the next five years.

The USTA Pro Circuit currently stages 67 men’s and women’s ITF World Tennis Tour hard-court

events amid its 133 total tournaments in 2026. The USTA plans to grow the USTA Pro Circuit

calendar to 165 total events in 2028 as part of its multi-year investment strategy geared toward

fortifying and maximizing the American competitive pathway.

“This investment marks a commitment to elevating the competition experience and providing an

enhanced level of service at the Pro Circuit level for all players,” said Tracy Davies, General

Manager, USA Tennis. “PlayReplay has proven to be a tremendous solution to ELC at high-level

competition at the junior and collegiate levels, and now we’re excited to see the positive benefit

to the Pro Circuit come to fruition.”

Hans Lundstam, CEO and Co-Founder of PlayReplay, remarks, "We are exceptionally proud to

help thousands of players on their journey to becoming professionals across the North American

continent. It’s magic to work with USTA. We share the same vision, and the combination of their

reach and our technology is truly transformative for the sport."

Keaton Hance continues to pile up wins at the M15 level, with the 2026 Australian Open boys finalist reaching the semifinals of this week's tournament in Orange Park Florida. The 18-year-old from Southern California, who won the M15 last week in Orlando, defeated qualifier Matthew Segura 6-4, 6-0 in today's quarterfinals. Hance will face No. 3 seed Nick Hardt of the Dominican Republic, who beat qualifier James Connel(Florida State) of Great Britain 6-4, 7-5. 

Michael Antonius lost to No. 7 seed Andreja Petrovic(North Dakota, Florida State, Duke) of Norway 6-3, 6-2. Petrovic will face top seed Raphael Perot(Texas A&M) of France, who beat Jonathan Mridha of Sweden 6-2, 6-0.

Amelia Honer(UC-Santa Barbara) and Hibah Shaikh(Virginia) are through to face each other the semifinals of the W35 in Boca Raton. The unseeded Honer, who won last week's W35 in Charlotte NC, beat No. 6 seed Antonia Vergara Rivera of Chile 7-6(5), 6-4, while Shaikh beat Oklahoma State freshman Luca Udvardy of Hungary 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. The winner of that match will face the winner of the all-Argentina semifinal between top seed Julia Riera and unseeded Justina Maria Gonzalez Daniele.

The wild card team of Welles Newman and Jordyn Hazelitt have advanced to Saturday morning's doubles final against unseeded Kailey Evans(Texas Tech, San Diego) and Jessica Hinojosa Gomez of Mexico.

The USTA Roland Garros wild card race is still undecided going into the final two days for both the men and women. Darwin Blanch can still pass Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) if he wins the title at the Challenger 100 in Austria, where he has reached the semifinals.

Akasha Urhobo and Mary Stoiana are still alive in the women's race. Stoiana, the No. 6 seed at the W100 in Bonita Springs, beat Maria Carle(Georgia) of Argentina 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 and will play unseeded Angela Fita Boluda of Spain, who eliminated Kayla Day, the No. 5 seed, 7-6(4), 6-4.  The unseeded Urhobo beat No. 7 seed Leyre Romero Gormaz of Spain 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(4) and will face qualifier Madison Brengle, who defeated No. 8 seed Jazmin Ortenzi of Argentina 7-6(2), 6-2.

If my math is correct(and it may not be), Urhobo will clinch the wild card if she beats Brengle, even if Stoiana goes on to beat Urhobo in the final. 

At the ITF J200 in Sumter South Carolina, No. 8 seed Jordan Lee beat fellow 15-year-old Teodor Davidov 6-3, 6-1 to win his first tournament since the J300 in Bradenton last December. It's good to see Lee healthy and playing well again after not competing in the West Coast ITF junior swing in March and this result should put him back in the ITF Junior Top 100.

Fifteen-year-old Hannah Ayrault won her first ITF Junior Circuit title, with the No. 2 seed beating No. 5 seed Emery Combs 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 in the girls final. Ayrault should break into the ITF Junior Top 100 for the first time with this title. 

Neither Lee nor Ayrault is on the acceptance list for next week's ITF J200 in Tennessee.

D-I Roundtable Part II; Final D-I Rankings Before Tomorrow's NCAA First Round; North Dakota Adds to List of Programs Cut; Big 12 and Ivy League Conference Awards; Hance and Antonius Advance to M15 Quarterfinals; Sumter ITF J200 Finals Set

Part II of the Tennis Recruiting Network's NCAA D-I Roundtable is now up, with play beginning across the country tomorrow with all 32 first round matches in the men's draw and 16 first round matches in the women's draw. Alongside Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets and Chris Halioris of CollegeTennisRanks.com, I give my list of dark horses and possible upsets and pick my champions. I got both right last year; not expecting to be as lucky this year.

The final ITA team rankings before the tournament were released today, confirming that the NCAA tennis committee made several changes via their formula to elevate Georgia and Wake Forest to the top spots despite their rankings of 2 and 4 respectively. 

Below are the rankings of the Top 16 teams as well as the top 10 rankings in singles and top 5 rankings in doubles. Below that is the list of seeds in the NCAAs for comparison. Headings go to the full ranking lists and the brackets.

WOMEN:

Team:
(previous week's ranking in parentheses)
1. Auburn (1)
2. Georgia (2)
3. Texas A&M (3)
4. Ohio State (5)
5. North Carolina (6)
6. Oklahoma (4)
7. Virginia (7)
8. NC State (10)
9. Texas (8)
10. LSU (9)
11. Pepperdine (11)
12. Michigan (18)
13. Southern California (12)
14. Vanderbilt (13)
15. Duke (16)
16. Arizona State (15)

Singles:

1. Lucciana Perez, Texas A&M

2. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

3. Carmen Herea, Texas

4. Luciana Perry, Ohio State

5. Teah Chavez, Ohio State

6. Anastasia Abbagnato, Texas

7. Aysegul Mert, Georgia

8. Piper Charney, Michigan

9. Cadence Brace, LSU

10. Evialina Laskevich, Oklahoma

Doubles:

1. Roisin Gilheany and Gloriana Nahum, Oklahoma

2. Ava Esposito and DJ Bennett, Auburn

3. Gabriella Broadfoot and Victoria Osuigwe, NC State

4. Deniz Dilek and Aysegul Mert, Georgia

5. Ange Oby Kajuru and Susanna Maltby, North Carolina

MEN:

Team:

1. Texas (1)

2. TCU (2)

3. Ohio State (3)

4. Wake Forest (4)

5. Virginia (5)

6. Mississippi State (6)

7. LSU (7)

8. Arizona (8)

9. Oklahoma (9)

10. Texas A&M (10)

11. Baylor (11)

12. Georgia (12)

13. South Carolina (13)

14. Illinois (14)

15. UCF (15)

16. Michigan State (25)

Singles:

1. Dylan Dietrich, Virginia

2. Trevor Svajda, SMU

3. Sebastian Gorzny, Texas

4. Jay Friend, Arizona

5. Michael Zheng, Columbia

6. Paul Inchauspe, Princeton

7. Max Dahlin, Michigan

8. Duncan Chan, TCU

9. Benito Sanchez Martinez, Mississippi State

10. Devin Badenhorst, Baylor

Doubles:

1. DK Suresh and Andrew Delgado, Wake Forest

2. Theo Papamalamis and Togan Tokac, Texas A&M

3. Arda Azkara and Santiago Giamichelle, Georgia

4. Cosme Rolland De Ravel and Duncan Chan, TCU

5. Bruno Nhavene and Luis Alvarez, Oklahoma

D-I NCAA Men's seeds:

1. Wake Forest

2. Texas

3. Ohio State

4. Virginia

5. Mississippi State

6. TCU

7. LSU

8. Arizona

9. Oklahoma

10. Baylor

11. Texas A&M

12. Georgia

13. South Carolina

14. Illinois

15. San Diego

16. UCF

D-I NCAA Women's seeds:

1. Georgia

2. Auburn

3. Ohio State

4. Texas A&M

5. North Carolina

6. Oklahoma

7. Virginia

8. NC State

9. Texas

10. LSU

11. Pepperdine

12. Michigan

13. Southern California

14. Vanderbilt

15. Duke

16. Arizona State

The ITA has a men's regional viewing page and a women's regional viewing page with links to streaming and live scoring for the 16 host sites. It's looks as if Cracked Racquets will be providing four separate feeds for their coverage of the first round at their YouTube channel.

If you read this before 10 a.m. Friday, you still have time to enter the Bracket Challenge at collegetennisranks.com.

Another Division I program announced today the elimination of their tennis programs, with North Dakota joining the growing list of schools that will no longer sponsor tennis. This week alone, the men's program at Illinois State has been cut and both programs at St. Louis were eliminated. Two Division II schools also announced program cuts. The Arkansas news last Friday appears to have opened the floodgates, although this is traditionally the time of year you would expect decisions to be made for the next academic year.

The final major conference awards have been released, with the Big 12 and Ivy League's announcements coming this week. For a look at the ACC, SEC and Big 10 awards and links to the announcements of all-conference teams, see my post from last Thursday.

Big 12 Awards:

Men:

Co-Players of the Year: Jay Friend, Arizona; Devin Badenhorst, Baylor; Duncan Chan, TCU

Freshman of the Year: Oliver Bonding, TCU

Co-Newcomers of the Year: Ofek Shimanov, Arizona State and Cosme Rolland De Ravel, TCU

Coach of the Year: David Roditi, TCU

Women:

Player of the Year: Emilija Tverijonaite, Arizona State

Freshman of the Year: Jennifer Jackson, TCU

Newcomer of the Year: Vivian Ovrootsky, Arizona State

Coach of the Year: Lee Taylor Walker, TCU

Ivy League women:

Player of the Year: Peyton Capuano, Dartmouth

Rookie of the Year: Leena Friedman, Yale

Coaching Staff of the Year: Yale

Ivy League men:

Player of the Year: Michael Zheng, Columbia

Rookie of the Year: Nathan Blokhin, Harvard

Coaching Staff of the Year: Cornell

The quarterfinals at the USTA Pro Circuit M15 in Orange Park Florida will feature two American teens: Michael Antonius and Keaton Hance, who are in separate halves of the draw.

Hance, who won the M15 in Orlando last week, defeated qualifier Davide Tortora of Italy 7-5, 6-4 and will face another qualifier in Matthew Segura. Segura beat Joao Vitor Goncalves Ceolin of Brazil, who had beated No. 2 seed Christian Langmo(Miami) in the first round. 

Antonius defeated No. 4 seed Kaylan Bigun 6-4, 6-2 and will face No. 7 seed Andreja Petrovic(North Dakota, Florida State, Duke) of Norway next. Petrovic beat Andy Johnson 6-4, 6-2 to prevent a second meeting at the M15 level between the USA Junior Davis Cup teammates. 

All the juniors are out of the W35 in Boca Raton Florida, although Jordyn Hazelitt and Welles Newman are through to the doubles semifinals. Last week's Charlotte NC W35 winner Amelia Honer(UC-Santa Barbara) and No. 3 seed Hibah Sahikh(Virginia) have advanced to the quarterfinals and will play each other if they win Friday.

At the W100 in Bonita Springs Florida, unseeded 19-year-old Akasha Urhobo beat No. 3 seed Elvina Kalieva 6-2, 7-5, eliminating Kalieva from the USTA's Roland Garros Wild Card race. But Kayla Day and Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) have also advanced to the quarterfinals and can still catch Urhobo with a title unless Urhobo reaches the final. 

The singles finals at the ITF J200 in Sumter South Carolina are set for Friday, with No. 8 seed Jordan Lee facing Teodor Davidov in the boys final and No. 2 seed Hannah Ayrault playing No. 5 seed Emery Combs for the girls title.

The 15-year-old Lee, who has played only three ITF Junior events and two ITF Pro Circuit events this year, beat unseeded Kamil Stolarczyk 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals, while Davidov ended the impressive streak of Kayden Colombo 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Colombo had won the J60 and J100 tournaments the two weeks prior to this one.

Lee has beaten Davidov, also 15, both times they've played on the ITF Junior Circuit and also in the semifinals of the Eddie Herr 16s in 2024. Davidov won their meeting in the 12s final of the 2021 Eddie Herr.

Ayrault, the reigning USTA National 16s champion, defeated No. 4 seed Londyn McCord 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 in today's semifinal. Combs received a walkover from No. 3 seed Adla Lopez to advance to the final.

Ayrault and Combs, both 15, have not played, but she now has a win over Ayrault in the girls doubles final this afternoon. Combs and Olivia De Los Reyes, the Orange Bowl 16s doubles champions, defeated top seeds Ayrault and Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann 6-2, 6-2 for their sixth ITF Junior Circuit doubles title as a pair and their second at the J200 level. 

De Los Reyes and Combs were the No. 4 seeds and so were the boys doubles champions, with Theo Hegarty and Erik Schinnerer defeating No. 2 seeds Zavier Augustin and Japan's Koki Nara 7-5, 6-2 in the final. It's their first title as a team.

NCAA D-I Roundtable Part I; Adamovic Takes Over at Oklahoma State; Brantmeier Settlement Allows Pre-Enrollment Prize Money; Milan, Roland Garros Junior Acceptances; Akli Beats Zarazua at Bonita Springs W100

Part I of Tennis Recruiting Network's annual NCAA Division I Roundtable went up today, with Cracked Racquets' Alex Gruskin, CollegeTennisRanks' Chris Halioris and me offering our thoughts on the storylines from the regular season and what Super Regionals matchups we're looking forward to.  Part II, when we name our dark horses and predict the champions, will be out Thursday afternoon.

Halioris is again offering his Division I Bracket Challenge for both men and women at collegetennisranks.com. 

In other college news, former Oklahoma State All-American Katarina Adamovic will be returning to her alma mater as the head coach of the women's program. After the departure of Chris Young in the wake of NCAA recruiting violations, the Cowgirls have had two interim coaches, but with Adamovic, who had great success in two-year stints at Grand Canyon and, most recently, Houston, the program now can begin to look to the future. The Oklahoma State announcement is here.

Details of the settlement in the Reese Brantmeier have been announced, with, as was obviously from a recent NCAA rule change, prize money earned prior to enrollment no longer prohibited.  Although Brantmeier's suit was tennis-related, the NCAA decided to lift that restriction on prize money for all potential student-athletes in all sports. The settlement provides for payments to players who were forced to decline money earned prior to enrollment with damages set at over two million dollars. 

While this is a significant settlement that will lead to reduced anxiety among top juniors contemplating college, with their amateur status no longer jeopardized by accepting prize money greater than expenses, it does not solve the issue that has generated most of the headlines recently: current student-athletes unable to accept their prize money at major events.

North Carolina's Fiona Crawley made news for her decision to turn down $81,000 in prize money after qualifying for the US Open in 2023 and San Diego senior Oliver Tarvet did the same for his second-round prize money at Wimbledon last year.  This year, if Michigan State's Matt Forbes, who turned down first round prize money at the US Open after receiving a wild card as the Kalamazoo 18s champion in 2024, has a run in qualifying there this year, he will have to decline that prize money again to retain his eligibility. 

Half a loaf is better than none, but that such a big issue remains is disappointing.

The acceptances lists are out for the J500 in Milan Italy May 18-24 and the Roland Garros Junior Championships in Paris May 31-June 6.

The news from Milan is that the draws have been decreased from 64 to 48 this year, so the cutoffs for direct entry are even higher than those for Roland Garros.

The top US junior boys are all entered in both events:

Jack Kennedy

Keaton Hance

Michael Antonius

Andy Johnson

Ryan Cozad

Gavin Goode 

Jack Secord

Tanishk Konduri

Secord and Konduri are currently in qualifying for Milan, with the boys cutoff 38.

Kristina Penickova, still No. 7 in the ITF junior rankings, has been out with an injury for months and has not entered either. Julieta Pareja is not entered in Milan, but is on the Roland Garros acceptance list. 

Julieta Pareja (RG only)

Janae Preston

Thea Frodin

Jordyn Hazelitt

Welles Newman

Melije Clarke

Clarke is currently one out of the main draw in Milan, with the cutoff 46.

The Roland Garros main draw cutoff for boys is 47, with Connor Roig of South Africa, at 51, receives direct entry as the top player from Africa. 

The girls main draw cutoff is 49, with Alisa Oktiabreva of Russia receiving main draw entry via her WTA ranking of 281. She has not played a junior event since 2023. 

The US boys in Roland Garros qualifying are Safir Azam, Marcel Latak and Vihaan Reddy, with the cutoff 74. The US girls in Roland Garros qualifying are Lani Chang, Oliva Traynor and Nancy Lee, with the cutoff 75.

World No. 1 junior Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria is not entered in either event, but 2026 Australian Open boys champion Ziga Sesko of Slovenia has entered both, and 2026 Australian Open girls champion Ksenia Efremova of France is entered in Paris. Orange Bowl champion Xinran Sun of China, who has not played since Australia, is back on the ITF Junior Circuit this week in Bulgaria, and she has entered both tournaments. Orange Bowl champion Thijs Boogaard of the Netherlands is not entered in either tournament.

The withdrawal date for Milan is next Tuesday, but the withdrawal date for Roland Garros isn't until May 19, so these lists are likely to change.

In the first round of the W100 in Bonita Springs Florida today, former University of South Carolina All-American Ayana Akli took out top seed and last week's W100 Charlottesville champion Renata Zarazua of Mexico 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. It's the first WTA Top 100 win for the 24-year-old from Maryland. 

Akasha Urhobo defeated Thea Frodin 6-4, 6-4 for her fourth win this year over the 17-year-old qualifier. Urhobo will meet No. 3 seed Elvina Kalieva, who beat qualifier Eryn Cayetano(USC) 6-4, 6-2, with Kalieva needing to win that second round match to stay in the USTA's Roland Garros Wild Card race.