Borges, Perez-Somarriba Named Top Seeds for NCAA D-I Championships; Kingsley and Korda Advance at Savannah Challenger; Gauff Qualifies for Charleston $100K

The fields have been announced for the NCAA Division I Individual Championships May 20-25 in Lake Nona Florida, and although the current ITA rankings will not be released until Thursday, the top two singles seeds certainly don't fit the narrative that was built throughout the season.

Katarina Jokic of Georgia, who has been No. 1 in the rankings for months, is the No. 2 seed, with Estela Perez-Somarriba of Miami moving up to No. 1.

In the men's seedings, JJ Wolf of Ohio State, who was undefeated until a loss to Michigan's Andrew Fenty in the Big 10 tournament and No. 1 in the rankings since February, is the No. 2 seed, with Mississippi State's Nuno Borges given the No. 1 seed.

No. 1 seeds, or seeds in general, don't have the best record in NCAA individual competition, so putting too big an emphasis on the seeding is a waste of energy, but there's no question this was a surprise.

Women’s singles seeds:
1. Estela Perez-Somarriba, Miami
2. Katarina Jokic, Georgia
3. Kate Fahey, Michigan
4. Ingrid Gamarra Martins, South Carolina
5. Makenna Jones, North Carolina
6. Fernanda Contreras, Vanderbilt
7. Alexa Graham, North Carolina
8. Sophie Whittle, Gonzaga

9-16 (alphabetical)
Paige Cline, South Carolina
Ida Jarlskog, Florida
Kenya Jones, Georgia Tech
Gabriela Knutson, Syracuse
Maria Mateas, Duke
Eden Richardson, LSU
Anna Rogers, NC State
Anastasia Rychagova, Kansas

Women’s doubles seeds:
1. Angela Kulikov and Rianna Valdes, USC
2. Jessie Aney and Alexa Graham, North Carolina
3. Lauryn John-Baptiste and Ilze Hattingh, Arizona State
4. Gabby Andrews and Ayan Broomfield, UCLA

5-8 (alphabetical by school)
Janet Koch and Nina Khmelnitckaia, Kansas
Alana Smith and Anna Rogers, NC State
Mia Horvit and Ingrid Gamarra Martins, South Carolina
Kaitlin Staines and Sadie Hammond, Tennessee

Men’s singles seeds:
1. Nuno Borges, Mississippi State
2. JJ Wolf, Ohio State
3. Carl Soderlund, Virginia
4. Alex Rybakov, TCU
5. Paul Jubb, South Carolina
6. Brandon Holt, USC
7. Christian Sigsgaard, Texas
8. Aleks Kovacevic, Illinois

9-16 (alphabetical)
Alberto Barroso-Campos, South Florida
Petros Chrysochos, Wake Forest
Oliver Crawford, Florida
Axel Geller, Stanford
Borna Gojo, Wake Forest
Yuya Ita, Texas
Thomas Laurent, Oregon
Nicolas Moreno De Alboran, UC Santa Barbara

Men’s doubles seeds:
1. Sven Lah and Jimmy Bendeck, Baylor
2. Maxime Cressy and Keegan Smith, UCLA
3. Nuno Borges and Strahinja Rakic, Mississippi State
4. Henry Patten and Oli Nolan, UNC-Asheville

5-8 (alphabetical by school)
Christian Sigsgaard and Harrison Scott, Texas
Timo Stodder and Preston Touliatos, Tennessee
Cameron Klinger and Billy Rowe, Vanderbilt
Juan Carlos Aguilar and Barnaby Smith, Texas A&M

Players of note in the women's field who are not seeded are 2018 finalist Ashley Lahey of Pepperdine and 2017 champion Brienne Minor of Michigan. Last year's top seed, Bianca Turati of Texas, is also unseeded.  In the women's doubles, the defending champions, Jessica Golovin and Eden Richardson of LSU, did make the field, but, as you can see above, are not seeded.

In the men's field, 2017 finalist and 2018 quarterfinalist William Blumberg of North Carolina is not seeded, nor is 2018 quarterfinalist Mazen Osama of Alabama or Cleveland Challenger champion Maxime Cressy of UCLA.

Brandon Nakashima of Virginia, the ACC freshman of the year, did not make the field, although he and Henrik Wiersholm are the first alternates in doubles.

Michigan's Andrew Fenty got quite a boost from his win over Wolf, as the Big 10 freshman of the year moved from 109 in last week's rankings into the 64-player draw.

Note that all those listed as seeds above have earned All-American honors for 2019.

The complete list of women's selections, including alternates, is here.

The complete list of men's selections, including alternates, is here.

Ohio State recruit Cannon Kingsley made his main draw ATP Challenger debut today as a wild card in Savannah Georgia and made good use of his wild card. The 17-year-old New Yorker, No. 12 in the ITF world junior rankings, defeated Johannes Haerteis of Germany 6-2, 6-2 in first round action. No. 3 seed Corentin Moutet of France is next for Kingsley.  Wild card Sebastian Korda, who has won at least one match in the past three US ATP Challengers, defeated Jared Hiltzik(Illinois) in the first round yesterday and advanced to the third round with a 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 9 seed Mikael Torpegaard(Ohio State) of Denmark today.  The USTA announced yesterday that only Tommy Paul and Tennys Sandgren are still in the running for its French Open wild card, with this the last week to earn points. No. 5 seed Paul has yet to play his second round match; top seed Sandgren defeated Alexander Ritschard(Virginia) tonight 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to move into the third round.

At the $100,000 women's World Tennis Tour event in Charleston SC, Coco Gauff qualified for the main draw, beating top seed Olivia Rogowska of Australia 6-1, 6-3 in today's final round of qualifying. Gauff, 15, will play another Australian, Kimberly Birrell, in Wednesday's first round.  Louisa Chirico, Kayla Day and Sophie Chang are the other US qualifiers. 

Easter Bowl champion Emma Navarro received a main draw wild card in her hometown and will play No. 8 seed Allie Kiick Wednesday. The other wild cards were awarded to Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech), Alycia Parks and Ann Li, last week's champion at the $25K in Osprey Florida.