CEO Russell Announces Retirement from Intercollegiate Tennis Association; USTA Winter Nationals Recaps on Tennis Recruiting Network; Volynets, Nava Reach Final Round of Qualifying at Australian Open, Joint Wins First Round Qualifying Match

ITA CEO Tim Russell with Texas coach Bruce Berque at 2023 National Team Indoor Championships

Tim Russell, who has led the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, the governing body of college tennis, since 2015, will retire from his position as President and Chief Executive Officer, the ITA announced today.  Also stepping down is Jon Vegosen, who has been the chairman of the ITA Board of Directors since December 2015. 

The search for a new CEO will begin next month, with the ITA planning to have the incoming CEO in place before the NCAA Championships in May. The CEO Designate will work with Russell until the end of year, officially taking over the position on January 1, 2025. 

Both Russell and Vegosen have been passionate advocates for college tennis for the past decade, and filling that leadership void will be a tall order. Fortunately both will continue to be involved as they move to emeritus status, providing valuable institutional knowledge to their successors. 

The ITA has hired a search firm to assist in replacing Russell, and I believe they should cast a wide net, but I also hope that experience with college tennis, not just college athletics, is a prerequisite. The ITF expects to have a job description available by the middle of next month.

The Tennis Recruiting Network is providing recaps of last week's USTA Winter National Championships this week, with Sonny Dearth providing an in-depth look at 16s champions Bella Payne and Nischal Spurling's road to the titles today. Rhiannon Potkey will have a review of the 18s titles for unseeded Alexis Nguyen and Saahith Jayaraman on Thursday. The TRN recaps for the 12s is here, and the 14s here.

The second round of the Australian Open qualifying, which began Wednesday, will finish Thursday(overnight tonight in the US). Katie Volynets, the 2019 USTA Girls 18s national champion, is one of two Americans through to the final round, but six others have won their first round matches and will be playing later tonight. 

Volynets, the No. 3 seed in qualifying, defeated former Stanford All-American Carol Zhao of Canada 6-3, 6-1 in the second round and will face No. 25 seed Julia Riera of Argentina for a spot in the main draw Friday. Volynets has qualified for the main draw of the Australian Open the past two years; last year she reached the third round.

Emilio Nava won his first round qualifying match Wednesday, and playing his second first on Thursday, has beaten Mattia Bellucci of Italy 6-4, 6-3, with 12 aces helping his cause.

Other Americans in second round action Thursday are Denis Kudla, Maxime Cressy[19], Aleks Kovacevic[7], Zachary Svajda[32], Hailey Baptiste[19] and Ann Li. 

Two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion Svajda defeated 2023 Australian Open boys champion Alexander Blockx of Belgium 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, making fewer errors and staying composed in the final four games of the match, saving a break point when serving for it at 5-4. He plays 2014 US Open boys champion Omar Jasika, a wild card, in Thursday's second round.

Seventeen-year-old wild card Maya Joint, who moved to Australia from Michigan recently and began playing for Australia, her father's home country, won her first round qualifying match Wednesday. Joint, who has signed with Texas for the fall of 2024, defeated Natalija Stevanovic of Serbia 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 for her third WTA Top 200 win in 2024, just 10 days into the year. She faces No. 32 seed Darja Semenistaja of Latvia later tonight.

More from Joint on her first slam win, in junior or women's competition, see this article from Tennis Australia.