ESPN Adds NCAA D-I Tennis; Seven of Eight Seeds Advance to Arcadia W35 Quarterfinals; 2024 Hurd Grant Applications Open; Eddie Herr 12s Videos

The NCAA announced a renewal of its rights agreement with the ESPN today, which contains some good news for college tennis. The boom in non-revenue sports on ESPN, especially women's basketball and volleyball, has been a source of dismay to many college tennis fans, who don't begrudge that exposure, but feel left behind, with little coverage on the network for over a decade.

There was a time--I specifically remember 2008 in Tulsa and 2010 in Athens--when ESPN did cover the Division I team finals, and even the individual tournament, but that feels like the distant past given the struggle for a media outlet in the past dozen years. For a variety of reasons, the Tennis Channel hasn't been up to the task, and some of the most compelling athletic competition that college can offer has not been visible with any regularity over the years.

I think that ESPN+ streaming offering is the most likely landing spot, which is fine; I just hope this really signals a change in the status quo. And I continue to worry about the fate of the individual championships, now in the fall, which are not mentioned in the release. But considering that tennis could have been left out again, this must be viewed as good news while we wait for the particulars of the agreement, which takes effect September 1, 2024.

With the semester yet to begin on many campuses, collegians have taken the opportunity to play the USTA Pro Circuit W35 Arcadia this week in the Los Angeles area. Reigning NCAA champion Fangran Tian of UCLA, former ITA No. 1 Fiona Crawley of North Carolina and Central Florida freshman Olivia Lincer have all advanced to Friday's quarterfinals. 

Lincer, who competed for the US and played USTA events until 2022, when she switched to Poland, defeated No. 7 seed Haley Giavara(Cal) in the first round 6-3, 7-6(0) and UCLA junior Kimmi Hance 6-3, 7-6(4) today. Giavara is the only seed that didn't make the quarterfinals; with Tian No. 8 and Crawley No. 6. Also advancing are top seed Hanna Chang, No. 2 seed Liv Hovde, No. 3 seed Victoria Hu(Princeton), No. 4 seed Sophie Chang and No. 5 seed Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine).

Applications are now open for the Hurd grant, an annual $100,000 award to one American college man and one American college woman to assist in their transition to professional tennis. The 2023 winners were Peyton Stearns(Texas) and Andrew Fenty(Michigan), who received their grants last March at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Paula Hurd, the widow of Mark Hurd, a former Baylor player and committed college tennis supporter, heads the selection committee. Also on the committe are Lindsay Davenport, Mary Joe Fernandez, Tracy Austin, Peggy Michel, Todd Martin, Gordon Uehling, Stephen Amritraj and Chase Hodges.

The deadline for entries is February 4th. A link to the application can be found in this UTR Foundation article about the award.

I've processed the videos of the Eddie Herr 12s, with those of champions Junseo Jang and Carol Shao below. The videos of finalists Thamma Kosiri and Yui Watanabe can be viewed by clicking on their names.