Top Seeds Badenhorst and Herea Begin Title Quests at ITA All-American Championships Wednesday; Both No. 2 Seeds Fall at Corpus Christi J200; Pro Circuit Pillar Dow Tennis Classic Folds

The ITA All-American Championships have spent the past four days deciding the 16 qualifiers who will join the 48 other Division I collegians competing for the prestigious fall title and for spots in November's NCAA championships.

At the women's tournament in Cary North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina each placed three players in the main draw, three of whom--Bella Payne and Patricija Paukstyte of Georgia and Anna Frey of UNC--have now won five matches, as they came through pre-qualifying. Florida freshman Capucine Jauffret also started in pre-qualifying, lost in the final round of qualifying, got into qualifying as a lucky loser and won both of her qualifying matches to reach the main draw.

Women's ITA All-American qualifiers:
Allegra Korpanec Davies[17], Florida
Patricija Paukstyte[PQ], Georgia
Capucine Jauffret[LL], Florida
Salakthip Ounmang[17], Oklahoma
Audrey Spencer[17], Ohio State
Gianna Oboniye, Mississippi State
Olivia Traynor[17], Michigan
Tianmei Wang, Stanford
Jantje Tilbuerger[10], UCF
Nicole Khirin[17], North Carolina
Linea Bajraliu[12], Georgia
Brooke Black[13], Florida
Alexis Nguyen[14], North Carolina
Anna Frey[PQ], North Carolina
Bella Payne[PQ], Georgia

Carmen Herea is the top seed in Cary, a year after the Texas junior reached the final, falling to Stanford's Valerie Glozman. 2025 semifinalist Luciana Perry of Ohio State is the No. 2 seed.

Women's ITA All-American seeds:

1. Carmen Herea, Texas

2. Luciana Perry, Ohio State

3. Piper Charney, Michigan

4. Irina Balus, Duke

5. Mia Slama, NC State

6. Jana Hossam Salah, Florida

7. Amelie Van Impe, SMU

8. Valeria Ray, Vanderbilt

9. Emilija Tverijonaite, Arizona State

10. Anastasiia Grechkina, Pepperdine

11. Monika Ekstrand, Stanford

12. Ziva Falkner, Pepperdine

13. Tatum Evans, North Carolina

14. none

15. Helena Buchwald, South Carolina

16. Rose Marie Nijkamp, Texas

At the men's tournament in Tulsa Oklahoma, Wake Forest, Texas and NC State have two qualifiers each, with ten other schools getting one player through to the main draw. Three pre-qualifiers have cleared the second hurdle of qualifying: UCLA's Andy Nguyen, Dayton's Kyle McNally and Illinois' Jeremy Zhang.

Qualifiers:

Nour Fathalla[1], Purdue

Asahi Harazaki, Oklahoma

Jules Leroux[3], NC State

Nikita Volonski, Tulsa

Andy Nguyen[PQ], UCLA

Abel Forger[6], Texas

Aryan Shah[7], Wake Forest

Noa Vukadin[17], Clemson

Jeremy Zhang[PQ], Illinois

Kyle McNally[PQ], Dayton

Erik Schiessl[17], Baylor

Denis Petak[17], Ohio State

Luca Preda[13], Virginia

Toby Kodat[14], NC State

Dominick Mosejczuk[17], Wake Forest

Tomasz Berkieta[16], Texas

Baylor's Devin Badenhorst is the top seed, and is coming off a semifinal showing last year; Keegan Rice of Virginia, who was on Canada's Davis Cup team that advanced to the quarterfinals with a win over France at home last weekend (he did not see action), is the No. 2 seed. Aidan Kim of Ohio State, the 2025 finalist, is the No. 3 seed. Ohio State has a total of seven players in the main draw.

Men's ITA All-American singles seeds:

1. Devin Badenhorst, Baylor

2. Keegan Rice, Virginia

3. Aidan Kim, Ohio State

4. Theo Papamalamis, Texas A&M

5. Gabriel Debru, Texas

6. Matthew Forbes, Ohio State

7. Jakub Vrba, Arkansas

8. Preston Stearns, Ohio State

9. Eli Stephenson, Kentucky

10. Amirkhamza Nasridinov, Texas A&M

11. Rodrigo Fernandes, Cornell

12. Luca Pow, Wake Forest

13. Cooper Woestendick, TCU

14. Emon van Loben Sels, UCLA

16. Viktor Markov, Clemson

Doubles draws have not yet been posted. The men's draw page is here; the women's draw page is here.

There will be no Cracked Racquets coverage of the tournament this year; streaming links are available at the tournament pages. 

The seeds were in action for the first time today at the J200 in Corpus Christi Texas, and both No. 2 seeds were ousted. 

Filip Malis of Canada defeated Mason Vaughan 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and Aleksandra Jerkunica beat Avery Alexander of Canada 7-5, 6-4.

They were not the only top 4 seeds to exit, with No. 4 Emery Combs losing to San Antonioa J100 champion Nikol Davletshina 6-1, 6-1 and No. 3 seed Jerrid Gaines Jr. retiring trailing Achyuth Binu 6-4, 5-2.

There was sad and shocking news today from the USTA Pro Circuit with the announcement that the Dow Tennis Classic in Midland Michigan will be discontinued. Started in 1989, the tournament was a part of the ITF Women's Circuit, moving up to a 100 level event before converting to a WTA 125 in 2021. 

I often attended the event, when it was in early February for many years, and then in the fall, where it landed after the pandemic, and I'll miss the opportunity to see local players compete there and to check in with former juniors and collegians who are making their way up the professional ladder. 

The community involvement, the exposure to pro tennis it offered to a vibrant grass roots tennis scene and its legendary hospitality made it one of the most highly regarded events on the USTA Pro Circuit calendar. Dow's decision not to renew the their decades-long sponsorship and the inability to find a replacement doomed the event, and it is blow not only to the WTA but to women's sports in general to see this event unable to garner the support necessary to survive.

For more on the decision to end the event, see this article.