Kennedy and Arseneault Post win the first USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Winston-Salem in 2026; Zampardo signs with UNC, Exsted joins USC; Jovic reaches quarter-finals at WTA 250 in Auckland

Seventeen-year-old Jack Kennedy, the ITF junior No. 3, will play primarily on the ITF men’s and ATP Challenger tour in his final year of eligibility as a junior as he prepares to begin his collegiate career at the University of Virginia in the fall. As a wild card this week in Winston-Salem, Kennedy defeated Karl Poling (Princeton, UNC) 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 in the first round of the tournament, which will be played on Wake Forest’s indoor hard courts.

Nicolas Arseneault of Canada, a freshman at the University of Kentucky, who received entry into the main draw based on his ATP ranking of 501, defeated No. 2 seed Alex Rybakov (TCU) 7-6 (4), 6-3.

Arizona State junior Bor Artnak of Slovenia, the No. 6 seed, defeated wild card Will Grant (Florida) 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 and No. 3 seed Daniel Milavsky (Harvard) defeated Alan Magadan (UTSA) of Mexico 7-6 (4), 6-1.

The other wild cards were awarded to two Wake Forest players: junior Luca Pow of Great Britain and freshman Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands. This time last year, Rottgering was No. 1 in the ITF junior rankings and uninterested in playing college tennis, but with NIL and fewer entry hurdles, many current and former top juniors are once again looking at the collegiate option. Rottgering will face Ryan Fishbach (Virginia Tech) in the first round on Wednesday; Pow’s opponent is qualifier Daniil Kakhniuk (New Mexico).

In addition to Kakhniuk, the American qualifiers are Theodore Dean (Yale, Cal), Matthew Thomson (Wake Forest), Zeke Clark (Illinois) and Ryan Colby (USC, Georgia). The other three qualifiers: Serbia’s Aleksa Ciric (Georgia Gwinnett), NC State sophomore Jules Leroux of France and Nicola Ion of Canada.

Stefan Dostanic, who led Wake Forest to the NCAA title last spring in his final season of collegiate eligibility, is returning to action after opting out of his season following the Winston-Salem Challenger in September due to an arm injury. He will face former Texas A&M standout Raphael Perot, the No. 4 seed, who went 20-2 at the USTA Pro Circuit last September and October.

Arizona senior Jay Friend, the No. 7 seed, will play Ciric in the first round on Wednesday; Andres Andrade of Ecuador is the top seed and the former University of Florida standout has signed NC State graduate Braden Shick, who went 17-2 in the M15s in Asia to end the year.