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The seeds for next week NCAA Division I Individual Championships were announced today, and while there is often a notable omission, it is on a different level in the men’s field.
Defending champion Michael Zheng of Columbia, currently 185th in the ATP rankings, is not seeded. Nor do Trevor Svjada of SMU, ATP 387, and Edward Winter of Pepperdine ATP 462, both of whom reached a Challenger final this fall. Also missing from the roster are 2024 semifinalist DK Suresh of Wake Forest, currently ATP 523, and Luis Alvarez of Oklahoma, currently ATP 545. Both won M15 tournaments this fall.
The ITA/NCAA refuses to accept non-college results into their rankings algorithm and as a result there is no chance to rank the best players. In NCAA men’s singles history, the only time two unseeded players met for the title was in May 2024, when Alabama’s Filip Planinsek defeated Zheng. Given the quantity and quality of unseeded players, it’s certainly possible this could happen again, less than two years later.
Seeding is difficult when players are not all competing in the same tennis ecosystem. But the USTA has a sensible exception to its seeding policy for the 18s Nationals, where the winner gets a US Open wild card: “Players with ATP, WTA or ITF rankings are also eligible (for seeding).” The purpose of seeding is to build the tournament to a conclusion that produces the best match in the finals. Sure, many tournaments don’t end with No. 1 and No. 2 in the finals, but if that’s not the goal, and that obviously doesn’t apply to the NCAA, there’s no point in seeding at all.
The draws will be announced on Saturday, November 15 at 6 p.m.
NCAA Division I seeds:
Gentlemen:
1. Jay Friend, Arizona
2. Duncan Chan, TCU
3. Aidan Kim, Ohio State
4. Matthew Forbes, Michigan State
5. Deven Badenhorst, Baylor
6. Kenta Miyoshi, Illinois
7. Dylan Dietrich, Virginia
8. Ozan Baris, Michigan State
9. Martin Borisiouk, NC State
9. Paul Inchauspe, Princeton
9. Jeremy Jin, Florida
9. Petar Jovanovic, Mississippi State
9. Eli Stephenson, Kentucky
9. Connor Henry Van Schalkwyk, Baylor
9. Jakub Vrba, Arkansas
Doubles:
1. Benito Sanchez Martinez and Petar Jovanovic, Mississippi State
2. DK Suresh and Andrew Delgado, Wake Forest
3. Isac Stromberg and Kai Milburn, Mississippi
4. Max Dahlin and Bjorn Swenson, Michigan
5. Aidan Kim and Bryce Nakashima, Ohio State
5. Paul Inchauspe and Landon Ardila, Princeton
5. Aleksa Krivokapic and Major Premzl, Purdue
5. Coseme Rolland De Ravel and Albert Pedrico, TCU
Singles:
1. Valerie Glozman, Stanford
2. Carmen Herea, Texas
3. Piper Charney, Michigan
4. Savannah Dada-Mascoll, Appalachia
5. Aysegul Mert, Georgia
6. Anastasia Grechkina, Pepperdine
7. Teah Chavez, Ohio State
8. Ashton Bowers, Auburn
9. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina
9. Tatum Evans, North Carolina
9. Anastasia Gureva, Georgia
9. Gabia Paskauskas, Florida
9. Luciana Perry, Ohio State
9. Annabelle Xu, Virginia
9. Vivian Yang, Virginia
9. Mia Yamakita, Vanderbilt
Doubles:
1. Maria Sholokhova and Lucie Urbanova, Wisconsin
2. Gilheany and Gloriaa Rishin, Oklahoma
3. Ange Oby Kajuru and Susanna Maltby, North Carolina
4. Sophia Webster and Celia-Belle Mohr, Vanderbilt
5. Bojana Pozder and Bianca Molnar, Notre Dame
5. Jo-Yee Chan and Vessa Turley, San Diego State
5. Annabelle Xu and Martina Genis Salas, Virginia
5. Melody Collard and Vivian Yang, Virginia
Fourth-seeded Sales, the reigning USTA 14s National Champion, defeated top seed Julia Seversen 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals and No. 6 seed Alina Vysochenko of Ukraine 6-2, 6-2. Sales and Vysochenko then joined forces for the doubles title, which the No. 3 seeds won with a 4-6, 6-4, 14-12 decision over top seeds Seversen and Ella Olofson.
Unseeded Kaminiski defeated unseeded Robert McAdoo 6-3, 6-3 in the singles final. In the doubles final, No. 3 seeds Kayden Colombo and Anthony Dry clinched the title with a 6-1, 6-4 win over unseeded Aayush Vartak and Miroslav Jarolim of Costa Rica.
In the girls’ doubles, Sophia Filip teamed up with Canada’s Isabella Wang for the title. The No. 3 seeds defeated No. 4 seeds Jiarui Li of China and Paula Velazquez Osornio of Mexico 6-4, 4-6, 10-3 in the final.
Combs lost to Canada’s Avery Alexander 6-4, 6-2 in the singles semifinals, while De Los Reyes lost to Alexander 6-3, 6-2 in the final.
The third member of the Junior Davis Cup championship team, 15-year-old Jordan Lee, also received a wild card. He will play Matthew Thomson (Wake Forest) in the first round, looking for his first ATP point.
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