With all the controversy surrounding the men’s singles seeds, the several potentially disastrous first-round matches raised expectations for tonight’s release, but for the most part the most damaging bullets were dodged, with none of the top eight seeds drawing any of the expert consensus seeds: defending champion Michael Zheng (Columbia), DK Suresh (Wake Forest), Trevor Svajda (SMU) and Edward Winter (Pepperdine).
Zheng plays South Florida’s Hugo Car; Suresh signed Alabama’s Matic Kriznik and Winter faces Harvard’s Melchior Delloye. Svajda played 9-16 seed Jeremy Jin of Florida in the first round.
If both win their first-round matches, Suresh will play No. 5 seed Devin Badenhorst of Baylor, while Winter will face No. 6 seed Kenta Miyoshi of Illinois, who lost in a tight three-setter today in the Champaign Challenger 75. The seed in Zheng’s section is 9-16 Connor Henry Van Schalkwyk of Baylor, with No. 2 seed Duncan Chan of TCU his expected opponent in the Round of 16. Chan is probably the draw loser; today he reached his first ATP Challenger final at the Drummondville 75 in Canada, so he is ready for the level Zheng will bring, but will he have enough energy to continue at his new peak?
There was one withdrawal from the original men’s field: Princeton’s Top Nidunjianzan, the co-champion of the Northeast Regional. Kentucky’s Jack Loutit, the No. 1 alternate, took his place, knocking NC State’s Martin Borisiouk out of the seeding. Borisiouk was announced as a 9-16 seed on Monday, but he is now unseeded. In all my years of following and reporting on tennis, I have never heard of a seeding list being revoked (draws redone, yes, seeding list revoked, no), but the speculation is that Loutit was above Borisiouk in the unpublished rankings used to seed the tournament, so he got the seeding. Loutit did not qualify for the tournament in the two fall events he played (All-American Championships, Sectionals), so I had assumed that would keep him from receiving a seed, but that clearly didn’t happen.
If the fall championships go ahead after this, this could certainly happen again, as the rankings are only used for seeding and not for the fall qualifying process. So to avoid the withdrawal of a seed, it would be better to implement a rule that prohibits awarding a seed to an unqualified one, or wait to announce the seeds until the draw takes place.
The seedings in the women’s draw weren’t as controversial as the men’s, but it turns out they have several big matches in the first round.
No. 6 seed Anastasiia Grechkina of Pepperdine, who is coming off an excellent fall, drew NCAA finalist Anastasiia Lopata of Georgia in the spring of 2024. Although North Carolina’s Reese Brantmeier was ranked 9-16, she would certainly be in the top 4 of any expert poll, and she is tied for eighth with Lopata and Grechkina.
No. 5 seed Aysegul Mert of Georgia also drew a tough first-round opponent in North Carolina’s Ange Oby Kajuru, who transferred from Oklahoma State, where she was an All-American in 2023-24 before sitting out most of last season.
Top seed Valerie Glozman of Stanford will face Julie Garcia Ruiz of Oklahoma in the second round if both win their openers; Garcia Ruiz defeated Glozman 6-1, 6-1 in the NCAA quarterfinals last November.
Luciana Perry of Ohio State, a 9-16 seed, is expected to face No. 2 seed Carmen Herea of Texas in the third round; they played a gritty semifinal at the All-Americans this fall, with Herea prevailing 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Links to the draws, showing match times:
MEN’S ANKLE: https://www.ncaa.com/_flysystem/public-s3/images/2025/11/15/25%20M%20Singles%20-%20111525.pdf
LADIES ANKLE: https://www.ncaa.com/_flysystem/public-s3/images/2025/11/15/25%20W%20Singles%20-%20111525.pdf
MEN’S DOUBLE: https://www.ncaa.com/_flysystem/public-s3/images/2025/11/15/25%20M%20Doubles%20-%20111525.pdf
LADIES DOUBLE: https://www.ncaa.com/_flysystem/public-s3/images/2025/11/15/25%20W%20Doubles%20-%20111525.pdf
The finals will take place across the six USTA Pro Circuit events, with seven Americans competing for titles in four tournaments on Sunday.
Eighteen-year-old Georgia signee Bella Payne has advanced to the finals of the W15 in Clemson, South Carolinaher second USTA Pro Circuit final, after defeating Clemson’s Amelie Smejkalova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-2. The sixth seed will face No. 7 seed DJ Bennett, the Auburn senior, who defeated No. 2 seed and Oklahoma State sophomore Rose Marie Nijkamp of the Netherlands 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-0.
Payne won her first USTA Pro Circuit title today, winning the doubles championship with Carson Tanguilig (North Carolina). The No. 3 seeds defeated Clemson teammate Romana Cisovska of Slovakia and Candela Yecora of Spain 6-2, 6-2. Tanguilig, the 2023 NCAA doubles champion, won her first Pro Circuit doubles title at the Sumter SC W15 earlier this month.
At the W50 in Austin, TexasMary Stoiana (Texas A&M) advanced to the finals with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Auburn senior Ekaterina Khayrutdinova of Russia. Seventh-seeded Stoiana will play No. 4 seed Mai Hontama of Japan, who defeated top seed Anastasia Gasanova of Russia 1-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Recent Pepperdine graduate Savannah Broadus won her seventh and biggest doubles title today in Austin against current Pepperdine Wave Sonja Zhiyenbayeva of Kazakhstan. the unseeded pair defeated top seeds Victoria Osuigwe and Alana Smith, current and former NC State stars, 6-3, 6-3 in the final.
Buckeyes will capture the titles at the M25 in Columbus. Today, Brandon Carpico and Nikita Filin from Ohio State won the doubles title, a first professional title for both. The unseeded pair defeated Texas senior Sebastian Gorzny and Gavin Young (Michigan), also unseeded, 6-3, 6-2 in the final. Carpico and Filin did not come close to losing a set all week.
In the singles semifinals, No. 3 seed Aidan Kim avenged his recent three-set loss to No. 2 seed Henry Searle of Great Britain, beating the 2023 Wimbledon boys champion 6-1, 6-2. Kim will face teammate Jack Anthrop, the No. 7 seed, who defeated Young 6-3, 6-4. Anthrop and Kim played once on the Pro Circuit in the summer of 2024, with Kim winning a qualifying match against Anthrop 6-3, 7-6(5).
All four Buckeyes in the two finals will play in the individual NCAA championships next week.
The second all-USA men’s final is on the ATP Challenger 75 in Champaign, Illinoiswith No. 4 seed Murphy Cassone (Arizona State) taking on unseeded Stefan Kozlov for the title on Sunday. Cassone defeated a Kenta Miyoshi of Japan 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 to reach his second Challenger final and first this year, while 27-year-old Kozlov advanced to his first Challenger final in more than three years as Cedrik-Marcel Stebe of Germany retired 6-0, 4-0 behind.
In today’s doubles final between unseeded teams, former Tennessee teammates Pat Harper of Australia and Shunsuke Mitsui of Japan defeated Ryan Seggerman (Princeton, UNC) and Keegan Smith (UCLA) 7-5, 6-7(3), 12-10. Harper has now won five Challenger doubles titles this year but is yet to crack the Top 100 of the ATP doubles rankings, sitting at 122 in the live rankings after today’s win.
Mike Cation will provide commentary on the final USTA Pro Circuit Challenger race of the year tomorrow Challenger TV stream.
| M15 Orlando doubles champions Felix Corwin and Max Exsted |
After so much success in the earlier rounds for young Americans, none makes it to the finals of the M15 in Orlandowith Jack Kennedy losing to No. 5 seed Reda Bennani of Morocco 7-6(3), 7-6(5) and Christopher Li of Peru coming back to beat No. 2 seed Felix Corwin 0-6, 7-5, 6-4.
But Max Exsted and Corwin did take the doubles title, with top seeds beating Ryan Cozad and Gavin Goode 6-3, 6-1 in the final.
The 18-year-old Exsted, who won the doubles title in Orlando last week with Great Britain’s Will Nolan, has now won four Pro Circuit doubles titles, all with different partners, all since mid-September. He has also won the Australian Open boys’ doubles title, two ITF J300s and the Kalamazoo 18s doubles title this year, all with different partners.
At the W35 in OrlandoOklahoma State freshman Luca Udvardy of Hungary reached the final, defeating Auburn senior Angella Okutoyi of Kenya 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. She will face No. 6 seed Martha Matoula of Greece, who defeated No. 4 seed Victoria Hu 6-4, 6-3.
Okutoyi and Francesca Pace of Italy won the doubles title, with the No. 2 seeds beating top seeds Allura and Maribella Zamarripa (Texas) 3-6, 6-4, 14-12 in today’s final.
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