The first batch of ITA Regionals have wrapped up on the men’s side and our list of NCAA qualifiers continues to fill up. Questions of regional imbalance remain after Virginia and Ole Miss sweep their respective fields, but that’s a topic for another day.
In both the Atlantic and Central regions, all four singles semifinalists came from a single school. In the Atlantic, it was Virginia’s (32) Andres Santamarta Roig versus Stiles Brockett on the top half and (78) Luca Preda versus (33) Jangjun Kim on the bottom half. The No. 1 seed Santamarta Roig and top newcomer Luca Preda earned the bids to NCAAs.
In the Central, Sooner (62) Johan Rodriguez took down teammate Tito Chavez 6-0, 6-4, while (81) Luciano Ambrogi claimed the other spot with a win over the fourth Sooner, (121) Asahi Zarahaki. Virginia solidified itself as the real winner though, claiming the doubles regional title as well with Kim and Santamarta Roig getting through. Oklahoma fell just short as Chavez/Melero lost in the Regional final.
Ole Miss claimed the Southern region as it took three of four singles semifinals spots and the doubles title. (91) Igor Kudriashov and (52) Niccolo Baroni reached the finals for the rebels, while the doubles squad Kudriashov/Kai Milburn got it done versus Crimson Tide pairing Aleksander Blus and Theo Hegarty.
Denver’s Dylan Davies and Utah State’s Xavier Calvelo were the first to earn a bid from the Regionals stage as they made waves in the Mountain Region, hosted by BYU. Davies did so without dropping a set.
North Carolina put two players in the Carolina Regional semis but neither earned a berth into NCAAs. Instead, South Carolina’s (105) Charlie Robertson and Clemson’s (87) Bruno Kuzuhara punched their tickets with straight-set wins over their Tar Heel opponents, Chris Xu and Ian Mayew.
Out of the Texas Region, Texas newcomer (88) Tomasz Berkieta earned his way into NCAAs in his freshman campaign, while UNLV Junior Ilia Snitari pushed his way into the singles championship field for the second year in a row. No. 6 ranked TCU doubles team Albert Pedrico Kravtsov/Cooper Woestendick claimed the doubles ticket.
Overall, the newcomers made a big showing at Regionals compared to All Americans where no freshmen punched their ticket. But in the regional events, five newcomers reached their respective final and secured a berth — No. 1 newcomer Luca Preda, No. 2 Luciano Ambrogi, No. 6 Bruno Kuzuhara, No. 7 Tomasz Berkieta and No. 10 Igor Kudriashov.
With many of the established players skipping out on regionals and likely missing NCAAs, it seems good for the health of college tennis that these players are competing in the fall and getting familiar with the landscape before the big stage in the spring.
Two players qualified for both the singles and doubles championship: Santamarta Roig and Kudriashov.
Full List of Qualifiers
Atlantic – Andres Santamarta Roig (Virginia) and Luca Preda (Virginia) — Jangjun Kim/Andres Santamarta Roig (Virginia)
Carolina – Charlie Robertson (South Carolina) and Bruno Kuzuhara (Clemson) — Mesarovic/Bladelius (Clemson)
Central – Johan Rodriguez (Oklahoma) and Luciano Ambrogi (Oklahoma) — Connor Smillie/Brendan Boland (Oklahoma)
Mountain – Dylan Davies (Denver) and Xavier Calvelo (Utah State) — Marko Maksimovic/Arda Karakas (UNLV)
New England – Rodrigo Fernandez (Cornell) and Rohan Murali (Harvard) — Rushil Khosla/Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar (Cornell)
Ohio Valley – Nour Fathalla (Purdue) and Kyle McNally (Dayton) — Hamza El Amine and Lucas Bazin (Louisville)
Southern – Igor Kudriashov (Ole Miss) and Niccolo Baroni (Ole Miss) — Igor Kudriashov/Kai Milburn (Ole Miss)
Texas – Tomasz Berkieta (Texas) and Ilia Snitari (Texas A&M) — Albert Pedrico Kravtsov/Cooper Woestendick (TCU)
