When looking over the names of players to qualify for the NCAA Singles Championship, there are a handful of names missing. Those names being almost the entire preseason top 10.
On the men’s side, just three of the top 10 are currently slated to take the court in Athens, and the women’s side isn’t much better with four of the top 10 qualified. Whether it’s through lack of participation in the fall or failure to take advantage of qualifying opportunities, the NCAA singles draw may not feature the majority of the best college tennis players in the country.
With two qualification weeks down, there are players who likely won’t be in the draws for the ITA Sectional Championships or the ITA Conference Masters—the last two opportunities to qualify, which take place in the same week. For the men, No. 1 Dylan Dietrich and No. 3 Duncan Chan have shown no indication of playing this fall season, opting for a pro schedule. No. 9 Gabriel Debru has foregone all pretenses, opting to turn pro after playing only once in a Texas uniform. At that lone tournament, ITA All-Americans, Debru lost his second-round match from four match points up.
On the women’s side of things, No. 1 Lucciana Perez, No. 5 Aysegul Mert, No. 8 Cadence Brace, and No. 9 Evialina Laskevich have all been playing varying degrees of a pro schedule and haven’t competed for their respective universities this fall.
The players simply skipping the fall are only half the story, though. The remaining top-10 players are prepared to compete at NCAAs, but haven’t secured their opportunity.
No. 2 Paul Inchauspe was on the entry list for All-Americans and the ITA Northeast Regional, but withdrew from both singles draws, though he did compete in doubles at Regionals. No. 4 Max Dahlin had a similar situation, playing doubles at the Midwest Regional while withdrawing from singles. No. 4 Teah Chavez has withdrawn from every event this fall after appearing on entry lists. For all three players, the cause of these withdrawals is unclear, but they’re much more likely to compete at sectionals or the Conference Masters than the players on a pro schedule.
There are, of course, players who have played healthy but simply haven’t won enough matches. No. 2 Carmen Herea went 2-2 at All-Americans, where she was the top seed, and didn’t play Regionals. The men’s top seed at All-Americans, No. 5 Devin Badenhorst, fared even worse, going 0-2 there before falling in the second round of Regionals. And No. 10 Matthew Forbes has had a rough start to his Ohio State career, currently 3-3 on the season with early losses in the main draws of All-Americans and Regionals.
As of right now, only about a third of the top 10 will be in the main draw in Athens. For an NCAA Championship, those numbers aren’t nearly strong enough. The players yet to qualify do have one more chance, but with some focusing on pro results and others struggling to find wins, these spots are far from secure.
