Home / Preview / Expectations for men’s Conference Masters

Expectations for men’s Conference Masters

November 4, 2026 5:14 pm

Since the entrants were announced last week for the ITA Conference Masters event, some names have changed. But the significance (or the strength of field) has not. Four spots in the NCAA Singles Championship draw are up for grabs, and failing to qualify here means you will miss out.

The changes to the 32-man field include switching out Alexander Razeghi (Standord) for Luca Pow (Wake Forest) for the ACC spot, and dropping Rudy Quan (UCLA) in favor of Lorenzo Balducci (Purdue). Pow for Razeghi was somewhat of a 1-for-1 swap, but Balducci for Quan is less so. Seeing Quan’s name appear on the ITA West Sectional draw was no surprise.

The biggest change came with the five lottery entrants added. One of which being from the SEC, No. 15 Amirkhamza Nasridinov (Texas A&M), who was originally not in the field and is now competing, and sits as the No. 1 seed with the highest WTN. In an event that is supposed to help improve representation from mid-major schools, the SEC will likely end up with a freebie spot.

Joining Nasridinov from the top 20 is No. 19 Pow, who sits at the bottom of the draw as the No. 2 seed. The biggest obstacle in his way is Ivy League champion Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar (Cornell), and that match could end up being an interesting quarterfinal to qualify if both players get the job done on their end.

The other two power conference representatives sit in the second quarter of the draw, with Niksa Arsic (Texas Tech) from the Big 12 and Balducci from the Big Ten likely to meet in the quarterfinals. Though, Turkish senior Birtan Duran (Middle Tennessee) could give either of them trouble.

In the third quarter, it seems likely that No. 17 Aleksa Pisaric (Pepperdine) and Bryan Hernandez Cortes (Miss. State) will meet with their fall championship hopes on the line. Hernandez Cortes was the original SEC representative before the Auburn transfer Nasridinov was added.

The doubles field also saw the same number of additions by way of lottery. Wisconsin’s Ferdinand Kloesters/Patrik Meszaros got one of the lottery bids out of the Big Ten. The SEC did not originally have a team listed for the men’s side, but now they do: William Moxon/Antonin Witz (South Carolina).