It seemed like every time Parsa Nemati posted a ‘bomb’ with a 20+ year old pro joining college tennis over the summer, the comment sections were filled with sarcasm and disgust.
Just look at this post of 23-year-old Toby Kodat signing with the NC State Wolfpack.
Midway through October, how are those newly minted ‘freshmen’ faring so far? In short: pretty darn good. Five older newcomers have qualified for the NCAA singles championship — No. 1 Luca Preda (Virginia), No. 2 Luciano Ambrogi (Oklahoma), No. 6 Bruno Kuzuhara(Clemson), No. 7 Tomasz Berkieta (Texas) and No. 10 Igor Kudriashov (Ole Miss) — all doing so through their respective ITA Regionals.
That doesn’t come as much of a surprise based on their respective ATP rankings/UTR ratings. But it hasn’t been pure dominance either. Where does each stack up after the first few fall events?
Bruno Kuzuhara (Clemson) — (Former ATP 394) (13.65 UTR) — 22 years-old
Kuzuhara is 6-1 in singles competition so far with the lone loss coming to Dominick Mosejczuk (Wake Forest) in the second round of ITA All Americans. His top victories came versus Stiles Brockett (Virginia), Yannick Theodor Alexandrescou (Duke), and Ian Mayew (UNC).
Igor Kudriashov (Ole Miss) — (Former ATP 625) (13.74 UTR) — 23 years-old
Kudriashov is 8-3 after suffering three straight losses stretching from the Milwaukee Classic to All Americans. But the Russian went on a tear at ITA Regionals with a dominant performance in the ITA Southern Regional. On the Ole Miss men’s tennis roster, he is listed as a graduate transfer from the Russian University of Sport, an institution established by the Soviets in 1918. His degree type is not listed.
Luciano Embrogi (Oklahoma) — (Former ATP 311) (13.99 UTR) — 22 years-old
Embrogi made his first appearance in the ITA Central Regional, winning all five of his matches with all but the first round ending in straight sets.
Toby Kodat (NC State) — (Former ATP 308) (13.41 UTR) — 23 years-old
Kodat kicked off his college career with a bang, taking down No. 5 Devin Badenhorst (Baylor) in dominant fashion in the first round of All Americans after making it out of qualifiers. But since then, he has lost three-straight matches, moving to 3-3.
Tomasz Berkieta (Texas) — (Former ATP 479) — 20 years-old
Berkieta is 9-2 with a few ranked wins over No. 109 Ilyas Fahim (Virginia Tech) and No. 89 Noa Vukadin (Clemson), and more importantly, has already punched his ticket to the NCAA singles championship.
Luca Preda (Virginia) — (Former ATP 748) — 20 years-old
Somehow, Preda has already played 15 matches with a record of 15-2 (Two opponents withdrew) after coming out of qualifying and going deep in the All Americans consolation bracket. The No. 1 newcomer has lived up to the ranking with a few ranked wins, most notably in the Atlantic Regional final against teammate, No. 33 Jangjun Kim.
Yet to play:
Matej Dodig (Texas) — (Current ATP 171) — 21 years-old
Daniil Ostepankov (LSU) — (Former ATP 261) — 23 years-old
Michael Bassem Sobhy (LSU) — (Former ATP 510) — 22 years-old
Victor Lilov (Ohio State) — (Former ATP 497) — 22 years-old
