By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association and the ATP Tour have implemented a program in 2023 where college players who finish in the top 20 of the year-end men’s singles rankings and those who reach the quarterfinals of NCAA men’s singles tournament will receive special exemption entries into various ATP Challenger level professional tournaments. Read more about the program here: https://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/21993
Following a successful NCAA Tennis Championships appearance for Ohio State, where his team reached the NCAA Team Tournament final and his doubles team of James Trotter and Andrew Lutschaunig won the NCAA doubles title., Buckeye head coach Ty Tucker spoke about his strong endorsement the program
“Tim Russell (head of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association) has done a great job of orchestrating that and helping these guys have the opportunity,” said Tucker on the final day of the NCAAs at the USTA National Campus at Lake Nona, Florida. “A lot of times you see these (college) guys and they might be stuck at 500, 600 in the world ATP, but that’s only playing 10 events. So most of these guys that you see at 500 or 600 in the world, you think, ‘Ah, that’s not that great.’ But if they get a chance to play 25, 30 events like the pros do probably find themselves up into 300 in the world.”
As it turned out the entire top 20-ranked players in the final ITA singles rankings qualified for the program either by ranking or being reaching the quarterfinals of the NCAA singles championships with Ohio State freshman Alex Bernard being the lone qualifier for the program simply by reaching the NCAA quarterfinals. The 21 players eligible for the ATP Accelerator program are as follows
1. Eliot Spizzirri, Texas (USA – No current ATP ranking)
2. Ethan Quinn, Georgia (USA – ATP No. 513)
3. Arthur Fery, Stanford (Great Britain – ATP No. 424)
4. Ondrej Styler, Michigan (Czech Republic – No current ATP ranking)
5. Chris Rodesch, Virginia (Luxembourg – ATP No. 749)
6. Johannus Monday, Tennessee (Great Britain – ATP No. 580)
7. Melios Efstathiou, Wake Forest (Cyprus ATP No. 918)
8. Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State (France – ATP No. 1,472)
9. Andres Martin, Georgia Tech (USA – ATP No. 593)
10. Toby Samuel, South Carolina (Great Britain – ATP No. 548)
11. Liam Draxl, Kentucky (Canada – ATP No. 625)
12. Cannon Kingsley, Ohio State (USA – ATP No. 560)
13. Murphy Cassone, Arizona State (USA – ATP No. 533)
14. Andrew Fenty, Michigan (USA – No current ATP Ranking)
15. Sebastian Dominko, Notre Dame (Slovak Republic- ATP No. 998)
16. Nishesh Basavareddy, Stanford (USA – No current ATP ranking)
17. Connor Thomson, South Carolina (Great Britain – No current ATP ranking)
18. Garrett Johns, Duke (USA – ATP No. 677)
19. Jake Fearnley, TCU (Great Britain – No current ATP ranking)
20. Alafia Ayeni, Kentucky (USA – ATP No. 403)
21. Alexander Bernard, Ohio State (USA – ATP No. 652)
Players in this group who have finished their education will be granted up to eight (8) Accelerator Spots at ATP Challengers at the 50 and 75 level , with opportunities split between main draw (Top 10) and qualifying (11-20). These opportunities will be available from 1 July each season, beginning in 2023, for a period of 12 months. Players who stay in school who qualify for the program will receive six opportunities over six months (July–December), enabling them to benefit from the program during their college off-season and parts of their individual fall season. Providing further opportunity, eligible college players who achieve direct acceptance into Qualifying of ATP Challenger events via their ATP Ranking will be eligible for promotion into the main draw.
Said Tucker, “It’s an unbelievable opportunity for these guys to get an opportunity to maybe skip a little bit of a level and not have to go grind in (small out of the way towns)”
Michigan’s Ondrej Styler, who lost the 2023 NCAA men’s singles final in devastating fashion, as you can read here https://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/22002, is one of the players who before this program was announced, had not really made any plans to pursue a professional career. However, now that he qualifies for up to eight ATP Challenger wild cards, he thinking about how he could potentially make it work, despite the fact that he has accepted a job as an investment bank analyst on Wall Street in New York with Credit Suisse, which was just bailed out and bought by UBS in the recent banking crisis.
Said Styler, “It was definitely like curve ball that they threw in January and now being at the end of the season and qualifying for that. That’s another element into my decision and what the economy is not great. Maybe I’ll reconsider who knows, but as of right now the plan doesn’t change. I need to just take some time off and figure out what I’m going to do with my life. But the plan in the last few months was just to enjoy every match like it’s the last one and that’s what I did. And I am always advocate of you shouldn’t make all the decisions when everything’s working out and as well as you shouldn’t make the decisions when nothing’s really working out in the moment. So I want to just take some time off, cool down and make a decision.”
Said Tucker, “I think a lot of great players, they don’t give themselves a great opportunity to make it. They get out with a college degree and then they’re put in Decatur, Illinois and Zanesville, Ohio and places like that playing 15Ks. And then they’re tired of being in a Super Eight motel and it’s an easy thing to walk away from the game. But when you get a chance to play in the challengers in the fifties, 70 fives and hundred thousand dollars tournaments, they’ve got ball kids and towels and Evian water. So you stay a little bit longer and give yourself an opportunity.”
Bruce Berque, the head men’s tennis coach at the University of Texas, was also effusive in his support of the program, calling it “a fantastic addition.” Berque also pointed out the positive nature of rewarding player both by ranking and by reaching the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships. Said Berque, “I’m really thankful to the ITA and the ATP for putting their heads together to create these opportunities for our guys. And reaching the quarterfinals of NCAAs is not the only way to get there. There’s a ranking component too. So you have some top 10 players that maybe don’t have a good NCAA tournament, or maybe they’re hurt and they can’t participate, they still have a way to get there that they earn from the body of work that they have throughout the whole year. So I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for the guys that win it, and also a great motivating opportunity for many of the other guys throughout the year.”
