Does any US player besides Shelton have a chance to win NCAA singles and US Open WC?

[jcgatennismom]

The top US players according to UTR are Riffice, Shelton, Dostanic, and Kingsley (UTRs as of a week ago). Unfortunately, two of those-Kingsley and Riffice play each other today at 10am.

Do top international finishers get WCs into any other events? It would seem fair that the QF/SFs or above would at least receive WCs into Challengers somewhere. Some of those may already receive Challenger WCs depending on if their college hosts Challengers. There are 4-8 WCs from those schools into their host Futures but there may only be 1-2 for their host Challengers. Could 1 of those WCs from each uni that hosts events be reserved for NCAA top finishers? I assume most of the players who will reach QFs of NCAAs may already be around 1000 ATP so Future WCs may not be much of a motivation though some ATP ranked players may have to start in Future Qualis-get directly into MD would help some.

I think the US Open WC should be reserved for US winner but there needs to be some carrot for the top internationals. US does not host any pro circuits in May until May 30 so there is no conflict between Futures and NCAAs here but I wonder if players are tempted to go home and skip NCAAs if there are Futures in their home countries/region in May. One year Wake Forest hosted 2 Futures the weeks following NCAAs, and those events attracted a lot of college players-should host sites make a habit of hosting Futures right after NCAA singles? There are ongoing UTR PTT events in US in May-easier to win $ at those than Futures with the round robin format. There are also PTT in other countries. What does motivate international ITA players to stay in US to play NCAAs? Pride in team and self? To be able to say they are #1 or #2? Does it help with fall 23 rankings and/or entry in AAs 23? I wonder especially for those players whose teams were not in team NCAAs

 

[the_wigsphere]

It would seem the USO could at least have a qualifying WC they could give international NCAA singles champs. I think it's an additional bummer that if a U.S. player and international player win the doubles championship, only the U.S. player gets a US Open WC ... but paired with some other U.S. player.

Even if an international player can't "earn" the wild card, I do think winning an NCAA singles title could carry some weight in getting some later financial support from wealthy alumni/donor types when first starting on tour or maybe even scoring some free gear from companies. It's a nice line on the tennis resume for stateside companies and sponsors. I think there's a definite pride component. Also by playing NCAA singles/doubles, the player gets additional time of training with their coaches, working with trainer and medical staff, and getting essentially free strength training and nutrition. Outside of maybe coaching, most of that stuff isn't available to players when they go play maybe one extra tournament during the summer.

To answer one of your questions, yes, NCAA results help toward the fall ranking for returning players. The fall singles ranking is mostly the final spring rankings with all the seniors and those who left early taken out.

 

[Larry Duff]

If they could get a WC into qualies they may hang around too. I remember Norrie turned pro after TCU lost in the team tourney so didn't play. The incentive of a qualie spot would maybe be worth it.

 

[mikej]

To answer the title question - yes, Riffice, if it gets hot enough

 

[ClarkC]

Stanford signs lots of American blue chip recruits. Maybe one of them will win.