ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships Preview

The second NCAA Major of the year for NCAA D1 Tennis will take place this Thursday through Sunday at The USTA Billy Jean King National Tennis Center (site of the US Open) in Flushing, NY. Players qualified for this tournament (for singles) by either getting to the final of their regional tournament, getting to the quarterfinals at the ITA All-American, winning the consolation of the ITA All-American, or getting a wildcard (4 given out). The doubles qualifiers had to either get to the final of the ITA All-American, win the consolation, or get a wildcard (2 given out). And for each draw, a Super Bowl champ was crowned from non-Division 1 schools and was granted an entry.

For the first time in 5 Fall Majors, the Virginia Cavaliers will not have a singles champion, as the only person that was in the field for them (who was the favorite) Mitchell Frank, opted out of the tournament to play the Knoxville and Champaign Challengers.

The singles seeds are as follows:
1. Patrick Pradella, Baylor
2. Guillermo Alcorta, Oklahoma
3. Julian Lenz, Baylor
4. Austin Smith, Georgia
5. Gonzales Austin, Vanderbilt
6. Clay Thompson, UCLA
7. Winston Lin, Columbia
8. Jared Hiltzik, Illinois

I have a HUGE problem with whoever did this seeding. It is downright awful and makes no sense at all. Left off of the seeding list is Mikelis Libietis of Tennessee who is the pre-season #1 player in the nation, Peter Kobelt of Ohio State (#3 pre-season ranking), Marcos Giron (#6 pre-season ranking). They are meaning to tell me those top 8 seeded players are better than those 3? I'm not buying it. Also Patrick Pradella as a number 1 seed has to be the biggest joke. Pradella was ranked #16 coming into the season. He first lost to teammate Julian Lenz in a fall tournament before the ITA All-American, who is seeded 3rd here. At the ITA All-American as the 13 seed, Pradella took out the number 87th ranked player (Vliegan), the number 34th ranked player (Silverman), and the 96th ranked player (Powell). He then lost in 3 sets to the 2 seed here, Guillermo Alcorta. So with no big wins and losing to the 2 and 3 seeds at the last tournament, why is he the number 1 seed? Makes no sense whatsoever.
If he goes onto win the tournament, I will eat my words I suppose. But until then it makes no sense. Onward down my list of complaints: The 2-5 seeds here can make an argument for being seeded (maybe not as high though). I do agree after a good showing in Tulsa, at least Alcorta deserves a quality seed. My next problem is with Clay Thompson of UCLA being seeded 6th. Makes no sense once again. Thompson won the back draw at the ITA All-American, so basically, he came in 33rd out of 64 people. The only reason I can think that the ITA gives this winner a selection is to get people to take the back draw seriously, or if they got a bad draw. Which I can understand. But the fact that this player got seeded and has done nothing else this fall is a joke. Giron is also higher in the UCLA singles lineup than Thompson, so I'm sure UCLA finds this funny too. My last negative complaint in seeding: Winston Lin of Columbia being seeded 7th. Lin lost 6-0, 7-6 in the 3rd round to the champion Mitchell Frank, which is an unlucky draw. But Win had no big wins in the ITA All-American, defeated a Lucky Loser and a Qualifier to get to that point. Sure he won his regional and didn't ride on the host wildcard he would've gotten any way. But the regional he came out of was a comparatively very weak one. A Columbia player that finally didn't get a free ride into this tournament must be a once in a lifetime thing, "so why not give him a seed?" -(What the seeding committee must've had said). A positive complaint is Jared Hiltzik being seeded 8th. Hiltzik got to the quarterfinals by having an easy win over Ray Sarmiento of USC. I personally think Hiltzik should've been seeded higher in this tournament. Also, I think somewhere in the seeding USC's Yannick Hanfman should have got seeded. He won the toughest regional in singles (featuring UCLA, USC and other Southwest teams). I think that is deserving of a seed. However, I realize that goes against my rule since Sarmiento plays a higher position that Hanfmann, but Sarmiento withdrew early from the Southwest Regional so Hanfmann earned that.

Looking onto the draw though, my analysis on the horrible seeding job will be either justified or prove me wrong on Day 1. The first match on the draw is top seeded Patrick Pradella versus the preseason number 1 Mikelis Libietis. Tough luck for Libietis to get the 1 seed in the first round, but he still should be able to get by. The winner of that will take on the winner of Ohio State's Peter Kobelt and USC's Ray Sarmiento. If things go the way they should, Kobelt and Libietis will play in the 2nd round and will feature the preseasons #1 and #3 ranked players. Shouldn't that have been a semifinal matchup? Other intriguing first round matchups include Illinois' Jared Hiltzik versus UCLA's Marcos Giron. This match could go either way, and the fact that both of these guys got hooked on seeding, one of these guys will be out of the Main Draw earlier than they should be.
Nik Sholtz of Ole Miss has been doing well on the professional circuit and he will play the 3 seed Julian Lenz in the first round. Hanfmann will play 2 seeded Alcorta in a match that I think can go either way. Both have had good falls, and Hanfmann didn't play the ITA All-American so this tournament he can show how he fairs against the rest of the nation.

Here are the seeds for the doubles tournament:
1. Libietis/Reese, Tennessee
2. Glasspool/Hess-Olsen, Texas
3. Giron/McDonald, UCLA
4. Guignon/Kopinski, Illinois

I like the seeding for this a lot more, except I think Texas and UCLA should've been flip flopped. But that is irrelevant since they would meet in the semifinals anyways. I also am not a fan of the ITA All-American consolation champ being a seed because that is saying, "We came in 17th out of 32 teams." So how they jump from 17th to 4th? I don't know. But I think the Ohio State team of Kevin Metka and Peter Kobelt is better, but I understand they didn't get seeded because they didn't have a good enough showing at the ITA All-American. But those two teams possibly will play in the quarterfinals so once again that will work itself out. I do think all 4 seeds have a good chance to go far. But I think the top 2 seeds will have tough tests in their first match. The Texas team will take on the USC team of Max de Vroome and Eric Johnson (once again out of the toughest regional). So I definitely think the Longhorns may be on upset alert in the first round. The top seeds from Tennessee will have to play a team from Virginia Tech in Bjerrhus and Contini, who I think can be a big threat early on. One other team I think can make a run is the Texas A&M team of Junior Ore and Jackson Withrow, who potentially will meet Giron and McDonald in the quarterfinals.

I'll have day by day results and analysis of the tourney so stay tuned! (Go Buckeyes)