In the last article, we covered the top half of the bracket. Now it is time to cover the bottom half of the bracket, important players, and the important results from the quarterfinal round all the way to the 2023 NCAA National Championship!
*Rankings last updated May 4th by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association
Bottom Right Region:
This area of the draw is highlighted by Georgia Bulldog and #2 player in the country Ethan Quinn. Quinn's credentials on the ITF tour were highlighted in a previous article on the team championship where he was able to lead his team to the quarterfinals, until he and his teammates suffered a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes. Quinn's start to the campaign was not an easy opponent at all. He faced one of the stars from Texas Christian University, #17 Luc Fomba where he lost the first set in a tiebreaker (7-5) and then won the next two sets 6-2, 7-5. Quinn then had a much easier draw in the second round where he faced #58 Ryan Seggerman from the University of North Carolina. Quinn got through with a straightforward 6-4, 6-4 win. In the Round of 16, Quinn was slated to play against #15 Nishesh Basavareddy of Stanford.
Nishesh Basavareddy is another collegiate player with lower level tour experience. While he has no significant results in singles, he has been able to play at a large range of events. His age has allowed him to play in the boys' majors as recent as last summer, coupled with appearances at an M15, an M25 and a Challenger. His significant results come in doubles, where he won the title at M15 Vero Beach on Clay in April of 2022. On this title run, he beat Ethan Quinn in the second round who was partnered with Nicholas Godsick and Basavareddy was with Ricardo Rodriguez. Then, for the Boys' US Open last year, Basavareddy partnered with #50 Ozan Baris of Michigan State, and together they lifted the trophy in New York. In the first round match for Basavareddy, he played #57 Rafa Izquierdo Luque of the North Carolina State Wolfpack and had an easy 6-3, 7-5 win. In the second round, Basavareddy had to play no other than his US Open doubles partner, Ozan Baris. Basaverddy steamrolled Baris 6-1, 6-4 to set up the match with Ethan Quinn, where the #2 player in the country got his revenge from the doubles match at Vero Beach and won in a competitive three set match 7-5 in the third.
Related: Pro Tennis Explained: 3 Different Court Surfaces and a Next Gen Male Player to Watch on Each
While Quinn and Basavareddy highlighted the bottom of the region, the top of the region was headlined by the boys from the Big10: James Kent Trotter of Ohio State and Andrew Fenty of Michigan. James Kent Trotter of Japan, has an ATP ranking of 609 and has plenty experience on the college circuit and pro as well. His ranking compared to other college players allows him to play in more challenger level matches. While never getting past the second round of a challenger, Trotter did win an M25 on hard in Edwardsville, Illinois at the end of last July. Much like Basavareddy, he has had a lot of success in doubles on the tour, which started back in September of 2021 where he made the final of a doubles challenger event right at the home of the Buckeyes in Columbus, Ohio. The summer of 2022 was extremely successful for JKT. Right after the school year ended; Trotter lifted the M25 East Lansing doubles title with fellow Japanese player Shunsuke Mitsui in the first week of June. Two weeks later, he won the M15 South Bend, Indiana title with partner Siddhant Banthia. The next tournament he played, in late July, he made the final (M25 Champaign, Illinois). To cap off the summer, in mid August, Trotter won the M25 in Columbus with Canadian partner and Ohio State Buckeye teammate Justin Boulais (#24 in ITA).
Related: Looking Ahead to Spring: 6 Tips For Getting Recruited in College Tennis
James Kent Trotter, ranked 34th in the country, goin 25-0 during the regular season. He started off his postseason singles campaign against #18 Alafia Ayeni of Kentucky, where he upset him in three sets. He lost the first set in a breaker, but came back 6-2 in the second and 7-5 in the third. This set up a meeting with #16 Connor Thompson of the South Carolina Gamecocks, where he won in upset fashion again; this time a simpler 7-5, 6-1 victory. Now, he would face fellow Big10 rival of Michigan: #20 Andrew Fenty.
Fenty, while a great college player, has made no strides on the tour. At a somewhat advanced age of 23, he has no deep runs at any tournaments (singles or doubles). His most notable tournaments are his entries into the qualifications for the very popular ATP 500 tournament in Washington D.C. every year in early August. He has gotten entries in 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022 and each time losing in the first round of quali's. On the other hand, Andrew has racked wins on the collegiate calendar and finished off the regular season with a very honorable 34-8 record. Fenty won his first round match against #45 Etienne Donnet of Louisville in back and forth first two sets 5-7, 7-5 and made the third set convincing by getting through 6-1. Keeping it in the ACC in his second round match, he played #47 Ryan Fishback of the Virginia Tech Hokies and won with a much easier 6-1, 6-4 scoreline. In the round of 16 he would go on to play James Kent Trotter in a Michigan-OSU rivalry match and come out on top 6-2, 7-6 to make the national quarterfinals.
Bottom Left Region:
This last region is highlighted by 3 seed Arthur Fery of Stanford. Fery's results in this tournament are significant. Fery was matched in Round 1 with #31 Emile Hudd of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville Volunteers. Fery won with ease 6-4, 6-2. In the second round, Fery drew #46 Noah Schachter of the Texas A&M Aggies, and had a little more difficulty as the first set needed a breaker but ended up clean with a 7-6 6-1 victory. Fery would go on to play the very talented Canadian #13 Liam Draxl out of the University Kentucky.
Liam Draxl, ranked #620 by the ATP has had lots of success on the lower levels. In December of 2021, Draxl won ten matches in a row, lifting the titles at M15 Cancun 8 and 9 in back-to-back weeks. He only lost one set in each of those tournaments, and one of them being a tiebreak in the final (Cancun 8). Since then he has not won a title, but he did make the final of an M25 in Wichita, Kansas in June of 2022 and the final of his most recent tour appearance: M15 Santo Domingo 2 in December of 2022. In terms of his doubles, he lifted the trophy in Santo Domingo 2 with partner Jesse Flores of Costa Rica. He also won the doubles titles at Cancun 7 in the three week trip down there with fellow Canadian Cleeve Harper of the Longhorns (who is partnered with NCAA #1 Elliot Spizzirri). In 2021, he won an M15 on indoor hard courts in Tallahassee, Florida with partner John Mcnally. In the semi-finals of this tournament he beat last years #1 collegiate player in the nation Ben Shelton (Florida Gator alumni and top 40 player in the world currently) and also paired with Shelton at M15 Vero Beach two weeks before, in his first pro doubles match ever.
Related: Rate your Coaches, Facilities, and Campus Visits
Draxl, in his first round match went up against #43 Brian Cernoch of the UNC Tar Heels and won easily 6-0, 6-4. Just like Rafa Izqueirdo of in-state rival NC State, Cernoch is another ACC player ranked this high to have a losing regular season record (11-12). Liam would have a much tougher second round match against #21 Jake Fearnley of the Texas Christian University (TCU) Horned Frogs. He would drop the first set 2-6 and then come back 6-3 and 6-3 to win in three sets. Unfortunately for Liam his season would end at the hands of #3 Arthur Fery in a dominant 6-1 6-1 win from the man from Stanford.
The bottom half of this region is featured by the men out West: Micah Braswell of the Texas LongHorns and Murphy Cassone of the Arizona Wildcats. #61 Micah Braswell has an ATP ranking of 791 which solely comes from his performance in his most recent pro level tournament. He lifted the trophy in a home M25 event in Austin, Texas where he only dropped one total set. Braswell had a huge result in the first round of the NCAA singles tournament, as he upset #6 in the country Andres Martin of Georgia Tech 6-2 6-3. In the second round, he faced an easier ACC player #30 Dan Martin of the University of Miami. Here he upset with another straight set win, this time in a 7-5, 6-4 fashion. In the Round of 16, Braswell was poised to play against Murphy Cassone.
Murphy Cassone, at 21 years old is one of the highest ranked tour players with an ATP ranking of 531. This is interesting however, as Cassone has won only one title: M25 Columbus, Ohio in August of 2022. He went on a nice run here, as he beat James Kent Trotter in the second round, American Sam Riffice in the third round (won the 2021 singles and team championship with the Florida Gators) and also Australian Rinky Hijikata in the final (who won this year's Australian Open Men's doubles title with fellow Australian Jason Kubler). Murphy (#42 in the LTA rankings) in the first round of these NCAAs drew #26 Inaki Montes de la Torre of the reigning team champs Virginia Cavaliers. He upset de la Torre 6-3, 7-6 where de la Torre only had 1 point in the second set breaker. In the second round he also upset #11 Cannon Kingsey of Ohio State in a very strange match. Cassone won the first set in a breaker where Kinglsey had no points and then lost the second set where he only got one point in the breaker. Then in the third, Murphy won in a dominant 6-1 fashion. This would set up a round of 16 match against Micah Braswell where Cassone would make the national quarterfinal with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Braswell.
Other Notables from Bottom Half of Draw:
In the bottom half of this year's draw, the #5 and #6 seeds in the tournament were both knocked out in the first round, yet they deserve recognition. Just above, I mentioned that Micah Braswell upset Andres Martin. Martin had a great regular season, going 27-6. Martin has never won an ITF event, but actually has real ATP experience. Last summer, as a Georgia Tech player he earned a Wild card entry into ATP 250 Atlanta and won his first ever ATP Match against Thanasi Kokkinakis in straight sets. To put this achievement into perspective, Thanasi won his second round match in the French Open today in five sets against tennis legend Stan Wawrinka. Martin would lose in the second round of Atlanta to ATP veteran Adrian Mannarino in the next round. Two weeks later, in late August, Martin lost in the first round of qualification matches of ATP 250 Winston-Salem (held at the tennis center for Wake Forest University) to another ATP Veteran Marton Fucsovics. The reality is that Martin has some experience on the highest levels of tennis that some other D1 players will never get the chance to experience.
#5 Johannus Monday of the Tennessee Volunteers lost in the first round to previously mentioned Ryan Fishback. Monday of Great Britain went 17-3 in the collegiate regular season and also has good experience on the pro tour. Monday, has won two ITF events. The first being M15 South Bend, Indiana in late June of 2022 and the second being an M25 in Decatur, Illinois in August 2022. He won three doubles titles at the ITF level. The first being M25 Champaign, Illinois in late July of 2022. Partnered with Stefan Dostanic (ITA #25 of the University of Southern California) they beat Ethan Quinn in this title run and the Ohio State pairing of James Kent Trotter and Justin Boulais in the final. In late September, Johannus traveled to Europe and partnered with fellow Briton Giles Hussey. Together, they won back to back indoor M25 tournaments; the first being Falun Sweden in the last week of September and then Sheffield, United Kingdom in the first week of October (where they beat Arthur Fery and his partner in the semi-finals).
Quarterfinals:
In the top left region, #8 Ondrej Styler upset #1 Elliot Spizzirri in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. In the top right, Chris Rodesch beat Alexander Bernard 6-3, 6-4. In the bottom right, #2 Ethan Quinn beat Andrew Fenty 6-2, 6-4. And lastly in the bottom left, Murphy Cassone upset #3 Arthur Fery in two really tight sets: a first set breaker going the way of the Arizona Wildcat (7-5) and then the second set went to Cassone as well 7-5 (in games).
Semifinals:
On the left side, #8 Ondrej Styler steamrolled Cassone Murphy 6-1, 6-2 and #2 Ethan Quinn came from behind to beat Chris Rodesch 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.
National Championship:
Last Saturday, May 27th, #2 Ethan Quinn and #8 Ondrej Styler had a serious battle for the title. Styler won the first set breaker with Quinn getting two points. Quinn won the second set breaker with Styler getting five points. In the third and last set of the tournament, Quinn won it decisively 6-2. Congratulations to redshirt freshman Ethan Quinn! And congratulations to the University of Georgia Bulldogs tennis program! What an awesome season of Men's D1 tennis!
Have an idea for a story or a question you need answered? Want to set up an interview with us? Email us at [email protected]
Image Credit: Dawg Nation
* Originally published on June 1, 2023, by AJ Rosenberg
