USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships Begin Thursday

October 31, 2016 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff

The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center will serve as host to the closing event of the college tennis fall season, as the 2016 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships get underway Thursday morning in Flushing, New York.

The USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, which runs Nov. 3-6, is the fourth national championship of the 2016-17 ITA National Tournament calendar. Earlier this fall, national champions were crowned at the Men's and Women's All-American Championships, the Oracle ITA Masters and ITA Oracle Cup.

Live scoring will be available for the entire tournament, which along with updated draws, daily recaps, photo gallery links and other tournament information, can be viewed on the official ITA event page here. You can also follow the conversation Twitter by following @ITA_Tennis and using the hashtag #NationalIndoors.

The USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships features 32 of the nation's elite men's and women's singles players, as well as 20 outstanding men's and women's doubles teams. Champions from the ITA Division I Regional Championships Presented by Oracle, ITA Oracle Cup, Oracle ITA Masters and the consolation champions, doubles finalists, men's singles quarterfinalists and women's singles semifinalists from the Saint Francis ITA Men's and Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships earned automatic entry into the event. Both the USTA and ITA selected at-large and wildcard participants, while Columbia University received a wildcard entry into each draw for serving as event host.

Defending women's singles champion, Francesca Di Lorenzo of Ohio State, leads a deep and competitive women's singles field. Di Lorenzo, a sophomore, won her second ITA national title at the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships, besting UCLA freshman Ena Shibahara in the final. A week later, Shibahara would collect her own national championship, winning the Oracle ITA Masters. Di Lorenzo and Shibahara are the No. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively, in the USTA/ITA National Indoors tournament. In all, six of the Top 10 players in the Oracle/ITA Division I Preseason Collegiate Tennis Rankings are in the singles draw.

On the men's side, plenty of big hitters are in the singles draw, including Oracle ITA Masters champion Ryotaro Matsumura of Kentucky, ITA Oracle Cup singles champion Oliver Frank of Azusa Pacific, and Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Champion, Petros Chrysochos of Wake Forest. Top-ranked singles player Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State leads the list of eight players ranked in the Top 10 competing in New York City.


Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
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