09-26-2024, 01:13 PM
This whole concept of earning your way into the NCAA singles championships by performance in a specific tournament rather than looking at your whole body of work (including team dual matches) sure does make for some drama. There will be some surprise entrants (at least in terms of preseason ranking). That said, Stoiana, Vidmanova, Mohr, and the rest of the seeded players who lost today will still have a crack at that prize in this tournament, as the second-round losers are placed in the consolation draw to play the winner of two first-round losers.
Here are the R16 matchups purely by preseason ranking just to show how this is playing out, with the winner of each matchup qualifying for NCAAs:
#44 vs. #55
#8 vs. #37
#4 vs. NR
#5 vs. #81
#10 vs. #69
#36 vs. #62
#32 vs. #89
#12 vs. #43
As we looked at earlier, there are still plenty of other opportunities to win your way into NCAAs, so it may well shake out that all the top preseason players make it in the end, but the first eight that qualify will include some surprises.
Here are the R16 matchups purely by preseason ranking just to show how this is playing out, with the winner of each matchup qualifying for NCAAs:
#44 vs. #55
#8 vs. #37
#4 vs. NR
#5 vs. #81
#10 vs. #69
#36 vs. #62
#32 vs. #89
#12 vs. #43
As we looked at earlier, there are still plenty of other opportunities to win your way into NCAAs, so it may well shake out that all the top preseason players make it in the end, but the first eight that qualify will include some surprises.