By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
American tennis players who win the NCAA singles title and all-American teams that win the NCAA doubles title are by custom given wild card entries into the U.S. Open. All American winners at the recently concluded NCAA Championships at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Florida were Ethan Quinn of the University of Georgia and Fresno, Calif. (men’s singles) and the all-American team of Fiona Crawley (San Antonio, Texas) and Carson Tanguilig (Alpharetta, Ga.) of the University of North Carolina (women’s doubles). All three Americans are expected to receive main draw wild cards into the U.S. Open that starts August 28 at the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center in New York.
“We’re both just really excited if we get that opportunity and we’re just going to take it as it comes, I guess,” said Tanguilig when presented with the fact that she and Crawley may get a U.S. Open wild card into the women’s doubles event.
Crawley, the effervescent and bubbly native of San Antonio, Texas, was more than effusive when discussing a potential U.S. Open appearance in women’s doubles.
“I want to go to New York with Carson,” she said. “That’d be so fun.”
Tanguilig has only been to the U.S. Open as a fan, while Crawley, who was the No. 1 seed in the NCAA women’s singles tournament, once played in the junior tournament.
“I played in the juniors one year,” said Crawley. “I got a wildcard into Junior U.S. Open and it was so much fun. I lost first round, but had the best time.”
Quinn would seem to be a lock for a U.S. Open wild card, considering the fact that he not only is the top player in college, but his big serve and forehand game earned a top 500 ATP ranking with only six months of play last year and he reached the second round of singles qualifying and the second round of main draw doubles at last year’s U.S. Open.
Fangran Tian, a UCLA freshman from Beijing, China, won the NCAA women’s singles title and will very likely not get a U.S. Open wild card. The winner of the NCAA men’s doubles event was an American-Japanese combination from Ohio State, Andrew Lutschaunig of Richboro, Pa., and James Trotter from Japan. Lutschaunig said in his post-match press conference after his NCAA men’s doubles win that he has shoulder surgery scheduled that would take him out of competitive play for six to eight months, putting any potential U.S. Open plans in jeopardy, although it would be unlikely he would get a wild card specifically with Trotter of Japan.
While no wild cards are guaranteed or promised, the USTA has worked to be flexible to try to reward American winners of the NCAA doubles tournament when they play with a non-American partner. For instance, in 2017, American Spencer Papa won the NCAA doubles title with Australian Andrew Harris. Papa was granted a main draw doubles wild card with North Carolina’s William Blumberg, an American who lost in the NCAA singles final. In 2022, two Americans won NCAA doubles titles with non-American partners and the two, Richard Ciamarra of Texas and Jaeda Daniel of N.C. State, were awarded a U.S. Open mixed doubles wild card together.
