Just five days after the conclusion of the 2024 NCAA tennis championships, the U.S. Tennis Association was quick to announce that the American winners of the tournament would be awarded wild cards into the 2024 U.S. Open.
On Thursday, May 30, the USTA announced that NCAA Division I women’s singles champion Alexa Noel and men’s doubles champions Robert Cash and JJ Tracy will receive main-draw wild cards into those respective competitions at the 2024 US Open. Additionally, Michael Zheng, who reached the men’s singles final, will receive a wild card into qualifying.
The USTA has traditionally awarded U.S. Open wild cards to the NCAA singles and doubles champions, but since about 2001 only to American winners of the collegiate tennis championships. Filip Planinsek of Alabama – and Slovenia – won the NCAA men’s singles title and the team of Ayssegul Mert (Turkey) and Dasha Vidmanova (Czech Republic) of the University of Georgia won the NCAA women’s doubles championship.
Noel (21; Summit, N.J.) defeated Georgia’s Anastasiia Lopata, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, in the women’s singles final to become the third University of Miami player to win the NCAA women’s singles title. The redshirt junior was the tournament’s No. 8 seed and knocked off the No 1-ranked player in the semifinals. She’ll be returning to the US Open for the first time since 2019 when she received a wild card into the women’s doubles main draw as the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s doubles champion and competed in the US Open Junior Championships.
Cash (23; New Albany, Ohio) and Tracy (21; Hilton Head, S.C.) defeated Florida State’s Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc and Joshua Dous-Karpenschif in the men’s doubles final, winning the decisive match tiebreak to give Ohio State its second consecutive men’s doubles national title. Cash and Tracy were one of the top-ranked doubles teams in the country throughout the season, and helped lead the Buckeyes to a 34-2 record and an appearance in the semifinals of the NCAA team championships.
Zheng (20; Montville, N.J.) fell in the men’s singles final against Alabama’s Filip Planinsek in three sets. The Columbia sophomore last competed at the US Open in 2022 as a junior.
“The pathway from college to professional tennis is as strong as ever, and these wild cards reflect the USTA’s continued commitment to supporting our top-performing American collegians at the NCAA Division I level,” said USTA Player Development GM Martin Blackman.
Currently there are six American former NCAA singles champions ranked in the ATP and WTA Top 100: Danielle Collins (Virginia; 2014, 2016), Marcos Giron (UCLA; 2014), Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA; 2016), Emma Navarro (Virginia, 2021), Ben Shelton (Florida; 2022), and Peyton Stearns (Texas; 2022).
