USTA/ITA National Summer Championships to Begin Saturday
Indiana University will serve as the host institution for the 10th consecutive year
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The USTA/ITA National Summer Championships begin this Saturday, August 13th and run through Wednesday, August 17th at the Indiana University Varsity Tennis Center.
The tournament is the pinnacle of the ITA Summer Circuit, presented by the USTA, which took place at 31 regional sites throughout the country last month. A total of 2,843 players participated in ITA Summer Circuit events this year.
Nearly 30,000 men and women have competed in ITA Summer Circuit events since its inception in 1993. The circuit provides current, former and future collegiate players the opportunity to compete against one another in organized events between the spring and fall seasons.
The ITA Summer Circuit is currently made up of eight regions: California, Central, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Mountain, Northeast, Southeast and Texas. Each region consists of three or four “open” tournaments played during the month of July, with points awarded to players according to how far they advance in each event.
Although the primary focus of the ITA Summer Circuit is to provide incoming freshmen and returning collegiate players the chance to compete in the summer months, junior players are also eligible to compete on the circuit.
The USTA/ITA National Summer Championships is open to all competitors, but provide an incentive to those players who have succeeded on the circuit. American college players who played in at least three circuit events and finished as the top point-getters in their region will have their travel expenses to Bloomington covered by the ITA and USTA, in addition to receiving a $50 per diem and free shuttle service. This summer, Chase Melton of California-Berkeley and Evan McElwain of Cornell met the requirements in the California and Northeast regions respectively, and both will be competing in Indiana this week.
The top four men's singles seeds in the 2011 USTA/ITA National Summer Championships are: Peter Kobelt (Ohio State), Daniel Whitehead (Texas), Nelson Vick (Ohio State), and Ricky Doverspike (Alabama). The top four women's singles seeds are: Mallory Burdette (Stanford), Rachael White (Illinois), Caroline Lilley (Georgia Tech), and Alexandra Anghelescu (Georgia Tech).
The USTA/ITA National Summer Championships include men's and women's singles and doubles. The singles and doubles champions will earn wild cards into the first ITA national tournaments of the 2011-12 collegiate tennis season: the ITA Men's All-American Championships and Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships. Both events take place October 1-9.
Indiana alum Thomas Richter and Duke’s Mary Clayton captured last year's singles titles in Bloomington. Past tournament finalists include former world Top 100 pros: Amer Delic (Illinois), Julie Ditty (Vanderbilt), Jennifer Russell (Purdue), Jim Thomas (Stanford) and Brian Vahaly (Virginia).
This is the 10th straight year that IU is serving as tournament host. IU assistant women's tennis coach Ramiro Azcui is serving as tournament director.
Draws and start times for Saturday's opening round matches will be available at IUhoosiers.com and ITAtennis.com on Friday. Admission to all matches is free.
