Everything you need to know for the American Collegiate Player Wildcard Playoff
Daniel Susann, Editor
Get your popcorn ready. We are just a few days away from arguably the biggest event of the summer for college tennis, the American Collegiate Player Wildcard Playoff.
From June 16-18, eight individuals and eight doubles teams will compete for spots in the US Open Main Draw and the US Open Qualifying Draw at the USTA National Campus in Orlando.
Watch the Cracked Racquets broadcast of the playoff here: singles semifinals | doubles semifinals | singles and doubles final.
Reference the bracket below:
The playoff features four of the best American college players/teams from the 2025-2026 season in each category — men's and women's singles and doubles (no mixed doubles).
The USTA grants automatic qualification to the Wild Card Playoffs for American NCAA Division I finalists in the singles and doubles championships held the previous fall. The remaining spots are selected by a committee made up of USTA staff, college tennis coaches and an ITA representative.
Matches are set to begin at 6:30 p.m. each day. The first round of singles competition will take place on Tuesday, June 16. The first round of doubles will be on Wednesday, June 17. The finals for both will be on Thursday, June 18.
Men's Singles
No. 4 Trevor Svajda (SMU) vs. No. 14 Aidan Kim (Ohio State)
No. 2 Sebastian Gorzny (Texas) vs. No. 19 Matthew Forbes (Michigan State)*
*No. 6 Michael Zheng (Columbia) automatically qualified after winning the 2025 national championship, but declined his invitation as he likely already will have a favorable path into at least the qualifier draw with an ATP ranking of 147.
Women's Singles
No. 2 Reese Brantmeier (North Carolina) vs. No. 8 Piper Charney (Michigan)
No. 4 Luciana Perry (Ohio State) vs. No. 11 Katrina Scott (Tennessee)
Men's Doubles
No. 6 Brandon Carpico/Nikita Filin (Ohio State) vs. No. 34 Greyson Casey/Carter Pate (Northwestern)
No. 24 Alex Chang/Alex Razeghi (Stanford) vs. No. 33 Michael Andre/Matteo Antonescu (Indiana)
Women's Doubles
No. 3 DJ Bennett/Ava Esposito (Auburn) vs. No. 22 Jessica Bernales/Lily Jones (Michigan)
No. 4 Reese Brantmeier/Alanis Hamilton (North Carolina) vs. No. 17 Valeria Ray/Bridget Stammel (Vanderbilt)
Before 2025, American national champions were awarded automatic qualification into the US Open main draw. But it isn't every year that an American wins the title, so often, college tennis missed out on multiple autobids to America's biggest tournament.
The new system implemented last year guarantees four main draw spots and two qualifier spots for college tennis players.
Competition will feature a typical best-of-three sets format with a 10-point tiebreak if necessary in the deciding set.
Who to watch:
- The North Carolina Brantmeier/Hamilton duo is back in the playoff after winning it last year to get a bid into the dance. Last summer, they took down Auburn's DJ Bennett and her former partner Ava Hrastar.
- Brantmeier finished the collegiate season losing three of her last four matches, including a loss to Michigan's Charney in the Chapel Hill Super Regional 3-6, 2-6.
- On top of her recent win over Brantmeier, Charney took down Perry in the Big Ten Championship 6-0, 2-6, 6-3.
- Brantmeier recently defeated Scott in a WTT W100 event 6-2, 6-2
- Kim is back in the playoff after falling to Michael Zheng in the first round last summer
The US Open Qualifying rounds will be held from Aug. 23-29, with the main tournament taking place Aug. 30 - Sept. 13.
