From individual sport to team sport and back. In junior tournaments and on tour, tennis absolutely takes on the role of an individual sport. In college, however, the focus shifts to that team aspect. A majority of players transition from junior tournaments to collegiate level play, if possible, and end their careers shortly after graduation. A small percentage turn "pro" by the age of 17; some even younger.
Yet, a handful of players compete at the collegiate level while still 'touring.' Throughout the year, the ITF (International Tennis Federation) Pro Circuit offers international tournaments geared toward high-level players.
Hundreds of events take place around the globe each year. A handful of them take place in the United States. Just in June 2016, there were seven domestic events across the country from Oklahoma to New York and back to North Carolina. Dozens of players from around the world traveled to these ITF events to boost their ranking, gain experience against top-level players, and stay in shape for their upcoming fall tournament season in college.
A vast majority of the final two players in men's singles and doubles at each of these seven events either compete, or have competed at the collegiate level. It's easy to assume college players compete solely during the collegiate season, and tour players compete and dominate at the tour level, but players like Cameron Norrie are breaking this mold.
Norrie, a junior for the upcoming 2016-2017 season at Texas Christian University competed in both the USA F21 Futures in Tulsa, OK and USA F23 Futures in Wichita, KS. With a singles title in both events, Norrie, of GBR, currently holds a ranking of 422 on tour.
Collegiate players also finished on top in the USA F17 Futures event and USA F19 Futures. Other June events featured collegiate players in both the singles and doubles draws, but some of these players decided to pursue the professional tennis tour instead of completing in college. Other doubles players may have won the event but paired with non-collegiate athletes to do so; an incredible victory, nonetheless.
The F17 event in Charlottesville, VA, featured the doubles duo of Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Mac Styslinger, both recent graduating seniors from the University of Virginia men's tennis team. Quite the feat. Both players competed at the highest level at UVA — where they were selected as a doubles pair for the NCAA Doubles tournament. They also won the ITA All-American Doubles Title in October.
In Buffalo, NY, the F19 Futures event featured Evan King, a 2013 University of Michigan grad, as the singles winner and Hans Hach (formerly of Abilene Christian's tennis program) as one of the doubles winners. His partner did not compete at the collegiate level, but Hach also made appearances in the finals of the F20 doubles event in Rochester, NY.
Collegiate athletes have made a convincing statement: they can compete at the highest level in ITF events. As a result, the game may be shifting. Players could be more inclined to use their years of eligibility in college to tune up their game before moving to the pro circuit. As Norrie and others showed last month, players have the opportunity to compete during the college season as well as on tour during the summer. Could the next big-name in tennis be a rising college star as well?
