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ITA and ATP Announce Pro Pathway Collaboration
by Staff Reports, 18 January 2023
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The ATP and Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) on Wednesday announced a collaboration to accelerate the professional development pathway for players in the American collegiate system.
The collaboration will allocate ATP Challenger Tour playing opportunities to the highest-ranked ITA college players for the first time. This is part of a long-term strategy to promote the rise of young talent in the professional game and builds on opportunities offered to the world’s top-ranked ITF junior players through the Accelerator Programme, which began at the start of the 2023 season.
“Today’s aspiring players are the future lifeblood of our sport, and we must do everything we can to provide them opportunities to reach their potential,” ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi said in a press release. “We’re thrilled to be opening new doors to the American College system, which has been a bedrock of talent in our game for decades.”
Players ranked in the Top 20 of the ITA final singles rankings at the beginning of June who have finished their education will be granted up to eight Accelerator Spots at Challenger 50 and 75 tournaments, with opportunities split between Main Draw (Top 10) and Qualifying (11-20). Players who reach the quarterfinal or better of the individual NCAA Division I Tennis Championship will also qualify for the Accelerator Programme if they are not already eligible via their ITA ranking. These opportunities will be available from July 1st each season, beginning in 2023, for a period of 12 months.
In addition, players who remain in college and qualify for the programme will receive six opportunities over six months (July–December), enabling them to benefit from the programme during their college offseason and parts of their individual fall season.
Providing further opportunity, eligible college players who achieve direct acceptance into qualifying of ATP Challenger events via their Pepperstone ATP Ranking will be eligible for promotion into the Main Draw.
College player eligibility for the 2023 Accelerator Programme will be based on the season-end singles ITA Collegiate Tennis Ranking, which is currently scheduled to be published on June 1, 2023.
“College tennis is a great step to becoming a professional. You learn about playing for something bigger than yourself,” said former University of Florida star and NCAA champion Ben Shelton. “I think it’s great that the top college tennis players will now have an opportunity when their season ends to jump into the pro game. To give players that are Top 10, Top 20 in the nation, opportunities to make big jumps quickly is really cool.”
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