by Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
The official name of the tournament is the USTA American Collegiate Player Wild Card Playoffs. However, you could put a $335,000 prize money number in front of that because that is “at least” the amount of prize money that was on the line for this special tournament used to determine “wild card” entries into the 2026 U.S. Open tennis championships.
In a big commitment to college tennis, the USTA created this event in 2025 to provide a pathway for American college players an opportunity ot qualify for the U.S. Open. The USTA used to automatically award American NCAA champions with U.S. Open wild cards, but decisions became complicated when a non-American player would win the title or, in the case of doubles, an American would win the title with a non-American partner. Adding to the difficulty in this decision was the NCAA tennis committee’s move of the NCAA singles and doubles championships to November from May, a nine-month span before the festivities in Flushing Meadows.
Unlike Michael Zheng of Columbia University, the NCAA singles champion of the 2024-25 season, Reese Brantmeier of the North Carolina successfully translated an NCAA singles title into a main draw singles wild card into the U.S. Open with her win in the women’s singles draw at the American Collegiate Player Wild Card Playoffs. The senior from Whitewater, Wisconsin held off Katarina Scott of the University of Tennessee and Los Angeles 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) to win the title, seven months after she won the NCAA singles title in November on the very same courts at the USTA National Campus just outside Orlando.
Zheng was not able to turn the NCAA – USTA Collegiate Wild Card double last season – losing the wild card final to Wake Forest’s Stefan Dostanic after winning the NCAA singles title at Baylor University in Waco, Texas seven months earlier. Zheng repeated as NCAA singles champion last November, but chose to not play in the USTA collegiate wild card again this year, opting to prepare to play in the qualifying rounds at Wimbledon and work to get in the U.S. Open via a direct entry with his ATP ranking sitting at No. 146.
Trevor Svajda of Southern Methodist University and San Diego was the runner-up to Zheng in the NCAA singles final last November and was the slight favorite to win this wild card event. However, after surviving a decisive third-set 10-point match tiebreaker in defeating Ohio State’s Aidan Kim 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10-3) in the semifinals of the four-player invitational, Svajda lost the final to Sebastian Grozny of the University of Texas and Austin, Texas 6-2, 6-4.
Grozny, who finished his career for the Longhorns in the NCAA team tournament final loss to Virginia, will join Brantmeier in the singles draw at the U.S. Open in late August. He had to sweat out an hour and 40 minute rain and lightning delay when he was serving for his U.S. Open wild card and only two points from the match at 5-4, 30-30. He only needed four points and two minutes to finish off Svajda on the resumption of play and, in his post-match interview here he would rather play Jannik Sinner on Arthur Ashe Stadium when he makes his Grand Slam tournament debut rather than the No. 95-ranked player on an outer court.
Svajda, with his runner-up showing, does receive a consolation prize in a wild card into the U.S. Open qualifying tournament, which is also accorded to Scott, the women’s runner-up. There he will have to win three singles matches to qualify for the main draw where he would join his older brother Zach Svajda, fresh off his round of 16 finish at Roland Garros.
Like Grozny, the Ohio State doubles team of Nikita Filin and Brandon Carpico were two points from victory when the match was suspended due to lightning. However, they were in a more comfortable position of being up 6-2, 5-1, 30-0 against the Indiana University team of Michael Andre and Matteo Antonescu. They also only needed four points to close out their win on the resumption of play and spoke about their win and their upcoming opportunity post-match here https://youtu.be/rJ43_6gN6AE?si=8MFpk4D3nEnJmIkm
After winning the singles title, Brantmeier then had to take to the court with only about 30 minutes of rest for the doubles final alongside Alanis Hamilton, with whom she won this title last year (and converted the opportunity into reaching the second round of doubles in Flushing Meadows). The Tarheel duo beat Auburn’s D.J. Bennett and Ava Hrastar in last year’s final, but Bennett got revenge in 2026, pairing with Ava Esposito a year later to win the final – and the doubles wild card – with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory that concluded at 12:28 am in Lake Nona.
Since there isn’t a doubles qualifying tournament at the U.S. Open, the doubles runners-up don’t receive any kind of consolation prize, unfortunately. But for the eight college player who did receive either a main draw or qualifying singles wild card, a healthy financial prize will also await them. While the official 2026 U.S. Open prize money hasn’t been announced yet, the main draw singles wild cards will earn at least $110,000 (the 2025 payout) if they lose their first round match. The payout for first round losers in the qualifying tournament was $27,500 in 2025 which is at least what awaits Svajda and Scott in Flushing Meadows. First round doubles losers at the U.S. Open in 2025 split $30,000 so that is what the doubles teams of Caprico and Filin and Bennett and Esposito can expect.
