May Madness is (finally) here: NCAA Championship time — Quotes from Madrid
By Joey Dillon
The IX: Tennis Tuesday with Joey Dillon, April 29, 2025
Howdy, y’all and Happy Tennis Tuesday! The most wonderful time of the year is here — the 2025 NCAA Division I National Championship!
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First, lets break down how we will get from 64 teams to our national champion. From May 2-3, the first two rounds will be played. The Top 16 seeds receive hosting rights, with three other teams visiting them. The winners of those Regionals will advance to Super Regionals May 9-11, which will be hosted by the higher-ranked team in their matchup — usually reserved for the Top 8 teams, but upsets happen! The Elite Eight will then travel to Waco, Texas, where the quarterfinals will be played May 15, followed by a day off and then the semifinals and championship back-to-back. This is the first year that there will not be the individual singles and doubles championships right after, as the NCAA started their two-year fall championship pilot this season.
Now, who are the teams that can take it all? You could argue that any of the Power 4 conference champions could leave Waco with the hardware, two teams are the ones to beat — Georgia and Texas A&M.
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Georgia (23-3)
The Georgia Bulldogs are the top-ranked team in the country and not only captured the ITA National Indoor team title in February, but they have Dasha Vidmanova, the No. 1 player in the country and reigning NCAA singles champion, headlining the lineup. In singles, they have three other ranked players including their No. 2 Anastasiia Lopata (No. 18), No. 4 Aysegul Mert (No. 43) and No. 5 Guillermina Grant (No. 72). In doubles, they have three ranked doubles teams with Vidmanova/Mell Reasco topping off at No. 3. The Bulldogs are riding on confidence after scraping out a 4-2 victory of Texas A&M in the SEC Championship, but they aren’t invincible. Their three losses have come to the Aggies in their regular conference matchup, as well as two 4-3 losses to Texas and UNC. Looking at their lineup, should any injury or illness happen, they could be in for a tough outing. Their top player on the bench, Mai Nirundorn, has only played two singles matches all year due to injury and was serving underhand in her lone dual match. The rest of the bench are made up of local players/walk-ons. They have enough depth to be able to push through the majority of the teams in this draw, but that could be something to keep an eye on.
Texas A&M (25-3)
Right behind the Bulldogs in the rankings are the Texas A&M Aggies, the reigning NCAA champions. While Carson Branstine’s return from the pro tour helped them clinch last year, the Aggies have a loaded team with their top five singles starters earning rankings in the latest ITA poll. At the helm is Mary Stoiana, ranked No. 2 and less than a point under Vidmanova. Under Stoiana are No. 13 Nicole Khirin, No. 74 Mia Kupres, No. 50 Lucciana Perez and No. 111 Daria Smetannikov. They also hold two ranked doubles pairings. Two of the Aggies’ three losses have come to the Bulldogs (ITA Indoor and SEC tournament finals), with the third being a surprising 5-2 loss to Vanderbilt. Still, to me, they’re perhaps the team to beat.
The intangible of coming in as reigning champions definitely gives Texas A&M a confidence boost but the fact the two teams have had three epics this season gives a bit of promise for another championship showdown. They’re my two picks to be in the team final, but a few other teams to note:
Right now, I think we’re going to likely see all Top 8 seeds emerge from their Super Regionals. In my opinion, the two biggest potential upsets come from No. 10 Tennessee (over No. 7 Virginia) and possibly No. 9 Auburn (over No. 8 Duke).
If you wanted to scope out all of the lineups, click here.
If you have a college team hosting in your area, definitely go check out action. Most of the top players on these teams will play professionally and who knows, maybe the next Emma Navarro or Danielle Collins is in your backyard!
I also would definitely urge you to check out our buddy John Parsons on the Cracked Racquets panel breaking down the draw after it was revealed yesterday:
On to links!
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This Week in Women’s Tennis
The power outage across Spain and Portugal shut play down at the Mutua Madrid Open yesterday, putting the tours in disarray.
Daria Kasatkina opened up more about her journey to swapping representation from Russia to Australia, with her being able to live her most authentic life as the cataylst.
The WTA apparently had a blunder using AI photos of players instead of using images from their official photographer.
Fashion brand Miu Miu and Coco Gauff have partnered up to help design some of the American’s upcoming tennis outfits.
Taylor Townsend shared she’s been recovering from a concussion that happened during her Miami Open doubles semifinal, aiming for a return at Roland Garros.
Armed with Dinara Safina in her corner, Diana Shnaider is hoping this clay court swing will be career-defining.
Get to know more about Moyuka Uchijima, who upset Jessica Pegula this week in Madrid.
Alison Riske-Amritraj has joined the newsletter bandwagon by offering her best travel tips for the cities professional tennis visits.
The ITA revealed their Board of Directors elected to new terms, though it would’ve been nice to see at least one woman.
Enjoying retirement, Garbine Muguruza still stays up-to-date with the game.
Save 30% when you pre-order “Becoming Caitlin Clark”
Howard Megdal’s newest book will be released this June! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including nterviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
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Tweet of the Week
Stars, they’re just like us
Five at The IX: Iga Swiatek & Aryna Sabalenka from Madrid
Q. I wanted to ask you, what do you prefer, one-week or two-week tournaments?
IGA SWIATEK: Honestly, I stopped thinking about that because we just have to adjust to what we have. They changed these events for longer ones like some time ago, so I kind of really got used to this system, but I was fine with playing one-week events as well. I think it didn’t really change my results as well, so I don’t mind, I like both.
Q. When you get to the stage of the season when you’re going into the clay, does anything change for you, do you kind of relax a little bit, because clay is such a favored surface for you, yeah, what kind of changes for you at this point?
IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure at the beginning you have many things to focus on in terms of adjusting your game, so it’s nice to have these first days and first week of just grinding and practicing. I love that, especially on clay, because tennis for me it’s the most logical there, and also you can be more creative in terms of the tactics and everything, so I really enjoy that.
Yeah, I think when I feel like I can use this on a match court, for sure I am more relaxed. I just know my weapons, I know I always have a plan B in my defense, which sometimes is impossible, you know, on faster hard courts, for example. So I just use that and it gives me confidence for sure.
Q. A few players have been asked about the kind of pressures of anti-doping control and feeling very careful about what they put into their bodies. Obviously after what happened to you and Jannik last year I just wondered what it looks like on a day-to-day basis for you, the kind of extra precautions that you have to take, and whether that takes a toll.
IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, honestly, after a couple of years you think about this all the time. It’s pretty, it gives a little anxiety, I would say, and it’s not, not only, I’m not only talking about me, because I kind of got used to the system and I’ve been through the worst, and I was able to come back from that and I was able to solve it, so I feel like nothing can kind of stop me.
But for sure, yeah, I know from even other players that it’s not easy, and the whole system is kind of, it’s just tough, you know, because, like, I didn’t have much control over what happened to me, and I can imagine some players, like they’re always scared that it can happen to them.
Yeah, with always giving your location and everything, sometimes, system-wise, it’s just hard to catch up. Because like every day when we’re traveling we need to literally say where we are. If we forget we might get a no show and then three no show and it’s ban. So, yeah, there’s a lot of pressures with that, and it’s not easy to manage that, but it is what it is.
Q. I wanted to ask you because yesterday we heard Paolini and Rublev talking about how difficult it is for tennis players to know that everything they’re touching or they’re eating is a hundred percent allowed and would not give a positive in a doping test. Are you so afraid about this?
ARYNA SABALENKA: Well, I mean, after last cases, honestly, I became more over protective with stuff I’m eating and drinking. Like, for example, even with the water, like I wouldn’t drink, like if I would leave the bottle of water open in the hotel or even here and left for few minutes and come back I would take the new bottle.
So it became a bit, like, too concerned, I would say. Yeah, I have to be very careful with what you’re eating. It’s, honestly, it’s tricky, and I think, yeah, everyone is aware of this stuff and everyone is trying to make sure that nothing being touched and everything is clean and simple and, yeah, nothing can be in your food or in your drink. So, yeah, it’s quite scary, to be honest. I think the older you get, the more time you’re on tour, you’re getting over protective with the stuff, you know, making sure that no one can touch your supplements or your bottle of water or, yeah, your food. So, yeah, that’s scary, but, yeah, whatever it is.
Q. You talked about your teenage dreams. You were a bit of late bloomer, you didn’t have great success as a junior.
ARYNA SABALENKA: No, not really.
Q. What changed for you and how was the step up, how did you do it?
ARYNA SABALENKA: I was trying to manage my target. I was very powerful, but didn’t really understand how to put the ball in, so I was trying to figure the right target and, yeah (laughing).
No, I think I have always been a hard worker, and I think it’s important to have the right team around you, like team who can help you to improve your game and explain to you like, yeah, just the game, you know.
Having the right people around you, it’s also very important. I think I always worked hard, and the moment I had the right people, people who explained to me, like, Okay, this is what you should do on court, and sometimes you don’t have over hit the ball, and the right practices, the right exercises on practice court you do. I think that’s really what helped me to improve my game and to become more consistent with my shots and to understand the game a bit better.
Q. Like maturity?
ARYNA SABALENKA: Maturity and also the right team.
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