Men’s Tennis Releases 2024 Fall Schedule
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky Men’s Tennis Head Coach Cedric Kauffman released the Wildcats’ 2024 fall schedule on Friday, with a total of eight tournaments on the slate. The 2024 season provides a new twist to fall college tennis, as players will spend the season vying for 64 singles bids and 32 doubles bids to the NCAA Individual Championships to be held from Nov. 19-24 in Waco, Texas.
The first season of a two-year pilot program, the singles and doubles NCAA champions will now be decided in the fall, moving away from the tournament’s traditional date following the NCAA Team Championship in May. Athletes will have four opportunities to qualify into the field throughout the fall season at tournaments determined as qualification events by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) and the NCAA Singles and Doubles Pathway Task Force. The four qualification tournaments consist of: ITA All-American Championships, ITA Regional Championships, ITA Conference Masters, and ITA Sectional Championships.
The Wildcats will open the season on the weekend of September 13-15 at two different tournaments: the Louisville Invitational and the SEC Challenge, hosted by Alabama. Featuring singles and doubles play, the individual tournaments will be the team’s first action of the 2024-2025 season, but will not feature any qualification opportunities.
The first NCAA qualification opportunity will take place from September 21-29 at the prestigious ITA All-American Championships. This year’s tournament will take place at the Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla. and feature 10 singles bids and four doubles entries available to athletes. The tournament will consist of three draws—pre-qualifying, qualifying, and main draw—with each draw feeding into the next until the champion is crowned.
The second week of October will feature the next two tournaments for the Cats, starting at the ITF Louisville Futures to take place from October 7-13 on the campus of the University of Louisville. Running from October 10-14, the annual ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championships will take place the same week and offer athletes another chance at qualifying for the NCAA Individual Championships. Hosted by Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind., the region’s two singles finalists and doubles champion will earn bids to the season-end tournament.
From November 7-10, the final two qualification tournaments will take place. Debuting in 2024, the ITA South Sectional will feature athletes from the Ohio Valley, Southern, and Southeast regionals who will vie for one of six singles spots and three doubles bids available at each Sectional. The tournament will be hosted in Tallahassee, Fla. and will be hosted by Florida State. Additionally, the first ITA Conference Masters will take place the same weekend, with selected athletes determined by each conference to compete for four singles entries and three doubles slots.
Qualified athletes will compete for the first fall edition of the NCAA Individual Championships from November 19-24 at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas on the campus of Baylor University.
The 2025 spring schedule, which features the team portion of the 2024-2025 season, will be released at a later date.
