NCAA Year-in-Review: Canadians Deliver at the Highest Levels in 2024 – Tennis Canada

The NCAA is a bit different from other tennis circuits. While the pros, masters, wheelchair, and junior tours are all wrapping up for the year, the American collegiate system is in more of a mid-season break as it follows the academic year rather than the calendar year. 

Still, as the final weeks of 2024 tick away, it is a good time to look back on the last twelve months of results from Canadians playing in the NCAA tennis system. 

Let’s catch up with the latest news from Canadians competing in the NCAA.        

The pinnacle of the success at the NCAA level is the Division I national championships and Canadians made their mark in 2024. 

In May at the national team championships, both winning teams featured Canadian players. 

Texas A&M relied heavily on their two Canadians, Mia Kupres and Carson Branstine to claim the women’s national title. Kupres was the top-ranked Canadian for much of the first half of the year and regularly played in the No. 1 doubles spot for the Aggies, while Branstine rejoined the team late in the season but was a force to be reckoned with, going 5-1 in singles down the stretch. 

Their school won the women’s event, defeating Georgia 4-1 in the final. Branstine scored the opening point of the final for Texas A&M in the doubles. 

Read also: Alberta, British Columbia win Canadian University Tennis Championships

On the men’s side, by the time the final rolled around it was guaranteed that a Canadian would lift the trophy. It was Duncan Chan and TCU claiming the national title, defeating Cleeve Harper’s University of Texas. Chan and Harper actually faced off in the No. 3 doubles match in the final, but the match was abandoned. 

CLICK HERE to read the full recap of the NCAA national team championships.   

At the end of the 2023-24 season, six Canadians were named Division I All-Americans. 

• Annabelle Xu, Virginia (singles and doubles) 
• Mélodie Collard, Virginia (doubles) 
• Cleeve Harper, Texas (doubles) 
• Jared Horwood, Arkansas (doubles) 
• Mia Kupres, Texas A&M (doubles) 
• Joshua Lapadat, Kentucky (doubles) 

Canada did not have much success at the summer individual championships, with Harper’s semifinal run in doubles being the best showing, but one Canadian ended the year in style. 

Mélodie Collard of the University of Virginia got off to a phenomenal start to the new academic year in the fall, going 17-1 in doubles from September through November. That run included a doubles titles at the Atlantic Regional Championships followed by a national title at the DI National Championships in November alongside Elaine Chervinsky. 

CLICK HERE to reach the full recap of the fall DI Individual Tennis Championships. 

Year-End Rankings 

As a result of her victory at the NCAA DI championships, Collard holds the highest ranking of any Canadian in any discipline in the final batch of 2024 rankings that were released at the beginning of December. Collard will head into the new year as the No. 2 women’s doubles player in the country and is on a 13-match winning streak. 

Read also: 2024 WTA Awards – NBO Power Rankings Panel’s Version

Women’s doubles is Canada’s strongest discipline, with seven women holding rankings including three in the Top 30. Jessica Alsola of the University of California comes in at No. 24 and Collard’s fellow Virginia Cavalier Annabelle Xu is No. 27. 

The University of Washington’s all-Canadian pair of Reece Carter and Alexia Jacobs come in at No. 37. In a funny coincidence, two Canadians from different schools, Anna-Raphaelle Serghi of Harvard and Diana Craciun of Alabama State, are tied at No. 117. 

Xu is the top Canadian in singles, female or male, at No. 32. Collard and Carter are the only two Canadian women to appear in both the singles and doubles rankings. Collard is No. 59 in singles while Carter is No. 121. 

On the men’s side, freshman Jaden Weekes, who is following in the footsteps of many fellow Canadians including Gabriel Diallo and Liam Draxl to play at the University of Kentucky, is the top Canadian in singles at No 39. He and Duncan Chan (No. 74) of TCU are the only Canadian men in the singles rankings, with Chan being the lone Canadian man to hold both a singles and doubles ranking. He is No. 50 in doubles. 

Read also: 2024 ATP Awards – NBO Power Rankings Panel’s Version

While team rankings have not been released since the end of August, Chan’s TCU will go into the new year as the No. 1 team in the men’s rankings. 

Christophe Clément has the highest ranking by a Canadian man, coming in at No. 19 in the doubles. 

Click here to view all the Canadian rankings in the NCAA.    

For more detailed information on Canadian NCAA tennis results in 2024, check out the monthly updates (Brackets indicate major events covered that month):