Tournament Page | MTC Website | Past Champions
MILWAUKEE, Wis. – As one of the longest-running tournaments in all of college tennis, the 47th annual Milwaukee Tennis Classic has come to a close after three days of fierce competition from the ITA Gold-Level Event which will grant the singles champions wildcards into the upcoming ITA National Fall Championships.
Featuring student-athletes from over 20 NCAA Division I programs, the 2023 Milwaukee Tennis Classic brought together some of the most experienced college tennis players with some of the rising stars of our game for high-level competition between programs and players who might not get the chance to face off otherwise.
Beginning in the women’s singles draw, North Carolina’s Reilly Tran took home her second Milwaukee Tennis Classic Women’s Singles Title (2021). The senior for the Tar Heels only dropped one set over the course of the singles draw and has guaranteed her return to the ITA National Fall Championships where she competed in 2021, also as a wildcard.
Tran began this fall as the No. 76 ranked player in the ITA Preseason Singles Rankings, which is a nearly 30-spot improvement from her 2022-23 year-end ranking. This past weekend, Tran earned ranked victories over No. 118 Valencia Xu (Stanford) and No. 89 Xinyu Cai (Wisconsin) en route to lifting the championship trophy.
In the men’s singles draw, Kenta Miyoshi (Illinois) continued his fantastic form of play over the summer and fall seasons, becoming the first player from Illinois to win this championship. As the 2023 ITA Tennis-Point National Summer Championship Men’s Singles Champion, Miyoshi has now qualified for two of the largest championships of the fall through his two title runs.
After not being ranked in the ITA Preseason Singles Rankings, Miyoshi will make a great case for his name to be included in the Top 125 after wins over the No. 111 ranked Nicolas Herrero Cuesta (Denver) and No. 80 ranked Pawit Sornlaksup (Toledo) during his run to the title.
Across the doubles draws, it was Natasha Puehse and Santa Strombacha of Grand Canyon who took home the women’s doubles title, while Sebastien Collard and Max Sheldon of Michigan State earned the men’s doubles title.
For Puehse and Strombacha, the Lopes duo came up big in the most crucial moments throughout the tournament, winning 7-5, 7-6 (6), and 7-5 in their final three matches to claim the title. The pairing is the first team from Grand Canyon to win a title at this event.
The Michigan State duo of Collard and Sheldon came in as the No. 3 seeded team in the draw and did not disappoint. With both players on doubles teams ranked within the Top 55 of the ITA Preseason Doubles Rankings, the Spartan duo only dropped 12 games over four single-set matches en route to the championship.
For more information about the Milwaukee Tennis Classic, the competing players, draws, or history please visit the Milwaukee Tennis Classic website.
