UNC Women's Tennis 2026-2027
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The ITA seeding draft was completed today. The top 16 seeds are simply final team rankings from last season; it is not indicative of how strong teams look for the coming year.
But the remaining 42 spots are very telling: teams get to choose in order of previous season ranking which host site they want to attend. So logically team #17 is going to choose whichever host they perceive to be the weakest. And team #18mis going to choose the 2nd weakest, Etc… the last hosts to get a regional 2 seed toselect them is likely the strongest team on paper.
there are exceptions: teams may choose local to cut travel costs or have some other reason, but generally this works.
so by putting teams in reverse order of getting a 2nd seed, you get a rough “coaches poll” of a preseason ranking:
the next question is: were these selections made before or after coaches learned Khirin was transferring to UNC? Maybe Miami regrets their decision?
it is notable that UNC has struggled with Miami last season. We squeaked by 4-3 by winning courts 5 & 6 late in 3 sets. perceived individual matchups may have weighed into their decision.
But the remaining 42 spots are very telling: teams get to choose in order of previous season ranking which host site they want to attend. So logically team #17 is going to choose whichever host they perceive to be the weakest. And team #18mis going to choose the 2nd weakest, Etc… the last hosts to get a regional 2 seed toselect them is likely the strongest team on paper.
there are exceptions: teams may choose local to cut travel costs or have some other reason, but generally this works.
so by putting teams in reverse order of getting a 2nd seed, you get a rough “coaches poll” of a preseason ranking:
- Pepperdine
- Auburn
- NCSU
- aTm
- TX
- UGA
- UVA
- OK
- UNC
- LSU
- dook
- UCLA
- Vandy
- USC
the next question is: were these selections made before or after coaches learned Khirin was transferring to UNC? Maybe Miami regrets their decision?
it is notable that UNC has struggled with Miami last season. We squeaked by 4-3 by winning courts 5 & 6 late in 3 sets. perceived individual matchups may have weighed into their decision.
I am not sure why this is not posted anywhere else. This site is not highly followed and more popular sites (like parsabombs, school team sites, school twitters, etc) have no mention of it.
I assume it is legit?
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I assume this is her agency. It is rare, but this is how we found our about the Liza Astakhova commit in basketball.
edit to add: just posted!
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UNCH Junior I know that you said that our women's tennis team does not have any room for transfers. I think you forgot the old saying which is, It all depends on who the transfer is? Every coach who coaches a college team will make an exception on a very talented player who can come in and make a major impact from day one. Coaches are always trying to improve their rosters in this day and time. Tennis is no different. With that being said, sometimes you might have to lose a good player in order to bring in a great player. This just happened. We just lost Claire Hill to Wake Forest but we now have our number 1 player for next year in Nicole K. This is a huge upgrade IMO. Brian knows what he is doing. Go Heels!
I think Claire saw the writing on the wall. I was expecting Alexis Nguyen to be in the lineup, so I think it made sense for her to leave.
reese won the wildcard into the us open. congrats to her. it still makes me wonder where that play was during her last couple of team matches in the ncaa tournament where it looked like she completely forgot how to play.
Maybe we can just be happy for one of the best representatives of UNC we could hope for? Time to let it go?
Athletes go through bad patches. All of them. Once pro mercenaries entered college tennis players of Brantmeier caliber suddenly went from dominant to just one of many great players. You win some, you lose some.
The event she just won does not allow international college players. Brantmeier lost to only two US tennis players this past year. One of them was Charney whom she just avenged, so my guess is yeah, she is playing better right now for whatever reason.
US Open is such a great honor and she is about to get paid win or loose. Really excited for Brantmeier.
Wasn’t she also dealing with a minor injury during the end of the year?
I agree. She is only human which means she is going to have some bad games. She could have had a nagging injury near the end of the season, or her body could have just been tired and worn out considering all of the minutes she was playing during her career at UNC.
Kalbas is a team-building monster. Never misses a beat. And the posters on this board have all the angles / intel covered.
There is a post on the front page of Goheels.com about her signing with us. It is very detailed and very informative. Here is the post for you to read. Go Heels!
Women’s Tennis Signs Khirin - University of North Carolina Athletics
Women’s Tennis Signs Khirin - University of North Carolina Athletics
Fiona Crawleey has now won two matches at Wimbledon in the singles qualifying draw!
www.wimbledon.com
Crawley is WTA ranked #242, and both of her wins were vs women in the 100’s. One more win and she advances to the main draw.
she has already won around $39K for the qualifying wins. Win again and that jumps to around $60K.
she will face #94 Alina korneeva, I assume tomorrow morning?
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Crawley is WTA ranked #242, and both of her wins were vs women in the 100’s. One more win and she advances to the main draw.
she has already won around $39K for the qualifying wins. Win again and that jumps to around $60K.
she will face #94 Alina korneeva, I assume tomorrow morning?
Fiona Crawleey has now won two matches at Wimbledon in the singles qualifying draw!
IBM SlamTracker 2026 - The Championships, Wimbledon
Follow live match stats, scores and insights from The Championships, Wimbledon
Crawley is WTA ranked #242, and both of her wins were vs women in the 100’s. One more win and she advances to the main draw.
she has already won around $39K for the qualifying wins. Win again and that jumps to around $60K.
she will face #94 Alina korneeva, I assume tomorrow morning?
Hasn't she won 50K Pounds for making the 3d round of qualies? and 80K if she makes the main draw?
I think she has to win the 3rd round for that payout, not make it to that round, but I definitely may have interpreted that wrong.
edit: I looked it up, you are right: she has already earned the 50K pounds even if she loses 3rd round (approx $60K)
Fiona Crawleey has now won two matches at Wimbledon in the singles qualifying draw!
IBM SlamTracker 2026 - The Championships, Wimbledon
Follow live match stats, scores and insights from The Championships, Wimbledon
Crawley is WTA ranked #242, and both of her wins were vs women in the 100’s. One more win and she advances to the main draw.
she has already won around $39K for the qualifying wins. Win again and that jumps to around $60K.
she will face #94 Alina korneeva, I assume tomorrow morning?
Crawley's run ends with a loss to Korneeva
Tatum Evans is doing really well at the Cary Tennis Classic, a W100 event. She started the the tourney with a WTA ranking of #984 (third lowest in among all qualifiers and main draw participants) but won two qualifying matches against #421 & #654, advancing to the main draw. There she beat #260 Carolyn Ansari in the round of 32 and will play now vs #224 Madison Brengle in the round of 16 once the heat no longer stops play. Ansari and Bengle are both roughly top 30 USA pros, on par with Fiona Crawley.
carytennisclassic.com
Tatum has secured a $1,500 paycheck by reaching the round of 16. The tourney winner will take home $15K.
#522 Brantmeier had a main draw wildcard into this same event, but lost the first round to #189 YeXin Ma of China in straight sets.
#840 Anna Frey lost in qualifying to #405
NCSU's Mia Slama has also advanced, upsetting higher seeds as well.
Women's Draws - Cary Tennis Classic
Explore the excitement of the Cary Tennis Classic Draws! Dive into the action-packed matchups, thrilling rivalries, and dynamic players competing for victory on our courts. Visit our Draws tab for the latest updates, schedules, and insights into the intense competition unfolding at our...
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Tatum has secured a $1,500 paycheck by reaching the round of 16. The tourney winner will take home $15K.
#522 Brantmeier had a main draw wildcard into this same event, but lost the first round to #189 YeXin Ma of China in straight sets.
#840 Anna Frey lost in qualifying to #405
NCSU's Mia Slama has also advanced, upsetting higher seeds as well.
Evans beat Brengle as well, advancing to the quarter s vs Ena Koike of Japan. #407 Koike knocked off Evan’s in straight sets.
$2900 paycheck, 20 WTA points
and Tatum’s UTR has rocketed up to 11.09
$2900 paycheck, 20 WTA points
and Tatum’s UTR has rocketed up to 11.09
If you have the Tennis Channel app, you can watch Reese Brantmeier at 6 pm in the Memphis WTA event. Anna Frey was eliminated in qualifying, but is playing doubles with Sloane Stephens.
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ITA Rankings are not all that meaningful this time of year, but here is where we will start the season:
Singles:
Singles:
- #21 Tatum Evans
- #85 Alexis Nguyen
- #95 Nicole Khirin
- #8 Maltby/Zampardo
- #14 Frey/Hamilton
- #15 Enavs/Khirin
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First post in this thread is the known roster as of now.
edit to add: the fact that they have not yet posted the 2026-27 roster and Parsabombs is still posting roster adds around teh country means there is at least some chance of additional movement; though the window for the fall semester is probably closed, unless there is a grad assistant already on campus we don't know about waiting for a court case to clear their 5th year or something.
Classes began 8/17, drop-ad day was 8/21. That traditionally marks the last time we can add to rosters.
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Fiona Crawley is in the quarterfinals of Philly 125K at 12:20 on the Tennis Channel app.
they keep moving the starting time back. supposedly this is Fiona's 1s QF in a 125K event
they keep moving the starting time back. supposedly this is Fiona's 1s QF in a 125K event
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It is time to acknowledge a reality in collegiate tennis: the old model of recruiting the best High school players in the USA, an approach that UNC mastered, may no longer be a viable path to success.
The international player has long been in NCAA tennis, and UNC still competed and excelled. But now that professional tournament winnings are no longer a barrier to playing in college (thanks in part to Reece Brantmeier specifically) there is a massive influx of mid-level pros entering US colleges. A player with a UTR above 11.00 used to be rare. Now there are dozens. In the last couple of years, that shift was almost exclusively in the SEC, with some no name programs suddenly becoming relevant with star players. But it has spread: dook landed two players ranked higher than anyone on UNC's roster a month ago, and now Clemson has followed suit:
They will play this spring in this season's ACC.
Here is the value proposition for the foreign pro players, aside from an education:
To be clear, that same market is open to USA pros as well. Perhaps players like Frey & Nguyen would have skipped college in the past? who knows. But there are many more international semi-pros. it is going to be really hard for UNC to build a perennial top 5 team domestically without heavy reliance on international ringers and transfers, in my estimation.
The international player has long been in NCAA tennis, and UNC still competed and excelled. But now that professional tournament winnings are no longer a barrier to playing in college (thanks in part to Reece Brantmeier specifically) there is a massive influx of mid-level pros entering US colleges. A player with a UTR above 11.00 used to be rare. Now there are dozens. In the last couple of years, that shift was almost exclusively in the SEC, with some no name programs suddenly becoming relevant with star players. But it has spread: dook landed two players ranked higher than anyone on UNC's roster a month ago, and now Clemson has followed suit:
They will play this spring in this season's ACC.
Here is the value proposition for the foreign pro players, aside from an education:
- A modest NIL deal that pays all living expenses
- Free housing, travel, coaching, physio, medical, facilities
- Unfettered access to any pro tournaments for 9 months of the year; you only have to do NCAA in the spring.
To be clear, that same market is open to USA pros as well. Perhaps players like Frey & Nguyen would have skipped college in the past? who knows. But there are many more international semi-pros. it is going to be really hard for UNC to build a perennial top 5 team domestically without heavy reliance on international ringers and transfers, in my estimation.
Reese lost her match 6-4, 6-4 to the #44 player in the world. Not a bad outing.
I do not like it but one thing is for sure, UNC will have to adjust and revisit how they are going to recruit moving forward. I know Brain hates to do this but if he wants the program to stay relevant, changes will have to be made. I know Dabo did want to do this either for Clemson Football as far as bringing in transfers and we all saw how Clemson's program went down the last couple of years. Dabo was forced to adjust his thinking and recruiting. All good coaches know to do this if they want to stay or compete at a level that has been the norm for years.
I’m trying to find a schedule for the Kitty Harrison Invitational and haven’t had any luck. Anyone know which of our players are in Milwaukee and which will be in Chapel Hill?
I dont see anything posted yet for either venue.
Kitty Harrison Invitational should post score here. The actual draw should be on the UNC W Tennis page.
The Milwaukee Tennis Classic should put a schedule here.
The Kitty Harrison event we host usually has the higher level of competition; most of our top players should be at home. Usually 2-3 doubles teams and 5-6 singles players.
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