ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Big Ten Conference has qualified 19 student-athletes for the 2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Singles and Doubles Tennis Championships, to be held Nov. 17-22 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
Athletes from seven Big Ten institutions will compete at the NCAAs. Ohio State leads the pack with seven qualifiers while Indiana, Michigan, Purdue, UCLA, USC and Washington have two representatives each.
Seven players will pull double-duty, competing in singles and doubles: Ohio State’s Brandon Carpico, Nikita Filin, Aidan Kim and Alex Okonkwo; USC’s Max Exsted and Nathan Trouve, and UCLA’s Rudy Quan. Kim is making his third NCAA appearance in singles and teammate Bryce Nakashima is competing for the third time in doubles.
The Big Ten has reached the NCAA doubles final five-straight years with the Ohio State duo of Brandon Carpico and Nikita Filin looking to top their runner-up finish of a year ago. Ohio State’s Robert Cash and JJ Tracy were the last Big Ten entry to win the event, doing so in the spring of 2024. Blaz Rola from Ohio State was the last Big Ten player to win the singles title in 2013. Mackenzie McDonald of UCLA captured the singles crown in 2016 before the Bruins joined the conference.
Brackets for the 64-player singles and 32-team doubles tournaments will be revealed next week.
Listed below are the Big Ten qualifiers:
SINGLES (10):
Lorenzo Balducci, Purdue
Fr., Monsummano, Italy
Record: 10-1 | WTN: 6.38
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Brandon Carpico, Ohio State
Sr., Gahanna, Ohio
Record: 6-1 | WTN: 6.09
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Max Exsted, USC
So., Savage, Minn.
Record: 3-1 | WTN: 5.72 | ITA: #47
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Nour Fathalla, Purdue
Jr., Alexandria, Egypt
Record: 8-2 | WTN: 6.11 | ITA: #63
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Nikita Filin, Ohio State (Seed #1-8)
Jr., Glenview, Ill.
Record: 3-1 | WTN: 5.31 | ITA: #51
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Aidan Kim, Ohio State (Seed #1-8)
Sr., Milford, Mich.
Record: 5-1 | WTN: 5.16 | ITA: #7
NCAA Appearance: 3rd
Victor Lilov, Ohio State
So., Miramar, Fla.
Record: 8-0 | WTN: 5.79 | ITA: #124
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Alex Okonkwo, Ohio State
Sr., Maidenhead, England
Record: 7-4 | WTN: 6.02 | ITA: #27
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Rudy Quan, UCLA
Jr., Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Record: 8-2 | WTN: 5.71 | ITA: #49
NCAA Appearance: 2
nd
Nathan Trouve, USC
Jr., Grenoble, France
Record: 7-3 | WTN: 6.12 | ITA: #40
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Alternates: Sam Landau, Indiana; Preston Stearns, Ohio State
DOUBLES (8):
Sam Landau, Indiana
5th, Los Angeles, Calif.
NCAA Appearance: 2nd
Braeden Gelletich, Indiana
3rd, Goshen, N.Y.
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Record: 8-2 | ITA: #84
Nicholas Heng, Michigan
Gr., Madison, Ala.
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Fredrik Solheim, Michigan
Fr., Asker, Norway
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Record: 7-3
(+) Brandon Carpico, Ohio State (Seed #1-4)
Sr., Gahanna, Ohio
NCAA Appearance: 2nd
(+) Nikita Filin, Ohio State
Jr., Glenview, Ill.
NCAA Appearance: 2nd
Record: 5-0 | ITA: #3
(+) Aidan Kim, Ohio State (Seed #1-4)
Sr. – Milford, Mich.
NCAA Appearance: 2nd
Bryce Nakashima, Ohio State
Sr. – San Diego, Calif.
NCAA Appearance: 3rd
Record: 4-1 | ITA: #15
Matthew Forbes, Ohio State
Jr. – Raleigh, N.C.
NCAA Appearance: 1st
(+) Alex Okonkwo, Ohio State
Sr., Maidenhead, England
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Record: 5-2 | ITA: #37
(+) Max Exsted, USC
So., Savage, Minn.
NCAA Appearance: 1st
(+) Nathan Trouve, USC
Jr., Grenoble, France
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Record: 6-2 | ITA: #49
(+) Rudy Quan, UCLA
Jr., Thousand Oaks, Calif.
NCAA Appearance: 2nd
Emon van Loben Sels, UCLA
5th, Sacramento, Calif.
NCAA Appearance: 2nd
Record: 4-1
Soham Purohit, Washington
4th, Kirkland, Wash.
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Jan Chlodnicki, Washington
1st, Opole, Poland
NCAA Appearance: 1st
Record: 5-0
WTN – World Tennis Number
ITA – Intercollegiate Tennis Association Ranking
(+) competing in singles and doubles