Top Players Skipping All-Americans

If you've looked at the current list of players that are confirmed for next week's Saint Francis Health Care ITA All-American Championships you'll notice that they are a lot of heavy hitters taking a pass on the 1 true Grand Slam of the college tennis season. There isn't another event all season that has this big of a draw with all the matches held at one site over a 10 day period - just like a Grand Slam yet apparently the appeal isn't there this year.

The preseason #1, #2, #3, #4, #6, #9, #12, and #15 are all skipping the AAs so that means just 7 of the preseason top 15 will be participating. The #1 seed will be Notre Dame's Quentin Monaghan who is off to a slow 1-4 start including a 6-1, 6-0 loss to Memphis's Andrew Watson.

In retrospect, last season 32 of the preseason top 34 played in the event with just Brayden Schnur and Farris Gosea playing pro events instead (full list below)

One has to wonder if the 8 top 15 guys skipping the AAs has anything to do with 4 of them already playing the year's first major event, Oracle Masters, or possibly the no-ad angle is making some of these top guys choose pro events.  Regardless of the reason it's rather disappointing when this many guys skip one of the biggest events of the year. It's like having a US Open with no Djokovic, Federer, Nadal, Murray, and Nishikori - sure they'll still be plenty of great matches and it'll be competitive but it just won't have that same sizzle.

Below are the preseason rankings and a notation on whether or not that individual is set to participate.