Three Cavalier Tennis Stars Set to Compete in the US Open
The 2021 US Open begins this week and for the first time since 1997, a Grand Slam tournament will be played without at least one of Serena Williams, Roger Federer, or Rafael Nadal in the field. Without these living legends in the bracket, the US Open Championship is wide open for any of the sport’s next generation of stars to take it.
Among those young talented stars will be three former or current Virginia Cavaliers tennis standouts.
Danielle Collins
World No. 28 Danielle Collins returns to the US Open this week for the sixth time in her career. Collins spent the freshman season of her collegiate career at Florida before transferring to Virginia and becoming the first Cavalier to win the NCAA single championship and did so twice - in 2014 and 2016 - only the seventh time a female tennis player has ever won multiple NCAA titles. Collins was named First-Team All-ACC all three years at Virginia and had 125 wins over the course of her collegiate career before graduating from UVA with a bachelor’s degree in media studies and business in 2016.
Her breakthrough professional season came in 2019 when she defeated No. 2 Angelique Kerber in the fourth round of the 2019 Australian Open and advanced to the semifinals. Collins also reached the singles quarterfinals of the 2020 French Open and the doubles quarterfinals of the 2019 Wimbledon Championships. 2021 has been a banner year for Collins so far with two WTA singles titles at the Palermo Open and the Silicon Valley Classic earlier this year.
Collins enters the US Open as the No. 26-seed in the bracket and will face Carla Suarez Navarro from Spain in the first round on Monday at 1:30pm.
Emma Navarro
Current UVA sophomore Emma Navarro was awarded a wildcard draw into the US Open by virtue of the NCAA singles championship she won as a freshman back in the spring. Navarro became the second UVA player to win the singles title after Danielle Collins won it twice. The 20-year-old was an All-American in both singles and doubles and was named ACC Freshman of the Year and All-ACC First Team last season.
Currently ranked No. 331 in the world, Navarro will face fellow American and the No. 119-ranked player in the world, Christina McHale, in the first round on Monday at 6pm.
It was also announced on Saturday that Navarro will be playing the women's doubles tournament alongside Hailey Baptiste.
Brandon Nakashima
Brandon Nakashima’s time at UVA was short but memorable. He graduated high school early and enrolled at Virginia in January 2019 when he was 17 years old. Nakashima turned in a 17-5 singles record and a 20-3 doubles record, was named ACC Freshman of the Year, and was the only freshman to make the All-ACC First Team in 2019. After just one semester at UVA, he decided to forgo the rest of his collegiate eligibility and turned professional full-time.
Nakashima played in the 2020 US Open and won his first round match before losing to Alexander Zverev, who ended up being the runner-up of the US Open that year. He also qualified for the Wimbledon Championships in June this year, but lost in the first round. The 20-year-old is currently ranked No. 83 in the world and will face No. 19-seed John Isner in the first round on Monday at 1pm.
Make sure to keep track of these Wahoos as they continue their promising tennis careers.