AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn junior DJ Bennett and graduate student Ava Hrastar will begin play at the ITA All-American Championships on Wednesday at Cary Tennis Park in Cary, North Carolina. Bennett and Hrastar qualified for the doubles main draw together as well as the singles main draw separately for the event. The main draw will feature 64 singles players and 32 doubles teams and will be played Wednesday through Sunday.
From the main draw, eight quarterfinalists and two feed-in consolation finalists will punch their ticket to the NCAA Singles Championship later in the fall. Meanwhile, the two main draw semifinals doubles teams will secure a bid to the NCAA Doubles Championship.
In the ITA preseason singles rankings that were released in August, Bennett and Hrastar were ranked No. 32 and No. 57, respectively. The two Tigers are ranked 18th in the preseason doubles rankings.
Bennett found a lot of success at last year’s event, where she and Selin Ovunc became the first Auburn doubles team to reach the main draw quarterfinals round since Emily Flickinger and Pleun Bergmans in 2014. Bennett and Ovunc won five consecutive matches to reach the quarterfinals after beginning their run in the qualifying round, including a 6-4, 5-7, (10-3) win over the then-sixth ranked doubles team in the nation.
In singles, the Belleview, Florida native won four consecutive matches between prequalifying and qualifying rounds highlighted by a dominating 6-1, 6-0 victory over Abbey Forbes of North Carolina.
Hrastar also participated in last season’s event during her time at Ole Miss, earning a doubles victory in the qualifying consolation bracket.
Live video of the tournament will be available online at playsight.com and live scoring will be available online at ioncourt.com.