Chambana Sun

Fighting Illini senior Kenta Miyoshi will compete in the NCAA Singles Championship for the second consecutive year. The event is scheduled to take place from November 18 to 23 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.

Miyoshi enters the tournament as the #6 seed and is set to face Dominique Rolland of UC Santa Barbara in his opening match on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Central Time.

Miyoshi earned his spot in the championship through his performance at the ITA All-American Championships held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in September. During that competition, he achieved five ranked wins and advanced via the consolation back draw.

This fall, Miyoshi has recorded an 8-2 singles record. He is one of eleven Big Ten athletes participating in this year’s 64-player NCAA Singles Championship draw.

Earlier this season, Miyoshi reached the semifinals of the Battle in the Bay singles main draw as a top seed. He notched victories over Lenn Luemkemann (Cal), Lucas Marionneau (Texas), and Filip Soderqvist (Boise State).

At the ITA All-American Championships, Miyoshi defeated Princeton’s #35 Top Nidunjianzan and Ohio State’s #26 Loren Byers before exiting in round three. In consolation play, he won three-set matches against Princeton’s #18 Paul Inchauspe and Yale’s #33 Vignesh Gogineni before clinching qualification by defeating Kentucky’s #28 Jack Loutit.

Amer Delic remains Illinois’ only men’s tennis player to have won an NCAA singles title, accomplishing this feat in 2003.

In last year’s NCAA Individual Championships, Miyoshi secured straight-set victories over Kentucky's Jack Loutit (#77) and Cornell's Radu Papoe (#6), earning ITA All-American honors for the first time before falling to UCLA's Spencer Johnson (#55) in round three.

Players qualify for the championship through several routes: ITA All-American Championships, ITA Regionals, ITA Sectionals, or ITA Conference Masters.

Miyoshi will open against UCSB's Dominique Rolland on Tuesday evening as part of a field featuring players from across these qualifying events.

Below are some highlights from Miyoshi's recent path:

- Defeated Princeton's Top Nidunjianzan (#35): 7-5, 4-6, 6-3

- Defeated Ohio State's Loren Byers (#26): 6-1, 3-6, 6-2

- Lost to Michigan State's Matthew Forbes (#66): 6-4, 6-7(3), 7-5

- Defeated Princeton's Paul Inchauspe (#18): 6-3, 5-7, 6-1

- Defeated Yale's Vignesh Gogineni (#33): 1-6, 6-4, 6-2

- Defeated Kentucky's Jack Loutit (#28): 6-2, 4-1 (retired)

Illinois men's tennis has a history of representation at this event under head coach Brad Dancer since 2006. Notable past performances include Kevin Anderson reaching national semifinals (2007) and Aleks Kovacevic making it to national semifinals (2019). The program continues its tradition with Miyoshi carrying Illinois’ hopes into this year's tournament.