SAN DIEGO – San Diego State men's tennis freshman Judson Blair will play in the 2020 Oracle ITA Masters by UTR, scheduled for Oct. 9-11 at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.
A native of Salem, Oregon, Blair earned a spot in this weekend's tournament after posting a pair of recent victories via super-tiebreaker over San Diego Christian sophomore Chris Papa (3-6, 6-4, 10-4) and UC Davis senior Ivan Thamma (6-4, 1-6, 10-6) in a wild card invitational qualifier, also held at Barnes Tennis Center. Both opponents occupied the No. 1 position on their respective teams' singles ladders last spring.
With his decisions, Blair will square off against Brandon Holt, most recently with USC, in the opening round of 32 on Friday, Oct. 9, starting at 9 a.m. PT. The son of two-time U.S. Open champion Tracy Austin, Holt earned four ITA All-America honors (three singles, one doubles) as a collegian, advancing to the quarterfinals of the 2019 NCAA singles championships during his junior campaign before finishing with a No. 9 national ranking.
Blair, meanwhile, was tabbed a five-star recruit by TennisRecruiting.net and received a No. 4 ranking in the Pacific Northwest by the website after completing a stellar prep career at Sprague High School in Salem. He was named the Mid-Valley Player of the Year on two occasions by the Salem Statesman Journal and advanced to the title match of the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) 6A Boys Singles Championships as a junior in 2019 after entering as the tournament's No. 2 seed.
Blair also excelled at the junior level, winning the USTA National Level Three Tournament held in Lakewood, California, in September 2019, before finished third at the USTA Boys' 18 National Indoor Championships three months later in Overland Park, Kansas. He arrived at SDSU with a Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) of 12 and a No. 21 USTA national ranking.
The winner of the Blair-Holt matchup will face the victor of the David Fox-Sam Feit showdown in the second round on Friday, beginning at 1:30 p.m. PT. Fox is a University of Denver alumnus, while Feit was an all-conference performer at Gonzaga.
A singles-only tournament featuring men's and women's brackets, the Oracle ITA Masters by UTR is an open event for college, elite juniors, and professional players that have had their fall seasons canceled or severely limited due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Singles matches will play two out of three sets with a 10-point match tiebreaker in lieu of a third set, using no-ad scoring. All players will receive three guaranteed matches.
ESPNU will exclusively televise the Oracle ITA Masters championship rounds on Sunday, Oct. 11, with Bryan Fenley and Mark Bey calling the action. The women's final is slated to get underway at 2 p.m. PT to be followed by the men's final at or before 4 p.m. PT. An alternate presentation of the event will also air live on ESPN3.