ITHACA, N.Y.  — The United States Tennis Association announced Monday that Cornell sophomore Alafia Ayeni will be one of the eight men competing at the Blizzard Wild Card Challenge, which will be held Dec. 15-18 at the USTA National Campus and the Collegiate Center in Orlando, Florida.
 
Ayeni will be placed in one of two groups of four, then compete in round-robin play for the first two days of the event. The top two players from each group will then advance to the semifinals on Dec. 17 and subsequent finals the following day. The winner of the event will receive main-draw wild card entry into the Orlando ATP 80 Challenger event starting Dec. 31, plus a guaranteed spot on the 2019 Collegiate National Team – which includes grant money to travel to professional tournaments and coaching from USTA Player Development staff.
 
Other competitors in the event include Oliver Crawford (Florida), Brandon Holt (USC), John McNally (Ohio State), Emil Reinberg (Georgia), Sam Riffice (Florida), Alex Rybakov (TCU) and Keegan Smith (UCLA).
 
Ayeni's ATP World Tour ranking of 627th is second-highest in the field, thanks in large part to his Canada F6 Futures title in September. He was also a finalist in the New York Open College Wild Card Tournament last month. Competing at Cornell, Ayeni was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and a spot on the All-Ivy League second team for singles at the conclusion of the 2017-18 season.
 
A web stream of the Blizzard Wild Card Challenge will be available through USTANationalCampus.com, and live scoring will be available for the semifinals and championship matches.