March 31, 2010

On the heels of his 100th career victory in Tennessee uniform, John-Patrick Smith was named SEC Player of the Week for the fourth time this season.

Smith, ranked second nationally, won his singles and doubles matches against Louisville and Arkansas to help the Vols improve to 18-1 overall and 6-0 in the SEC.

He collected his 99th singles victory with a 7-5, 6-0 victory over No. 31 Austen Childs at the No. 1 position to help lead the Vols to a 7-0 shutout of No. 10 Louisville. With the sweep, UT logged their ninth shutout of the season and improved to 4-1 against teams ranked in the top 10.

Smith, a junior from Townsville, Australia, made history on Sunday at Arkansas. With an ace on match point, Smith became the seventh Vol in history - and the first in eight seasons - to record 100 career singles wins, defeating No. 49 Chris Nott 6-0, 6-7 (5), 6-3.

He improved his singles record to 31-5, with 21 of those wins coming against ranked opponents. In his second season playing at the top of the lineup for the Vols, his career record is now 100-27.

In doubles, Smith and senior Davey Sandgren continued to win at the top spot for the Vols. They defeated 35th-ranked Alejandro Calligari and Simon Childs of Louisville 8-3 and Arkansas' Dmitry Lebedev and Matt Hogan 8-2.

Smith and Sandgren, currently ranked second, have a 28-4 record this season and are third on the Vols' career list for wins as a pairing with 67 wins. Chris Mahony and Pablo Montana (1993-96) are second with 75 wins.

A few weeks ago, Sandgren became the third player in UT history to get 100 career doubles wins, and Smith will soon join him. He enters this weekend with 97 victories.

Smith was the SEC Freshman of the Year in 2008, and he has been a first-team All-SEC as a freshman and sophomore. He was named player of the week twice last year, and he also picked up two SEC Freshman of the Week honors his first year with the Vols.

The third-ranked Vols have a pair of home conference matches this weekend, hosting No. 16 Ole Miss on Friday at 2 p.m. and Mississippi State on Sunday at 1 p.m. The first 50 fans to Friday's match will receive a free T-shirt. A live, interactive blog of both matches will be available at UTSports.com.