University of Tennessee Athletics
Tennis Vols Geared Up for ITA All-American Championships
September 30, 2004 | Men's Tennis
Sept. 30, 2004
Six members of Tennessee's men's tennis team traveled to Chattanooga today to participate in the Icy Hot/ITA Men's All-American Championships. The tournament, considered to be one of the biggest fall collegiate events, runs from Oct. 1-10, and will be a good test for this young Vols squad.
"We had some good results in the Southern Intercollegiate Championships (last weekend), winning a singles event and doubles event." UT head coach Michael Fancutt said. "We hope that is going to continue and give us good momentum going into the All-American Championships, which is probably one of the biggest and toughest tournaments of the year."
Pre-qualifying starts on Friday and six Vols will see action. David Baxendine, Matt Berry, Rawl Martin, Ben Rogers, Kiril Tcherveniachki, and Johnny Thornton will all try to advance to the regular qualifying draw. Berry will try to build off of last week's performance at the Southern Intercollegiate Championships, where he dropped his first match but won his next four to win the Division II Singles consolation championship. Berry and Tcherveniachki will also participate in pre-qualifying doubles Friday.
Ockie Oosthuizen will not need to participate in pre-qualifying, as his ITA singles ranking of No. 99 in the nation automatically grants him a berth in the qualifying draw. He will not start play until Monday. Oosthuizen and Rogers, who are a perfect 5-0 at doubles so far this year, will also begin doubles qualifying Monday.
The pre-qualifying stage is made up of 192 singles players and 96 doubles teams. The contestants will need to win four or five matches to advance to the qualifying draw. That draw begins play Monday and consists of 128 singles players and 64 doubles teams. On Thursday, the main draw starts and will consist of the remaining 64 singles players and 32 doubles teams.
The ITA All-American Championships has been held annually since 1979 and for the third straight year takes place at the Champions Club.
"Our players are looking forward to another chance this week to play against the top-ranked players in the country," Fancutt said.
Players Mentioned
