The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Wichita State
No. 7 Men’s Tennis Preview: Wichita State
02.20.2017 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns return to Austin for three-match home stand.
WHAT: No. 7 Texas (11-2) begins a three-match home stand this week when it welcomes Wichita State.
WHEN/WHERE
Wichita State at No. 11 Texas
Friday, Feb. 24 – 4:30 p.m. CT
Edgar O. and Melanie A. Weller Tennis Center (indoors at UT Golf Club) – Austin, Texas
LIVE SCORING: http://www.sidearmstats.com/texas/mten/
LAST MEETING
Texas dealt Wichita State a 6-1 defeat on March 19, 2014 in Austin.
ITA RANKINGS UPDATE (Feb. 21)
Singles
11. Christian Sigsgaard
31. Yuya Ito
48. Harrison Scott
86. Leonardo Telles
124. George Goldhoff
HORNS TAKE TWO OF THREE AT NATIONAL INDOORS
Texas put together a productive stint at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships that yielded wins over No. 6 Florida and No. 12 Oklahoma State, and the Horns very nearly upset No. 2 Wake Forest, as well.
Texas opened the National Indoors by taking the doubles point over Florida and garnering singles wins from Harrison Scott, Leonardo Telles and Rodrigo Banzer in a 4-2 win over the seventh-seeded Gators.
The Longhorns fell just two games shy of knocking off No. 2 Wake Forest and advancing to the semifinals, but the Demon Deacons managed to edge the Longhorns, 4-3. Texas trailed 3-0 before picking up singles wins from Yuya Ito, Harrison Scott and Leonardo Telles to even the match at three. Rodrigo Banzer led Alan Gadjlev 4-3 in the third set before Gadjlev won the three ensuing games to close out the match.
Texas moved on to the consolation round on Sunday (Feb. 19) and took on Big 12 foe Oklahoma State. The Cowboys assumed a 1-0 lead after doubles, but the Longhorns answered with four wins in singles and dealt Oklahoma State a 4-2 defeat. The same two teams meet again on April 2 in Stillwater.
ELEVEN STRAIGHT FOR SCOTT
Sophomore Harrison Scott won all three of his matches at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships and boasts an incredible 11-0 mark in dual-match play.
Scott collected his second straight win over a ranked opponent in UT's 4-2 win over Florida, as he made short work of Florida's 60th-ranked Elliott Orkin, winning 6-2, 6-1. The Canadian rallied for a three-set win over Wake Forest's Borna Gojo before closing out another three-setter the following day against Oklahoma State's Arjun Kadhe.
Last fall, Scott posted his most impressive win, rankings-wise, against Kentucky's 33rd-ranked William Bushamuka, whom he defeated in three sets in the final of the Cajun Tennis Classic.
SIGSGAARD NAMED BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
The Big 12 Conference announced Jan. 24 the selection of Texas freshman Christian Sigsgaard as the league's Men's Tennis Player of the Week. It marked the first such honor for UT's newcomer from Denmark.
On Jan. 15, Sigsgaard defeated Arkansas' Mike Redlicki, who won the 2016 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in November and is currently ranked No. 6 in the ITA singles rankings. It marked Sigsgaard's third win over an ITA top-15 opponent this season.
Sigsgaard boasts an impressive 21-8 overall singles record after competing in the first two national championship events of the season – the ITA All-American Championships and the ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships.
PRE-SEASON NOTES
LONGHORNS FEATURED PROMINENTLY IN I.T.A. PRESEASON RANKINGS
Texas earned a top-five team ranking, three top-50 singles placings and two top-50 doubles ranks in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) preseason men's tennis rankings.
The Longhorns came in at No. 4 in the preseason national team poll, which marked the highest preseason ranking for Texas since 2009, when UT ranked second.
Texas returns all but one letterwinner from the 2016 squad that reached the NCAA Championships' round of 16 and came within a third-set tiebreaker from advancing to the NCAA quarterfinals.
At No. 6 nationally in singles, Danish freshman Christian Sigsgaard gave Texas its highest singles ranking since 2015, when his fellow countryman Soren Hess-Olesen ranked sixth in the final singles rankings.
Freshman Yuya Ito joined his classmate Sigsgaard in the top-40 of the ITA singles rankings at No. 36, and sophomore Harrison Scott came in at No. 47. Ito joined Scott to rank 38th nationally in doubles, while sophomores Rodrigo Banzer and Leonardo Telles held the No. 44 slot.
Sigsgaard posted an impressive 16-3 fall singles record and played in both fall national championship events – the ITA All-American Championships and the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships.
Sigsgaard won his first 14 matches, including 11 singles contests at the All-American, where he advanced all the way from the pre-qualifying and qualifying draws to the semifinals of the main draw. Sigsgaard won both of his matches two weeks ago against UTSA and Abilene Christian before adding another win on Jan. 15 against SMU's Ronald Slobodchikiv.
Ito notched a 12-6 singles record and joined Sigsgaard in the main draws of the All-American and the National Indoors.
Scott closed the fall with a 10-3 singles mark and won the main singles draw at the Cajun Tennis Classic. He teamed with Ito to register a 5-2 fall record in doubles. Banzer and Telles added a 3-1 doubles mark in fall tournament play.
MORE ON THE LONGHORNS
UT returns senior George Goldhoff, who ended his junior year with a No. 40 national ranking after defeating Texas A&M's Arthur Rinderknech and Ohio State's then-No. 1 Mikael Torpegaard in the Longhorns' final two matches of the season.
Sophomore Rodrigo Banzer won seven dual-matches last season in his first semester of collegiate tennis while junior Adrian Ortiz posted a 14-7 mark in dual matches. Sophomore Julian Zlobinsky notched 13 dual-match wins last season as a redshirt freshman.
UT also saw dual-match contributions last season from sophomores Johnny Goodwin and Colin Markes and juniors William Jou and John Mee.
A LOOK AHEAD
Texas welcomes No. 2 Wake Forest on Saturday, March 4 in a rematch of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships quarterfinals. The match is set for 3 p.m. at Caswell Tennis Center. Texas hosts Rice the next day at Westwood Country Club (3 p.m.)
Players Mentioned
