The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
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Oklahoma
No. 6 Men’s Tennis Preview: No. 13 Oklahoma and No. 8 Oklahoma State
03.30.2017 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns begin conference play with challenging opening weekend at top-15 foes.
WHAT: No. 6 Texas opens conference play this weekend with a challenging road trip to No. 13 Oklahoma and No. 8 Oklahoma State.
WHEN/WHERE
No. 6 Texas (17-4) at No. 13 Oklahoma (12-6)
Friday, March 31 – 6 p.m. CT
Headington Family Tennis Center – Norman, Oklahoma
LIVE SCORING: http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statmonitr.php?gid=okla
No. 6 Texas (17-4) at No. 8 Oklahoma State (17-3)
Sunday, April 2 – 1 p.m. CT
Greenwood Tennis Center – Stillwater, Oklahoma
LIVE SCORING: http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statmonitr.php?gid=okst
LIVE VIDEO: http://okstate.com/sports/2016/2/22/TENNIS_VIDEO.aspx
ITA RANKINGS (March 21, Texas players)
Singles
16. Christian Sigsgaard
29. Yuya Ito
46. Harrison Scott
112. Leonardo Telles
LAST MEETINGS vs. OU and OSU
Oklahoma defeated Texas by a 4-0 count on April 10, 2016 in Austin. Former Longhorn Nick Crowell is in his first season as the head coach of the Sooners.
Texas knocked off Oklahoma State by a 4-2 margin on Feb. 19, 2017 at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
HORNS HOOK NO. 2 OHIO STATE
Texas and Ohio State have engaged in some epic, competitive matches through the years, and their recent contest in Austin was no exception. The Longhorns found themselves trailing 3-0, but Texas went the distance and won third sets in the four remaining matches to stun the second-ranked Buckeyes, 4-3.
Senior George Goldhoff, sophomore Leonardo Telles and freshman Yuya Ito won their third sets to keep the Horns in the match and set the stage for the clincher from sophomore Rodrigo Banzer, who finished off OSU's Kyle Seelig in a third-set tiebreaker, 7-3.
TEXAS TAKES DOWN CALIFORNIA ON BAY AREA ROAD TRIP
Less than a week removed from its match against No. 3 Wake Forest, Texas took on a challenging road swing at No. 41 Stanford and No. 6 California. The Horns suffered a 4-1 defeat at Stanford but scored a big 4-3 win over the Golden Bears in Berkeley.
Texas takes on top-16 opponents in four of its next five matches beginning with this weekend's matches at Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Texas welcomes No. 6 Baylor on April 15.
HORNS WINS 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.
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 22-10 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 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.
Players Mentioned
