The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Oklahoma (Big 12 Championships quarterfinals)
No. 9 Men’s Tennis Preview: No. 15 Oklahoma (Big 12 Championships quarterfinals)
04.25.2017 | Men's Tennis
Texas meets Oklahoma for a second straight year in the first round of the Big 12 Championships.
WHAT: No. 9 Texas opens postseason play this week at the Big 12 Championships. The Longhorns hold the tournament's fourth seed and will take on fifth-seeded, 15th-ranked host Oklahoma in Thursday's quarterfinals.
WHEN/WHERE
No. 9 Texas (19-7, 2-3 Big 12) at No. 15 Oklahoma (14-9, 2-3 Big 12)
Thursday, April 27 – 10 a.m. CT
Headington Family Tennis Center
Norman, Oklahoma (event hosted by Oklahoma)
LIVE SCORING
http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statmonitr.php?DB_OEM_ID=31000&gid=okla
LIVE VIDEO (paid subscription required)
https://www.flotennis.com/live/2613-big-12-championships/signup?next=http://live.flotennis.com/#/event/2613-big-12-championships
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS INFORMATION PAGE
http://www.big12sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=211368207&DB_OEM_ID=10410&DB_OEM_ID=10410
LAST MEETING vs. OKLAHOMA
Texas defeated Oklahoma by a 4-3 count on March 31 in Norman.
BIG 12 SEMIFINALS/FINALS
Friday, 10 a.m. CT/Saturday, 11 a.m. CT (FSN)
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY
Texas has won four Big 12 Championship tournaments, most recently in 2010. The Longhorns have reached the finals in nine of the previous 20 Big 12 Championships contested.
Sixth-seeded Texas fell to third-seeded Oklahoma (4-1) in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Big 12 Championships at Oklahoma State.
PRE-TOURNAMENT COMMENTS
Texas head coach Michael Center
On the league's parity
At this point we're looking at five of the six teams being a host site for (first & second rounds of) the NCAA Championships. I'm not sure you're going to find that in any other league, and it may not happen in our league again. It's unusual to see that. I think the challenges we face in this league are great for our team. It's a real challenge every time out there in a Big 12 match, and it prepares us well for the NCAA Championships. We've seen it all at this point. We've played the best teams outside our conference and in our conference. When it's time for the NCAA Championships, we'll be ready for whatever comes our way.
On the Longhorns
We had a couple bumps in the road, but we're going in the right direction. I thought our doubles was better against TCU, and we competed well. We had chances to take some of those sets and extend the match. If that match had stayed out there a little longer, we would have had chances to get more points. TCU earned it, but I liked what I saw. We're excited to go up and see what we can do against a very tough Oklahoma team with Andrew Harris back in its lineup. OU is an elite team, and this will be a great challenge for us. After this tournament, we'll have two weeks to get ready for the first couple of rounds of the NCAA Championships. But we're in good shape right now.
ITA RANKINGS (Texas players, April 25)
Singles
26. Christian Sigsgaard
45. Harrison Scott
53. Yuya Ito
Doubles
75. Leonardo Telles/George Goldhoff
CENTER COLLECTS 500TH CAREER WIN
Texas' 4-3 win last month at Oklahoma (March 31) marked the 500th career victory for UT head coach Michael Center. It also marked the Longhorns' first victory over the Sooners in Norman since 2009.
Center boasts a 343-128 (.728) mark in his 16-plus seasons with the Longhorns. He holds a 501-196 (.719) record in his 25-plus seasons as a head coach at Kansas (men and women), TCU and Texas.
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. Leonardo Telles rallied from one set down and defeated J.T. Nishimura in three sets to break a 3-3 tie and deliver Texas the victory.
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.
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. 10 in the ITA singles rankings. It marked Sigsgaard's third win over an ITA top-15 opponent this season.
Sigsgaard boasts an impressive 24-14 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
