The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Baylor (NCAA Championships Round of 16)
No. 10 Men’s Tennis Preview: No. 7 Baylor (NCAA Championships Round of 16)
05.16.2017 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns meet the Bears for the second time in five weeks.
WHAT: No. 10 national seed Texas advanced from its Austin site of the NCAA Championships opening rounds to Athens, Georgia, the site of the tournament's remaining rounds. The Longhorns await a familiar foe in the third round (round of 16) in the form of Big 12 rival Baylor, the No. 7 national seed.
WHEN/WHERE
NCAA Championships Third Round (Round of 16)
No. 10 Texas (21-8) vs. No. 7 Baylor (23-7)
Thursday, May 18 – 9 a.m. ET/8 a.m. CT
Dan Magill Tennis Complex – Athens, Georgia (hosted by Georgia)
LIVE SCORING/VIDEO
http://www.georgiadogs.com/sports/m-tennis/spec-rel/vid-stream-ncaa.html
LAST MEETING: Baylor defeated Texas, 4-1 on April 12 in Austin.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY
- Texas is making its fourth consecutive appearance in the round of 16 at the NCAA Championships.
- With Texas' opening-round wins over Presbyterian and Tulane, UT head coach Michael Center has taken the Longhorns to the third round of the NCAA Championships in 11 of his 17 seasons on the Forty Acres.
- The Longhorns are making their 26th consecutive NCAA Championships appearance. It marks UT's 35th overall selection since the NCAA bracketed tournament was introduced in 1977. Texas holds a 54-34 record at the NCAA Championships in the current bracketed format.
- A Texas win over Baylor would mark UT's first NCAA quarterfinals appearance since 2014. Two wins in Athens would send Texas to the NCAA semifinals for the first time since 2009.
- Texas' best NCAA Championships finish in the current bracketed format came in 2008 when the Longhorns reached the finals and finished as the NCAA runner-up. UT also finished as the national runner-up in 1955.
TEXAS/BAYLOR ITA RANKINGS (May 4)
Singles
15. Juan Benitez, Baylor
25. Christian Sigsgaard, Texas
36. Harrison Scott, Texas
50. Max Tchoutakian, Baylor
55. Yuya Ito, Texas
63. Johannes Schretter, Baylor
Doubles
22. Juan Benitez/Will Little, Baylor
68. Max Tchoutakian, Johannes Schretter, Baylor
76. Leonardo Telles/George Goldhoff, Texas
84. Jimmy Bendeck/Johannes Schretter, Baylor
SINGLES RALLY SENDS HORNS TO ATHENS
Texas rallied from 3-1 down and fended off multiple match points to post a 4-3 victory over No. 29 Tulane (May 13) and earns its trip to Athens for the round of 16.
Trailing 3-1, Texas picked up a three-set win from Harrison Scott at second singles to cut the deficit to 3-2. Leonardo Telles trailed 5-3 in the third set at fifth singles and forced a tiebreaker, where he prevailed, 7-3 to even the team score at three points apiece.
Rodrigo Banzer trailed by a set and 5-3 in the second set before following Telles' lead and rallying to force a tiebreaker. Tulane's Chi-Shan Jao held two team match points at 6-4 in the tiebreaker, but Banzer swept the ensuing four points to win the tiebreaker, 8-6 and force a third set.
Banzer broke Jao at four-all in the third set and served up an ace on match point in the next game to close out Texas' 4-3 wins and send the Horns to Georgia.
TEXAS TRIO EARNS NCAA INDIVIDUAL SELECTIONS
The NCAA announced May 3 the invitations of Texas sophomore Harrison Scott and freshmen Christian Sigsgaard and Yuya Ito to compete in the 64-player singles draw later this month at the NCAA Championships. The men's singles tournament runs May 24-29 at the NCAA Championships in Athens, Georgia.
The 45th-ranked Scott earned his first NCAA individual bid after posting a 27-10 overall singles record, including a 17-7 dual-match mark primarily at Nos. 2 and 3 singles. The Canadian has three ITA top-30 wins to his credit, including two in the last three weeks.
Sigsgaard and Ito are the first Texas freshmen to earn NCAA singles bids since 2008, when Ed Corrie and Kellen Damico earned their invitations. The 26th-ranked Sigsgaard posted a 25-15 overall singles record prior to the NCAA Championships.
UT's newcomer from Denmark reached the semifinals of the ITA All-American Championships and competed in the ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships last fall. Sigsgaard boasts a pair of wins over ITA top-10 opponents and five ITA top-50 victories.
Ito joined Sigsgaard in the main draws of the ITA All-American Championships and the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships last fall. The freshman from Yokohama, Japan, notched a 23-12 overall singles record and an 11-6 mark in dual matches prior to the NCAA Championships.
UT GRABS FOUR POSTSEASON HONORS
An impressive regular season yieleded three Big 12 postseason honors and an ITA Texas Region award. Christian Sigsgaard Harrison Scott were selected to the All-Big 12 Singles Second Team, and Sisgaard became UT's first Big 12 Freshman of the Year since Ed Corrie in 2008.
On Monday (May 15), Texas senior George Goldhoff was selected as the ITA Texas Region Senior Player of the Year. He became the first Longhorn to win the honor since Søren Hess-Olesen in 2015.
CENTER COLLECTS 500TH CAREER WIN
Texas' 4-3 win 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 343-129 (.727) mark in his 16-plus seasons with the Longhorns. He holds a 501-197 (.718) record in his 25-plus seasons as a head coach at Kansas (men and women), TCU and Texas.
Center has taken Texas to the NCAA Championships in each of his 17 seasons on the Forty Acres. He led the Longhorns to the NCAA round of 16 or better in 11 of his 16 previous NCAA Championships appearances, including the last three seasons.
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.
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
