The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Oklahoma (Big 12 Championships semifinals)
No. 15 Men’s Tennis Preview: Big 12 Championships
04.23.2018 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns open play in the semifinals on Saturday against Oklahoma or Texas Tech.
No. 15 Texas (15-6) holds the No. 2 seed for this week's Big 12 Championships at Texas Tennis Center. The Longhorns hold a first-round bye and will open competition at the three-day event in Saturday's semifinals (noon CT) against the winner of Friday's first-round match between third-seeded Oklahoma and sixth-seeded Texas Tech.
The six-team men's tournament opens Friday with a pair of first-round matches. Fourth-seeded Oklahoma State takes on fifth-seeded Baylor at 9 a.m. while the aforementioned Oklahoma-Texas Tech match gets underway at noon.
Both semifinal matches are set for Saturday at noon, and the final will be contested alongside the women's final Sunday at 1 p.m.
2018 Big 12 Championships
Friday, April 27-Sunday, April 29
Texas Tennis Center – Austin, Texas
Live Scoring
North Courts: http://sidearmstats.com/texas/mtennis/xlive.htm
South Courts: http://sidearmstats.com/texas/wtennis/xlive.htm
Big 12 Championships Information Page: www.hookem.at/2018Big12Tennis
Tickets
All-Session: $15 adults/$10 youth & students
Single Session: $5
*Tickets are available for purchase via cash or credit card at Texas Tennis Center one hour prior to the first match each day.
Parking: Available in East Campus Garage adjacent to UFCU Disch-Falk Field for $5; payment is made via cash or credit card at the garage exit (Area Map).
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY
The Big 12 Championships return to Austin for the fourth time overall and for the first time since 2010. Texas has won four Big 12 Championship tournaments, most recently in 2010. The Longhorns won the first Big 12 tournament contested in 1997 and added another in 1999. Texas won the 2006 Big 12 Championship at Baylor.
UT knocked off Texas A&M to win the title at its previous home, Penick-Allison Tennis Center, back in 2010. The Longhorns have reached the finals in nine of the previous 21 Big 12 Championships contested.
Texas fell to host Oklahoma in the quarterfinals of the 2017 Big 12 Championships in Norman.
LONGHORNS IN THE ITA RANKINGS (April 17)
Doubles
8. Rodrigo Banzer/Leonardo Telles
Singles
49. Yuya Ito
74. Harrison Scott
88. Leonardo Telles
97. Rodrigo Banzer
125. John Mee
SIGSGAARD SELECTED AS BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
The Big 12 Conference announced Tuesday (April 17) the selection of Texas sophomore Christian Sigsgaard as the league's Men's Tennis Player of the Week.
Sigsgaard swept his singles matches and helped Texas to home wins over No. 11 Oklahoma State and No. 14 Oklahoma. The 2017 Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year won six of his previous seven singles decisions heading into the final weekend of the season.
Sigsgaard teamed with UT junior Harrison Scott for the first time all season in doubles and posted a pair of wins, which included a victory over OU's 61st-ranked tandem of Adrian Oetzbach and Ferran Calvo.
SEVEN STRAIGHT FOR ORTIZ
Redshirt junior Adrian Ortiz takes a seven-match winning streak and an 11-2 dual-match record into the Big 12 Championships. Ortiz began his streak back on March 6 with a three-set win over Pennsylvania's Aleks Huryn.
He added a three-set win over USC's Jake DeVine and a straight-sets victory over Tulsa's Boriss Kamdem before posting a 6-4, 6-4 result over TCU's Bertus Kruger. Ortiz clinched the Longhorns' win over Oklahoma with his 6-4, 6-2 victory over the Sooners' Max Stewart. He posted a straight-sets win over Texas Tech's Artem Kapshuk last Thursday in Lubbock. Ortiz clinched the Horns' 4-0 win at Baylor with his 6-4, 6-4 victory over Roy Smith.
SCOTT EARNS BIG 12 HONOR
The Big 12 Conference announced March 6 the selection of Texas junior Harrison Scott as the league's Men's Tennis Player of the Week.
Scott clinched both of Texas' big road wins at No. 16 North Carolina State and No. 6 North Carolina. Scott snapped North Carolina's 29-match home winning streak that spanned nearly two full seasons with his thrilling 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3 win over the Heels' 105th-ranked Robert Kelly at third singles.
Two days earlier, the junior from Calgary, Alberta nailed down UT's 4-1 win over the 16th-ranked Wolfpack in Raleigh with his 7-6 (5), 2-6, 7-5 victory over Igor Saveljic at third singles.
TEXAS TWO-STEPS THROUGH THE TAR HEEL STATE
The Longhorns headed to North Carolina to take on stiff competition in the form of No. 16 North Carolina State and No. 6 North Carolina (March 2 & 4). Texas came home with a pair of momentous victories over the Wolfpack and Tar Heels on their respective home courts.
UT dropped the doubles point for only the third time against N.C. State, but the Longhorns ran off four consecutive wins on the Wolfpack's indoor courts to close out a 4-1 win.
Texas took a different path to victory in the match at North Carolina. Headlined by a win from Leonardo Telles and Rodrigo Banzer over UNC's sixth-ranked tandem of William Blumberg and Robert Kelly, UT took the doubles point from the Tar Heels.
The two sides went back and forth in singles until the match knotted at three. Just as he did at N.C. State, Texas junior Harrison Scott provided the match clincher once more at UNC. The Canadian finished off the 105th-ranked Kelly to seal the Longhorns' 4-3 win. It marked Texas' first victory over a top-10 team since the Horns knocked off seventh-seeded Baylor in the third round of the 2017 NCAA Championships.
The victories placed Texas back in the top-10 of the ITA team poll for the first time since Jan. 24.
ITO EARNS SECOND BIG 12 WEEKLY HONOR
The Big 12 Conference announced Feb. 27 the selection of Texas All-America sophomore Yuya Ito as the league's Men's Tennis Player of the Week. Ito earned his second selection of the season after receiving the honor on Feb. 13.
Ito registered his second win of the season over a ranked opponent in UT's win over Georgia Tech. He made short work of Georgia Tech's 41st-ranked Carlos Divar and prevailed 6-1, 6-2 as the Longhorns knocked off the Yellow Jackets, 5-2.
LONGHORNS POST FIRST WIN AT TEXAS TENNIS CENTER
Texas notched its first team victory at its new Texas Tennis Center on Jan. 28 when it knocked off Tennessee in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend event. The Longhorns won the doubles point and added singles wins from Rodrigo Banzer, Yuya Ito and the clincher from Adrian Ortiz, as Texas dealt the visiting Volunteers a 4-1 defeat.
BANZER SELECTED AS BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
The Big 12 Conference announced the selection of Texas junior Rodrigo Banzer as the league's first Men's Tennis Player of the Week for the 2018 season (Jan. 16).
Banzer went 6-0 in singles and doubles and won the individual championship at the Longhorn Invitational. Points were awarded for each singles and doubles win depending on their opponent's position in their lineup, and Banzer won the individual championship with room to spare.
Banzer, a native of La Paz, Bolivia, did not yield a set while winning his three singles matches. He improved to an impressive 15-3 at the time in doubles alongside Leonardo Telles with three more doubles wins, which included a top-40 victory over Vanderbilt's 36th-ranked tandem of Lachlan McPhee and Billy Rowe.
Players Mentioned
