The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
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SMU
No. 8 Men’s Tennis preview: SMU
01.18.2019 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns open the home season against SMU on Sunday.
No. 8 Texas vs. SMU
When: Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019, 1 p.m. CT
Where: Texas Tennis Center, Austin, Texas
Live stats: http://sidearmstats.com/texas/mtennis/xlive.htm
Live video: https://texassports.com/sports/2018/2/8/texas-tennis-center-live-video.aspx
Notes
-SMU Series: Texas leads the all-time series with SMU 79-22-2 and is on a 17-match winning streak dating back to 2001. In the last meeting, the Longhorns captured a 4-0 sweep in Austin at the Weller Indoor Tennis Center.
Last Meeting
No. 8 Texas 4, SMU 0 – Nov. 21, 2018
Doubles – Order of Finish: 2, 3
1 Christian Sigsgaard/Adrian Ortiz (UT) vs. Jan-Simon Vrbsky/Tomas Vaise (SMU), 5-2, susp.
2 No. 23 Yuya Ito/Harrison Scott (UT) def. Charles Nettlefold/Roberto Rosales (SMU), 6-1
3 Colin Markes/John Mee (UT) def. Gardiner Perotti/Eladio Fabregas (SMU) 6-3
Singles – Order of Finish: 5, 3, 6
1 No. 27 Harrison Scott (UT) vs. Jan-Simon Vrbsky (SMU), 6-4, 4-1, susp.
2 Christian Sigsgaard (UT) vs. Tomas Vaise (SMU), 6-2, 5-5, susp.
3 Yuya Ito (UT) def. Charles Nettlefold (SMU), 6-3, 6-0
4 No. 52 John Mee (UT) vs. Eladio Fabregas (SMU), 6-3, 1-6, susp.
5 Adrian Ortiz (UT) def. Michael Smith (SMU), 6-4, 6-2
6 Colin Markes (UT) def. Roberto Rosales (SMU), 6-3, 6-3
-The Longhorns begin their second season at the Texas Tennis Center. During its inaugural season, Texas posted a 10-2 record, including winning the 2018 Big 12 Tournament.
-Texas topped Ole Miss in the first dual match of the 2019 season, 7-0, Wednesday at the USTA National Campus Collegiate Center in Orlando, Fla. The Longhorns took all six singles points plus the doubles point without dropping a set. Texas now holds a 4-1 all-time dual match record against Ole Miss.
Texas opened the day by claiming the doubles point following a 6-1 win by No. 33 senior Harrison Scott and junior Christian Sigsgaard over Fabian Fallert and Tim Sandkaulen, and a 6-2 win by seniors Colin Markes and Leonardo Telles over Filip Kraljevic and Cotter Wilson. Junior Yuya Ito and freshman Chih Chi Huang's match went unfinished leading 5-3 over Jan Soren Hain and Simon Junk.
In singles, No. 4 Sigsgaard took the first point, rallying in the first set to a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Sandkaulen. No. 103 Huang then took a 6-2, 6-3 win over Wilson. No. 18 Ito clinched the team win with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Kraljevic. All three of the remaining matches included tiebreaker wins in one of the sets. Scott held off Hain, 6-3, 7-6 (4), while Markes won a first-set tiebreaker en route to a 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory over Junk, and Telles finished the day with a 6-1, 7-6 (6) win over Fallert.
It was the second time Texas and Ole Miss competed against each other in this first week of the spring season. The Longhorns posted a 6-1 singles and 3-1 doubles mark against the Rebels in individual play at the Miami Invitational.
-No. 8 Texas' match versus Ole Miss was part of the United States Tennis Association Collegiate Series, which includes a total of 12 matches featuring 22 different teams throughout the season. It was the first of four matches in the series to be part of the introduction of the PlayFair Challenge System using PlaySight SmartCourt technology. The mission of PlayFair is to improve the level of sportsmanship throughout tennis with the goal of increasing participation in, enjoyment, and viewership of the sport. PlayFair is a feature of PlaySight's SmartCourt technology, enabling players to challenge line calls made by their opponents or an official's overrule using instant video replay (a concept in sports known as Video Assistant Refereeing, or VAR). Players and officials can review where the ball landed by looking at a multi-angle video replay on the PlaySight touchscreen kiosk or an iPad/tablet device. The other three contests will include the Florida State-Miami men's match on March 10, and two women's matches, Michigan-Duke on March 9 and Notre Dame-Iowa on March 12.
-Texas finished the Miami Invitational (Jan. 11-13) with an 18-5 singles record and an 11-1 doubles mark, earning more victories than its opponents (Miami, Ole Miss, Wisconsin) in each section of singles and doubles of the three-day tournament. In singles, the Longhorns finished with a 5-1 mark against Wisconsin, 7-3 against Miami, and 6-1 against Ole Miss, while in doubles they swept both Miami and Wisconsin in four matches and were 3-1 against Ole Miss.
-Texas was ranked No. 8 in the preseason Oracle Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Division I Rankings released Jan. 9. It marks the second straight season the Longhorns have opened in that spot and they move back into the Top 10 after finishing last season at No. 12. Texas was the top-rated Big 12 team in the poll, which featured five of the six conference members.
-The Big 12 Conference men's tennis coaches unanimously selected Texas as the No. 1 team in the preseason conference poll, the league announced on Jan. 8. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team, so the Longhorns took all five first-place votes available to them and 25 points overall. Baylor and Oklahoma tied for second with 18 points.
-The Longhorns return a talented and experienced lineup that includes seven juniors or seniors back from its 2018 Big 12 title team, along with three newcomers. Head coach Michael Center enters his 19th season leading the team.
-Three singles players and two doubles pairs were rated in the post-fall Oracle/ITA Division I Men's Rankings. Junior Christian Sigsgaard jumped to No. 4 in singles after being rated No. 54 in the preseason rankings, while junior Yuya Ito also rose to No. 18 from No. 29. That made Texas one of four teams to have two players ranked in the Top 20, along with Georgia, Ohio State and USC. Freshman Chih Chi Huang entered the rankings for the first time in his career at No. 103.
-In doubles, senior Harrison Scott was ranked with two different partners, first with Sigsgaard at No. 33 and then with Colin Markes at No. 59.
-Prior to the fall, Scott (No. 47) and seniors Rodrigo Banzer (No. 61) and Leonardo Telles (No. 62) also appeared in the singles rankings.
-Full records of the Longhorns' fall season can be found here: https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/texassports_com/documents/2018/11/26/2018_Fall_Mens_Tennis_records.pdf
Players Mentioned
