TYLER, TEXAS – The UT Tyler men's tennis program is hitting the road this week for Wichita Falls, Texas as they look for strong finishes in the ITA South Central Regional tournament.
The format for this competiton will be a first match consolation draw for singles and doubles. This means that the losers of the first matches will have an opportunity to compete in a separate consolation bracket in their respective draws. The regional competition will see 61 singles competitors and 30 teams of doubles competitors. Play is set to begin on Sept. 30 at 8 a.m.
The Patriots will be taking 10 players to the regional, and five of those players have earned a top 16 seed in singles.
Egor Shestakov will be taking the number two overall seed into singles, and
Gonzalo Fernandez Gil will be taking the fourth seed. Rounding out the rest of the seeding for the Patriots will be
Yudai Watanabe as the seventh seed,
Joaquin Bianchi as the 11 seed, and
Nikita Chuev as the 14 seed. In addition to these five singles competitors, the pair of Bianchi and Fernandez Gil will be the number two overall seed in the doubles draw.
HOW THE SEASON HAS SHAPED UP
Previous competition for the Patriots has included the Tyler Invite, and the Contender CrossFit Islander Open. The Tyler Invite took place on Sept. 3 and 4 and the Contender CrossFit Islander Open took place back on Sept. 10-12.
At the Tyler Invite, the doubles combination of Bianchi and Fernandez Gil were able to take home the Open Doubles championship. Fernandez Gil and
Moritz Mayer were each able to claim the championship in Open Singles flight two and flight three, respectively.
In the Contender CrossFit Islander Open, Bianchi and Fernandez Gil teamed up again to take home the third place prize in the "A" doubles bracket. Mayer yet again was able to show strong singles play, bouncing back from a first round loss to claim fifth place in the "D" singles draw.
WHAT'S AT STAKE
As it was for the women's ITA South Central Regional, there will be big stakes this week for the men as well. The winners of the singles and doubles tournaments this week will automatically qualify into next month's ITA Oracle Cup that will be held in Rome, Georgia.
In addition to the winners of the eight regional tournaments making it into the ITA Oracle Cup, there are eight at-large selections that will be made. Four of those will be made based upon regional finalists and the other four will be based upon regional quarterfinalists.
