News release from Texas A&M Athletics:
The No. 10 Texas A&M men’s tennis team opens the 2026 SEC Championship on its home court against the Vanderbilt Commodores at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the George P. Mitchell ’40 Tennis Center.
The 12-seed Commodores beat Alabama, 4-2, to advance to the second round on Wednesday. Texas A&M and Vanderbilt met in the regular season on March 1 with the ‘Dores edging the Aggies, 4-3.
The Mitchell Tennis is hosting the SEC Men’s Tennis Championship for the second time. At the previous SEC tournament in College Station, the Aggies beat LSU (7-0), Mississippi State (4-0) and Georgia (4-2) on their way to the 2015 league title.
“It certainly doesn’t hurt to have the 12th Man supporting you and being in familiar setting,” said Aggie head coach Steve Denton, who is in his 20th season at Texas A&M. “Our guys are going to do their best to take advantage of the home court advantage. We’ve been awfully good at home for a long time. There have been some teams that have come into here and beat us just because they were better than we were, but if we get in close matches on our home court, I like our chances. We’re just super excited about the opportunity we’re going to have.”
The Aggies are seeded fifth after finishing the regular season with a 10-4 conference record, which was tied for third in the league standings. Texas A&M is one of five SEC teams ranked in the top 10 of the most recent ITA national rankings, joining No. 1 Texas, No. 5 LSU, No. 6 Mississippi State and No. 8 Oklahoma.
“This year, especially in the SEC, there has been a tremendous amount of parity,” Denton said. “We’ve had a lot of 4-3 matches, so I think this is going to be a great tournament for our fans to watch because all the teams are so close. It’s really going to come down to who plays better on that day. Anybody can beat anybody else on a given day and that makes it exciting.”
Individually, the Aggies are led by sophomore Theo Papamalamis at top of the lineup in singles and doubles. The native of Metz, France has compiled a 13-6 record at No. 1 singles with seven wins over ranked opponents. In doubles, Papamalamis teams with senior Togan Tokic at the top of doubles lineup where the tandem has compiled an 8-7 record, including a 6-4 mark vs. ranked opponents. Tokac leads the team in singles wins with 14-6 record spread across Nos. 4-6 singles. The Aggies received a big impact from mid-term enrollee Markus Molder from Estonia, who posted a team-best 9-2 SEC record.
Texas A&M is well-represented in the ITA individual rankings with Papamalamis at No. 10, junior Kholo Montsi at No. 41 and sophomore Alex Frusina at No. 100 in singles and Papamalamis and Tokac ranking No. 5 in doubles.
The Field
The winner of the SEC Men’s Tennis Championship receives the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. The tournament seeds are determined by the 14-game conference schedule during the regular season. Teams are seeded 1-15 based on their regular season conference finish. The top four seeded teams earn double-byes and start play on Friday, while teams seeded 5-9 receive a first-round bye. The tournament first round begins on Wednesday with matches featuring teams seeded 10-15. A full tournament bracket can be found at 12thMan.com
