A&M Tennis Team host ITA

The 10th-ranked Texas A&M men’s tennis team (1-0) will serve as one of 15 hosts across the nation for the third annual ITA Men’s Tennis Kick-Off Weekend, Jan. 29-30. The winner of the College Station field will advance to the ITA National Indoor Team Championships to be held Feb. 18-21 in Seattle, Washington.

The Aggies, who reached the NCAA Sweet 16 last year and return 12 lettermen, are the top seed in College Station. Senior All-Americans Austin Krajicek (Brandon, FL) and Jeff Dadamo (Tampa, FL) are the top-ranked doubles tandem in the latest ITA rankings. The doubles team of Alberto Bautista (McAllen, TX) and Colin Hoover (Victoria, TX) are ranked No. 32 and won their opening match last weekend, 8-2. The doubles tandem of Niall Angus (London, England) and Alexey Grigorov (Moscow, Russia) are ranked No. 49. In singles action, Krajicek is No. 23 while Dadamo is No. 54 and Hoover is No. 95.

The Aggies, who have won 18 consecutive home matches at the Mitchell Tennis Center dating back to last year’s Kick-Off opener against Fresno State (Jan. 30, 2010), will host SEC foe Mississippi State, currently ranked No. 40 in the latest ITA Rankings. Louis Cant is ranked No. 60 in the singles rankings and the Bulldogs have the No. 45 doubles team in George Coupland and Zach White.

The Bulldogs went 20-4 in singles and 8-4 in doubles matches last weekend at the Auburn Invitational as they opened the 2011 spring season.
In the other first-round match this weekend in College Station, Arizona is the second seed and ranked #32 in the ITA rankings, while Miami is the third seed and ranked #44 in this week’s rankings.

Arizona from the Pac-10 is 1-0 on the year after beating UC-Riverside, 7-0 last weekend. The Wildcats lost in the first round of the NCAA Championships last spring to Minnesota.

Miami (1-1) has split two matches thus far beating North Florida, 5-2, on Jan. 16 and then dropping a 5-2 match to #30 Rice last weekend.
“We are extremely excited about hosting the ITA Kick-Off Weekend at the Mitchell Tennis Center this weekend,” Aggie head coach Steve Denton said. “I think it is great we have strong representation from the SEC with Mississippi State, the Pac-10 with Arizona and the ACC with Miami. All three of these teams should in the NCAA Championship field in May.”

“There is no doubt in my mind that Mississippi State is a much better team than their ranking indicates,” Denton added. “We are going to have to be on top of our game this weekend to advance to the championships in Seattle. The weather should be beautiful and hopefully the 12th Man will come out in full force for some great college tennis.
In last year’s results, the fourth-seeded Fresno State Bulldogs beat A&M, 4-3, in the opening match and went on to defeat Rice to advance to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. The Aggies beat Oklahoma State, 4-1, in the consolation match.

In the tournament’s first year of existence (2009), the Aggies traveled to Gainesville, Florida, and beat North Carolina State before dropping the championship match to the host Gators.

Live scoring and live video will be available for the all four matches this weekend from the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station at AggieAthletics.com.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN NOTES:
As the 2011 Australian Open winds down, there are a couple of Aggie connections to the Grand Slam event as the Aggies’ head coach Steve Denton reached the Australian Open finals in 1981 and 1982. Assistant coach Bob McKinley has coached Li Na, who advanced to the finals on the women’s side of the Australian Open by defeating the top-seed Caroline Wozniacki. Na, the first Asian born player to reach a Grand Slam final, will face Kim Clijsters in the finals on Saturday.

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