COLLEGE STATION – For the second time this spring Texas A&M freshman Arthur Rinderknech clinched an upset win for his team over a top-5 opponent and was award SEC Freshman of the week honors for his efforts, the league office announced Wednesday morning.
Rinderknech dropped a tightly contested first-set tiebreaker to Oklahoma’s Spencer Papa last Friday evening at the George P Mitchell Tennis Center, but the Frenchman rebounded to win 6-3, 6-1 in the final sets to clinch the Aggies upset of then-No. 1 Oklahoma. The win marked the third time the team result came down to Rinderknech’s match in four spring matches and was the second straight clinch victory for the A&M freshman. Last Friday’s victory over the Sooners was the first in Texas A&M program history over the nation’s top-ranked team.
“Arthur has done it now in three matches and has come through for us in a major way,” Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton added. “Spencer (Papa) has just gotten to Oklahoma this January and Arthur just started playing for us. I was interested to see how that match turned out. It was a really close contest and Arthur was able to pick his game up at the right time and clinch the match for us.”
The pivotal doubles point against the Sooners came down to the third court and A&M’s freshman duo were up to the task. AJ Catanzariti and Rinderknech took a commanding 5-2 lead with a pair of breaks before clinching the night’s first point with a 7-5 result. The pair took down Papa and Florin Bragusi, moving to 2-0 this spring.
The SEC freshman of the week capped off his stellar weekend with a straight set win over Josip Smoljan of Incarnate Word Sunday afternoon at the Bryan Tennis Center.
“To be the last man standing in three matches in a career is outstanding but three times in a month is unreal,” Denton added. “Arthur has really played well under pressure for us and I could not be more proud of him. In his case, truly good things come to those who wait.”
Rinderknech and rest of the No. 8 Aggies will continue their nine-match home stand against No. 29 Kentucky Friday at 6 p.m. at the George P Mitchell Tennis Center.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M men’s tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M men’s tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieMTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieMensTennis.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics