TCU Men's Tennis Fall Recap
11/26/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Nov. 26, 2003
FORT WORTH, Texas
The momentum that the TCU men's tennis squad gained from last spring's dual match season, which saw them start at 34th in the country and finish 13 spots higher at No. 21, carried over to the subsequent fall campaign. Only one Horned Frog, Toni Gordon, was gone from 2003 and two talented freshmen from the Lone Star State in Robert Gallman and Andrew Ulrich were added to the roster. After concluding play, Head Coach Joey Riv?'s Frogs appear poised for another run at a conference title and the NCAA Championships next spring.
Before the season even began, senior Alex Menichini and junior Fabrizio Sestini grabbed some honors by penciling in their names on the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's (ITA) preseason singles rankings. Menichini came in at No. 47, while Sestini snared the 63rd position. Both netters were tabbed nationally following last spring as well, with Menichini at No. 77 and Sestini at 100th.
A pair of tournaments kicked things off for the Horned Frogs during the last week of September. Some of TCU's top dogs, Sestini, junior Daniel Scholten and sophomores Rafael Abreu and Jacopo Tezza headed east to Peachtree City, located just outside of Atlanta, for the adidas Invitational. Menichini headlined the remainder of the crew-junior Jacob Martin, redshirt freshmen Collin Hart and Craig Stopa and the newbies Gallman and Ulrich-in Waco at the HEB Baylor Intercollegiate.
Abreu and Tezza found the most success of TCU's foursome in the Peach State, as both advanced to the semifinal round before bowing out of the event. Both TCUers had to win back-to-back three-set matches in the round of 16 and the quarters to earn a berth into the semis. Included in those was Abreu's stunner over No. 64 Luis Haddock of Notre Dame by a 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 count. It was Abreu's first career win over a ranked opponent.
Menichini followed suit in Waco, winning three matches in a row to advance to semifinal play. One of the foes he sent packing was 99th-rated Matija Zgaga of Baylor in the round of 16. In the semis, Menichini was pitted against the nation's most dangerous player in No. 1 Benedikt Dorch, also from the host school. Although he could not pull off the upset, the Calabasas, Calif., native gave a commendable effort, losing 6-4, 7-6(6). A week after the tournament, Conference USA applauded Menichini's showing at Baylor by awarding him C-USA Men's Tennis Athlete of the Month distinction.
"This was a great achievement for Alex," said Riv?. "We're expecting big things from him this year, and I'm happy he was honored. Alex has worked hard and been playing a lot of tennis, which has really elevated his level of play and the team's as well."
With a good tune-up under their belts, it was now time for five Horned Frogs to take a crack at the Icy Hot/ITA All-American Championships in Chattanooga, Tenn., while the others racked up some more experience at the UTA Invitational. The All-American was the first leg of the ITA's three national championship events for the 2003-04 season and featured the largest draw of any tournament. Players had to win seven consecutive matches in order to survive the pre-qualifying and qualifying rounds and reach the main draw, where the nation's most elite competitors were waiting.
Abreu and Gallman fell in the first round of pre-qualifying, leaving just Tezza with the task of grinding through the early rounds. The quick-footed Italian caught fire and began blazing through the pre-qualies and advanced to qualifying when his final opponent was forced to withdraw with an injury. After pocketing another victory, Tezza was only one conquest shy of making the main draw, but No. 69 Thomas Schoeck of Boise State crashed his party and handed him a 6-4, 7-5 defeat.
While Sestini had an exemption from pre-qualifying, his first-round loss in the qualifying draw to 99th-tabbed Vlad Obradovic from Florida left Menichini as the only hope for the Purple and White. Menichini's clout had him already in the main draw, but No. 86 Chris Martin, his first-round assignment from defending NCAA champion Illinois, was no easy chore. After getting a bad first set out of the way, Menichini went on to take the second and third frames, 6-4, 6-3, to scoot into the second round. Tulane's seventh-ranked Michael Kogan represented the next challenge, one Menichini was ready to wrestle with. Unfortunately, the lefty was unable to come away with the three-setter, falling 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to end TCU's hopes of an ITA All-American Championships title.
Once Abreu and Sestini returned from a weekend in Midland, Texas, at the Midland Invitational, the Horned Frogs were ready to host the ITA South Central Regional Championships over Oct. 24-27. Playing on the familiar courts of the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center provided TCU's purple-clad student-athletes with an opportunity to make some noise and land a spot in the ITA's second national event, the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships.
The first day of competition was a huge success for TCU, as five of its 10 entrants in the singles moved on to the round of 32. TCU's doubles tandems did not achieve the same results, however, the duo of Abreu and Sestini slid into the round of 16 after a first-round bye and a victory over a team from Prairie View A&M. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, Abreu and Sestini would continue to turn heads throughout the tournament and resurrect the Horned Frogs' strong tradition of doubles play.
Day two of the regional saw Menichini and Sestini advance to the round of 16 in singles, with both of their victories coming in straight sets at the expense of the Texas Longhorns. The Venezuela-Italy connection of Abreu and Sestini grabbed two more wins that day as well over Texas A&M and Texas Tech to reach the semifinals. In the backdraw of the singles, Ulrich was also making waves with a pair of victories to earn a place in the round of 16 the following day.
Menichini and Sestini both won their round of 16 matches in the main draw Sunday morning. Sestini's result turned out to be his best of the fall, as he ousted No. 68 Ivor Lovrak from Baylor by scores of 7-5, 7-6. The tourney's No. 1 seed and nation's 14th-rated player, Robert Searle of Rice, ended Sestini's stay in singles, while No. 17-ranked and third-seeded Benjamin Becker from Baylor came out on the winning end of a three-setter with Menichini. Ulrich also suffered a setback in the consolation draw, falling in a super tiebreaker in the third set to Rice's Rodrigo Gabriel, 10-8.
The Horned Frogs were not done with the ITA Regional, though, because Abreu and Sestini were still alive in the doubles. In their semifinal contest with Hubert Chodkiewicz and Joe Morris of Texas, the duo trounced the competition by an 8-1 count. The only thing standing between them and the National Indoors was two familiar faces in Becker and Lovrak in the championship showdown the next day at high noon.
Becker and Lovrak were the clear favorites to capture the title, but Abreu and Sestini had other plans. When the dust cleared and settled, the Horned Frog tandem had come away with an 8-5 victory and one of 16 berths into the indoors. While TCU was no stranger to the national event, no doubles team had appeared in it since 1996 and no members of the Purple and White had competed since 1997.
"It was a great effort from Rafael and Fabrizio," Riv? said of the championship. "They played great throughout the entire tournament and got better with each match. This is the tone we wanted to set at the beginning of the fall. All of our guys did a great job of working hard and pushing themselves to get off to the right start."
Before jetting off for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for the National Indoors, the conference office gave kudos to Sestini by tabbing him C-USA Men's Tennis Athlete of the Month for October. It was the second-straight month that the Horned Frogs claimed the prize thanks to Menichini doing the honors the previous month.
"Fabrizio started a little slow this fall but really picked it up at the end," Riv? remarked. "He established himself as one of the better players in the county at the ITA Regional. He worked very hard this fall and did a great job for us."
A formidable team from Auburn, Andrew Colombo and Gabor Zoltan Pelva, was Abreu and Sestini's first order of business in Michigan. The Tigers' duo was ranked fourth in the country and for good reason. Colombo was regarded as one of the best doubles players around, having won the NCAA Doubles Championship in 2002 with partner Mark Kovacs. Despite fighting hard, Abreu and Sestini could not overtake the opposition, losing an 8-4 decision.
Abreu and Sestini refused to go home empty-handed and managed to collect a victory before returning to Cowtown. They defeated BYU's Jose Luchuga and Nima Roshan, 8-3, in the quarterfinals of the backdraw. The Ivy League's Jamie Cerretani and Adil Shamasdin from Brown dished out an 8-5 loss to Abreu and Sestini to end their fall campaign with a 9-5 record, more wins than any other TCU doubles team.
"It was great to have a doubles team amongst the upper echelon of players in the game," said Riv?. "I knew Rafael and Fabrizio had the potential to be good together, but their results hadn't shown that up until the regional. Their hard work really paid off."
While Abreu and Sestini were battling in the indoors, the remaining Frogs took on some stiff competition in College Station, Texas, at the Texas A&M Invitational to close the door on the season. TCU faced off with LSU, Arizona and A&M in dual match format. Inclement weather cancelled several of the matches and many of the Horned Frogs struggled in their matches. Scholten was the sole bright spot for the Purple and White, as he won both match-ups against LSU's Cory Ross and Texas A&M's Bryan Wooten. He and Menichini also added a doubles triumph to their fall slate by downing Arizona's Paul Warkentin and Daniel Andrews.
Tezza ended up gathering the most singles victories for TCU during the fall with a 10-5 ledger. Scholten and Menichini were next in line with 7-3 records, followed by Abreu at 6-5 and Sestini with a 6-4 mark. Gallman, Martin and Ulrich each finished with five triumphs and Stopa and Hart combined for three victories.
The talent and determination the Horned Frogs displayed during the fall figures to make them a squad the opposition would rather avoid this spring. And, when the preseason team rankings are released in January, there is little doubt the ITA National Ranking Committee will hold the same sentiments.
Players Mentioned
