TCU Men's Tennis Hosts South Alabama Tuesday
2/23/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 23, 2004
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HORNED FROGS' MATCH #6:
#13 TCU (5-0) vs. #48 South Alabama (4-2)
Feb. 24, 2004 * Fort Worth, Texas * 1:30 p.m. CST
Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center * Tut Bartzen Varsity Tennis Courts
NEXT UP FOR THE HORNED FROGS
The No. 13 TCU Horned Frogs host the 48th-rated South Alabama Jaguars Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 1:30 p.m. The match will be played on the Tut Bartzen Varsity Tennis Courts at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center. The event begins with three doubles matches followed by Nos. 1-6 singles after a 10-minute intermission.
THE JAGUARS' SCHEDULE
South Alabama sports a 4-2 record this season, with wins against Troy State (6-1), Tennessee Tech (5-1), Jacksonville (6-1) and Eckerd College (6-1). The Jaguars lost their last two with No. 34 USF (4-3) and No. 45 Mississippi State (5-2).
THE SERIES
TCU and South Alabama have met five times prior to Tuesday's match. The Horned Frogs own the 4-1 edge and defeated the Jaguars by a 5-2 count last year. USA's only win came two years ago by a score of 4-3.
THE RANKINGS
TCU is ranked 13th as a team and South Alabama is currently 48th. A pair of Horned Frogs are currently ranked in the top-100 in singles in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's poll. Senior Alex Menichini is No. 44 in singles and junior Fabrizio Sestini is 75th. Sestini is also rated No. 19 in doubles with sophomore Rafael Abreu. The Jaguars have one ranked singles player in Franticek Babej at 95th.
TCU'S LAST TIME OUT
The No. 13 TCU men's tennis squad got its second 4-3 victory in a row Sunday afternoon on the Tut Bartzen Varsity Tennis Courts at Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center. This time, the Horned Frogs downed No. 36 Florida State after beating ninth-rated Texas A&M earlier in the week. Sophomore Rafael Abreu clinched the match for the Frogs with the score tied 3-3 at four singles thanks to a three-set win against Chip Webb, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. The Frogs swept the doubles, which included an upset by TCU's 19th-rated duo of Abreu and Fabrizio Sestini at one. The tandem upended No. 15 Jeff Groslimond and Chris Westerhof, 9-7, to clinch the doubles point. Hector Almada and Jacopo Tezza provided the first win at two, defeating Matt Cloer and Jonathas Sucupira, 8-6. Jacob Martin and Alex Menichini finished things off at the No. 3 hole, 9-7, versus Jarrod Owen and Chip Webb. TCU rookie Robert Gallman put the Frogs ahead 2-0 with a victory at six singles against Owen, 6-2, 6-3. FSU registered its first point at the top position when No. 29 Cloer handed No. 44 Menichini his first loss of the spring in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5. Sestini, ranked 75th, picked up a 6-3, 7-6 triumph at the No. 2 spot over Groslimond to put the Frogs within a point of clinching. The Seminoles stormed back with two wins, the first of which came courtesy of Sucupira at three. He ousted Tezza 7-6, 6-4, giving the Verona, Italy, native his first defeat in dual matches. Westerhof came back after losing the first set at five singles, 6-3, to defeat Martin by scores of 6-3, 6-2 in the second and third sets.
WE'RE MONEY AT THESE TWO
The Horned Frogs have been unbeatable so far at two singles positions. At No. 4, Jacopo Tezza has gone 4-0 and Rafael Abreu is 1-0. Jacob Martin has three wins at six singles and Robert Gallman has accounted for the other two.
RESTORING DOUBLES DOMINANCE
TCU has historically experienced a great deal of success in doubles, but the last two years have been a little bit of a struggle. This season, the Horned Frogs have returned to their old form and are 13-2 in dual matches. Two years ago, TCU was a mere 25-40 in doubles and last season the Frogs went 37-31. The biggest win this year came when Rafael Abreu and Fabrizio Sestini topped Texas A&M's tandem of Lester Cook and Ante Matijevic, 8-4. Cook and Matijevic were the No. 1-rated duo in the nation at the time. The win was critical, as it allowed TCU to win the doubles point, which proved to be the difference in the match.
WE NEEDED THAT ONE
After reaching the national semifinals and finishing the 2001 season with a ranking of fifth, the Horned Frogs went through a rebuilding phase the next year and ended 11-12. Last season, TCU dramatically improved and concluded the season at 16-9 and earned a final billing of 21st. With only one player gone from last season's squad, TCU is looking for a return to the top-10 and it got a head start Feb. 15 by downing Texas A&M, which was ranked ninth. It was the Horned Frogs' first triumph versus a top-10 team since defeating the same Aggies in the quarterfinals of the 2001 NCAA Championships.
SMU MATCH PUSHED BACK UNTIL MARCH
Because of predicted bad weather Feb. 4, round one of TCU-SMU was pushed back until March 4 in Fort Worth. The two teams will play at 2 p.m.
SOME NEW FACES
The Horned Frogs snagged a couple of new faces for the spring with the additions of Hector Almada and Tobias Virdhage. Almada played two seasons at Fresno State and one at Fresno City College prior to coming to Cowtown. He entered last fall ranked No. 6 in doubles and was 76th in singles. Virdhage, a native of Sweden, is a three-time Swedish national champion and boasts victories over some of the top players in the world, such as Daniel Klemetz, formerly of Middle Tennessee State. Klemetz won the 2002 ITA All-American Championships.
REPRESENTING THE WORLD
TCU's roster this season has six different countries represented. Besides the United States, the Horned Frogs have players from Italy, Mexico, Spain, Sweden and Venezuela. The Frogs' Americans are senior Alex Menichini and freshmen Robert Gallman, Collin Hart, Craig Stopa, and Andrew Ulrich. Two Italians don the purple and white with juniors Fabrizio Sestini and Jacopo Tezza. The lone Mexican is senior Hector Almada and junior Jacob Martin hails from Spain. Freshman Tobias Virdhage is TCU's Swedish player.
C-USA AWARDS
Last fall, TCU cleaned up on the Conference USA monthly tennis award. For September, the recognition was given to Alex Menichini for reaching the semifinals of the Baylor Intercollegiates. He won three matches during the tourney and defeated one ranked player in Baylor's Matija Zgaga. He fell in the semis to the nation's then-No. 1 Benedikt Dorsch, also from Baylor. Fabrizio Sestini was awarded the accolade for October after he reached the quarters of the Midland Open and the ITA South Central Regional Championships. He also teamed up with Rafael Abreu to win the doubles title at the ITA Regional, allowing them to become the first TCUers to qualify for the National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships since 1997. Menichini took home some more praise from C-USA when he was tabbed Athlete of the Week after TCU upended UTA and Colorado. He went 2-0 at one singles and three doubles with Jacob Martin that week.
BOTH ALMA MATERS GO DOWN
Assistant coach Cory Hubbard saw the TCUers down his alma mater Texas A&M Feb. 15 in Fort Worth, 4-3. Hubbard graduated from A&M in December 2000 with a degree in marketing after playing for the Aggies from 1996-2000. He was also a volunteer coach for A&M for a year. Head coach Joey Riv? escaped with a 4-3 victoy over Florida State Feb. 22, allowing the coaching staff to go undefeated this year against its alma maters. Riv? is a 1993 graduate of FSU with a Bachelor's degree in psychology. He is considered one of the great Seminoles in school history and was inducted into the FSU Hall of Fame in 1999. He won 74 singles and 47 doubles matches during his time with FSU. His 33 singles victories in 1983 is still the second-most for a single season in school history. Riv? was also an assistant coach for the Seminoles for a year when he returned to finish his degree after playing on the ATP Tour.
A RICH NCAA HISTORY
The Horned Frogs have a rich tradition of excellence in the NCAA Tournament. TCU has made 18 appearances in the event since the current team format was adopted in 1977. TCU has been in every tourney since 1991 and made 16 of the past 17 NCAAs. The Purple and White owns a record of 23-18 in the tournament and has made three appearances (1989, 1996, 2001) in the national semifinals. TCU has also reached at least the NCAA quarterfinals on seven occasions (1982, 1989, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001). In the individual championships, TCU had a string of 26 consecutive appearances from 1976 to 2001. During that span, TCU won one doubles title, coming in 1981 with Karl Richter and David Pate. In 1996, Ashley Fisher and Jason Weir-Smith finished as the runner-ups. Several Horned Frogs reached the round of 16 in singles, but Esteban Carril is the only one to advance to the quarterfinals. Carril made his run his sophomore year in 1999.
NEW TEAM BUILDING DEDICATED
The new TCU Tennis Team Building was dedicated Jan. 30, 2004. The latest addition to TCU's assortment of facilities houses the men's and women's coaching staffs and provides locker rooms for the men and women. Other amenities in the complex include a spacious lounge area with a big screen television, a laundry and equipment room, a computer workstation for student-athletes and a racket stringing area. The building cost about $700,000 to construct and was finished last December after breaking ground in June.
TCU ADDS LIVE MATCH SCORING
TCU men's tennis will offer fans something this season with the addition of live match scoring via the Internet. It is featured on the official Web site of TCU athletics, www.GoFrogs.com. Updates from the match are given periodically as the players progress and the order of finish, along with match notes, are also available on the page.
ABOUT THE ITA RANKINGS
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association's team rankings will be released on a weekly basis beginning Feb. 24. The individual rankings for singles and doubles will be released biweekly starting Feb. 24. The rankings are determined by a vote of the ITA National Rankings Committee until March 23. On that date, rankings will be calculated using a computer formula. On April 6, the singles rankings will expand from a top-100 to a top-125. The doubles will go from a top-50 to a top-60. The final rankings for the season will be released June 4.
Players Mentioned
