Mbarek Earns MWC Weekly Men's Tennis Honor
2/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 24, 2010
FORT WORTH—TCU's Slah Mbarek has been selected as the Mountain West Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Week for his performance during the Horned Frogs' season-opening homestand against Texas Tech and Wichita State. The award marked Mbarek's third career weekly conference honor.
UNLV's Kristina Nedeltcheva was named the MWC Women's Tennis Player of the Week.
Mbarek, a native of Tunis, Tunisia, combined for a 3-1 individual record over the past weekend to lead the Horned Frogs to a 1-1 record against No. 41 Texas Tech (L, 2-5) and Wichita State (W, 5-2).
Friday gainst the Red Raiders, he bounced back from a doubles loss to the nation's 16th-ranked tandem by rallying to victory in a tiebreaker at No. 3 singles over Rafael Garcia [2-6, 6-3, 1-4 (4)].
The sophomore went on to beat Wichita State's Vlad Marinescu the following day in straight sets (6-2, 6-3) in his first appearance of the season at No. 1 singles. He earlier teamed with partner Sören Goritzka in doubles to down the Shockers' Valentin Mihai / Matheus Pereira (8-4).
Mbarek, in his second season with the Frogs after joining the team prior to the Spring 2009 semester, shares the team's top singles record this season with junior Zach Nichols at 5-1. A 2009 All-Mountain West Conference selection in both singles and doubles, he helped lead TCU to the MWC regular-season title after taking over the Frogs' No. 1 singles position midway through the season. He went 16-2 in doubles alongside former teammate Kriegler Brink.
TCU returns to the courts Friday, when it travels to College Station, Texas, for a 6 p.m. road matchup against No. 17 Texas A&M.
