University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Resumes Fall Season in Tulsa
9/28/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
All-American Championships Qualifying Singles Draws | Tournament Program
TULSA, Okla. - Three members of the Minnesota men's tennis team will take part in 2014 Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla. starting Monday. Seniors Leandro Toledo, Jack Hamburg, and Mathieu Froment will represent the Maroon and Gold at the event.
Toledo, the 22nd-ranked player in the nation, will begin main draw singles Thursday, while Hamburg and Froment will kick off their senior seasons Monday in the first round of qualifying competition. Hamburg and Froment, playing in a 128-player qualifying draw, will need to win three matches to join Toledo in the main draw, which features 64 of the top players in the country.
As the ITA's 11th-ranked doubles pairing, Froment and Hamburg will complete in the main draw for doubles that begins Thursday.
Singles quarterfinalists, doubles finalists, and consolation champions will receive an automatic entry into the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships on Nov. 7-10, held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
Hamburg, who enters the year with a 34-33 singles record for his career after playing primarily at the No. 3 position for the Gophers last year, will play North Carolina State's Robbie Mudge in the first round. Mudge, also a senior, is a two-time All-ACC selection. The winner of that 11:30 a.m. match will play the winner of a match between Andreas Bjerrehus of Virginia Tech and South Florida's Oliver Pramming Tuesday.
Four wins shy of 50 in his collegiate career, Froment will start play against Dovydas Sakinis of Dartmouth at 1 p.m. Sakinis, a junior who did not play in his first year of college, was All-Ivy League First Team Singles selection with a 13-6 record in 2013-14. The winner of Froment and Sakinis' match will take on either Adrien Berkowicz of Texas or East Tennessee State's Diego Nunez Tuesday.
Toledo enters his senior year after becoming the Gophers' first ITA All-American since 2002 and earning his third All-Big Ten selection in his third year in Maroon and Gold. He is 71-32 in singles going into the year.
As a junior, Toledo fell in the first round of qualifying play at All-American Championships, dropping his first match of the season to then-No. 116 Benjamin Lock of Florida State. As a sophomore, the Hamburg, Germany native lost to Emilio Gomes of Southern California in the main draw, but later reached the ITA National Indoor Championships-becoming the first Gopher since 2002 to accomplish the feat-by placing second in the ITA Central Regional Championship at the Baseline Tennis Center.
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