UCLA
Saint Francis Health System ITA Men’s All-American Championship
Men's Tennis Heads Into Fall Play
October 03, 2018 | Men's Tennis
LOS ANGELES – The UCLA men's tennis team will see five of its players officially open the fall schedule this week at a pair of tournaments in Tulsa, Okla. and Santa Barbara, Calif. While sophomore Keegan Smith takes on some of the nation's best players at the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships, four others will make their season debuts at the UCSB Classic.
As a team, the Bruins registered the first 30-win season under longtime head coach Billy Martin in 2018, earning the Pac-12 regular-season and conference championships along the way. A number of individual awards were garnered by Bruins, including Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Smith. The San Diego native went 40-7 in singles play and achieved All-America status for his doubles play. Smith's 2018 accomplishments helped him earn a preseason No. 28 ranking from Oracle/ITA and entrance into the All-American tournament.
The Michael D. Case Tennis Center on the campus of the University of Tulsa will play host to the All-American tournament, which will also help determine the field for November's Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in Surprise, Ariz. Smith, who will face qualifier Yuta Kikuchi of California in first-round action Thursday morning. A potential second-round match versus top-seeded Nuno Borges of Mississippi State could follow. Smith took Borges to three sets in the 2018 NCAA Singles Championships first round at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Pac-12 Championships hero Connor Hance will lead the quartet of Santa Barbara-bound Bruins, who will begin play in the tournament's A Flight Friday. The sophomore, who notched an 18-8 record as a freshman, will face Hiro Koyanagi of UCSB in his match. Redshirt sophomore Connor Rapp, meanwhile, will make a return trip to the event when he takes on Chethan Swanson of UC Davis in his first match. Rapp reached the quarterfinal round of the B Flight at the UCSB Classic in 2017.
Two Bruins will make their debuts in Powderkeg Blue and Westwood Gold when they head into Santa Barbara this week. Glendale, Calif. native Mathew Tsolakyan will take on Will Genesen of Stanford in his initial match, while Max Wild (Murrieta, Calif./Laurel Springs School) will also take on a Pac-12 opponent in Evan Felcher of Oregon. Hance and Rapp will team up in the doubles A Flight, while the duo of Tsolakyan and Wild will participate in the B Flight.
Tsolakyan and Wild each had decorated junior career before enrolling at UCLA, with 5-star ratings adorning both players. Tsolakyan earned back-to-back Boys' 16 titles at The Ojai Tennis Tournament (2015, 2016), while Wild picked up the Boys' 16 doubles title at the 2016 USTA National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Players Mentioned
