Virginia men’s tennis will host the U.Va. Ranked 1-1 Tournament this weekend at the Snyder Tennis Center. The field of competition will include Virginia Tech, Old Dominion, Tennessee, Illinois, Duke and Louisville, among others. Virginia is coming off a four-title sweep in its last tournament and looks to keep up the momentum.
“The U.Va. Ranked 1-1 tournament is a bit of a smaller tournament,” associate head coach Tony Bresky said. “However, our guys will have the opportunity to compete against some great competition since the quality of players are a little higher. There will be 20 nationally ranked players coming from nationally ranked schools to play here this weekend.”
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association recently released the preseason rankings, and Virginia had several players make the list, including senior Dominic Inglot who tops the list for Virginia at No. 18 overall. Junior Houston Barrick comes in at No. 75, sophomore Sanam Singh at No. 82 and sophomore Michael Shabaz at No. 104.
Singh looks to improve upon his already impressive fall season. He won the singles and doubles competition in the ITA National Summer Championships, then had a repeat performance in the U.Va. Fall Invitational.
“I am working on improving my second serve and my forehand a bit.” Singh said. “But for the most part everything is working right now.”
If Singh’s dominance continues, he will have to take down a strong competitor in Tennessee sophomore John-Patrick Smith, who is ranked No. 10 in the nation after coming off of a spectacular 2007-08 season. Smith received honors as SEC Freshman of the Year and Region III Rookie of the Year last year. In addition, he is no stranger when it comes to competing against Virginia tennis; he lost to Virginia graduate Somdev Devvarman in the NCAA singles championship final last year.
Smith will be a threat in singles as well as doubles play; the duo of Smith and sophomore Boris Conkic ranks No. 13 in the nation. Smith and Conkic will be stiff competition for No. 33 Singh and Barrick, who are undefeated this season.
“This tournament will be harder than the past tournaments,” Singh said. “Houston and I have been doing well, and everything has started to click, especially in the last couple of tournaments.”
The fall tournaments enable individuals to focus on their personal games. These tournaments are particularly valuable in that players can apply what they learn in practice to competitive matches. Furthermore, the advantage of having so many ranked players in one tournament allows individual players to improve their own ranking.
“The fall is all about you,” Singh said. “It is good because we are now playing 8 to 10 tournaments this fall and if individual players do well, our team will be ranked even higher going into the spring.”
The quality of this tournament will make for a number of interesting matches and an exciting championship.
“We have the chance to beat ranked players this weekend,” Singh said. “We are lucky to have the opportunity to play such good tournaments on our home court.”
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