The men’s tennis team opens its fall season at one of the most prestigious tournaments, the nine-day ITA All-American Championship.
Out of nine members of the Pepperdine team, four are fighting for the national title from Oct. 1 through Oct. 9 at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center on the Tulsa campus in Oklahoma.
The event started with the pre-qualifying singles event Monday. Junior Mousheg Hovhannisyan, ranked No. 111 in the Campbell’s/ITA Collegiate singles rankings, started the tournament by defeating Andrew Butz of the University of Florida, who earned his spot in the qualifying draw after working through the pre-qualifying bracket.
Hovhannisyan showed outstanding performance against No. 112 Nicholas Sayer of Radford University, Virginia, on Tuesday, Oct 4. Hovhnnisyan beat Sayer in straight sets, finishing the last set with a score of 6-2.
He continued his play against Conner Smith from Ohio State on Wednesday, while fighting for the opportunity to get into the main draw and continue the competition on Thursday and Friday.
After an intense game, Ohio State’s Smith had to give up in the end, when Hovhannisyan went up a break to claim the win 6-4 in the third set. “Smith is a good player, and for me, this match for qualification in the main draw was not an easy one. It is [my] number one priority now to move forward,” Hovhanisyan said. “I am happy that there will be three Waves in the main draw of singles out of 32 players.”
Senior Jenson Turner (No. 98) lost in the qualifying match to Niall Angus (No. 87) of Texas A&M, who managed to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. However, Turner will play in the main doubles draw with junior Sebastian Fanselow, starting today. Junior Finn Tearney (No. 19) and Fanselow (No. 10), who are already in the main draw, joined their teammates Tuesday. Overall there will be 64 singles players and 32 doubles teams fighting for the title in the main draw.
The tournament features more than 300 players coming from all over the United States to compete at the largest field of any collegiate tennis championship. Despite the intense competition, the price of victory is worth it: The winner will obtain the national championship title for the 2011-2012 college tennis season.
Whoever is able to win in the singles quarterfinal, as well as doubles finalists and consolation champions, will automatically be enrolled in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, which will be held Nov. 3 through Nov. 6 in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
