Mitchell Frank Wins ITA All-American Singles Championship

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TULSA, Okla. – Mitchell Frank (Annandale, Va.) became the second consecutive Virginia freshman to win the ITA All-American singles championship, downing Wil Spencer of Georgia in Sunday’s final 6-1, 7-5. He becomes the second Cavalier to win the prestigious title, joining Alex Domijan (Wesley Chapel, Fla.), who won the title last year as a freshman.

Frank becomes just the fourth freshman in the 33-year history of the tournament to win the championship, along with Domijan, Scott Davis of Stanford in 1980 and Ryan Wolters of Stanford in 1995.

“Obviously it is exciting to win this championship, especially following in Alex’s footsteps,” said Frank. “I played some good tennis all week, especially going up against some great opponents. It gave me a lot of confidence, but I realize I need to keep working hard and developing if I want to play at the highest level. I want to take this performance and continue to build on it.”

In Sunday’s final, Frank jumped out to a 4-0 lead and took the opening set 6-1. The second set was much closer and Spencer was serving for the set at 5-4 when Frank broke him at love to draw even. The Cavalier rookie used that momentum and won the following two games as well to close out the match.

Frank lost just one set en route to the title. Four of his six wins in the tournament came against players ranked in the top-16 nationally, including wins over No. 6 Spencer in the final, No. 7 Dennis Nevolo of Illinois in the quarterfinals and No. 5 Chase Buchanan of Ohio State in the round of 16.

Virginia becomes just the second school to have players win the singles title in consecutive seasons. The only previous school to accomplish the feat was Georgia, as Al Parker won the title in 1989 and 1990.