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Two Cavaliers Competing at ITA All-American
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Oct. 3, 2017
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Two members of the Virginia men’s tennis team competed at the 2017 Saint Francis Health System ITA Men’s All-American Championships being held at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla.
Redshirt freshman Ammar Alhaqbani (Alexandria, Va.) and Matthew Lord (Bloomfield, Conn.) made their collegiate debuts at the event. They both began competition in the prequalifying singles draw and played together in the qualifying doubles draw.
Lord picked up four wins in the prequalifying tournament to earn a spot in the qualifying draw, where he has advanced to the second round. Lord won his collegiate debut and also picked up a second victory on Saturday, downing Johnny Goodwin of Texas, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2 and Xander Veys of Fresno State, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4 in the first two rounds of prequalifying. Lord downed Barnabas Konz of Oral Roberts 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (4) in the PQ Round of 64 on Sunday before earning a spot in the singles qualifying tournament with a 7-5, 7-6 (3) over Cal’s Jacob Brumm in the Round of 32. In Monday’s first round of the qualifying tournament, Lord ousted No. 9 seed Jimmy Bendeck of Baylor, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, but fell 6-2, 6-2 to Marius Frosa of Wichita State on Tuesday in the second round. Winners of third round matches, which were also contested on Tuesday, advance into the main draw of the championship.
Alhaqbani had a first-round bye, but fell 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 to John Mee of Texas in the second round. He picked up his first collegiate victory on Sunday in the consolation round of prequalifying singles, downing Arkansas’ Alex Reco 6-1, 6-2.
In doubles, Lord and Alhaqbani fell to Xander Veys and Mantas Bugailiskis of Fresno State 7-5, 6-4. on Monday in the opening round of doubles qualifying.
The University of Tulsa is hosting the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men’s All-American Championship for the 13th straight season. Prequalifying takes place Sept. 30 and October 1, qualifying singles and doubles will be held October 2-3, with main draw matches transpiring between October 5-9.
In addition to vying for the All-American national title, players will be competing to secure a berth into the 2017 Oracle ITA National Fall Championships, which takes place November 1-5, in Palm Desert, California. Singles quarterfinalists, consolation singles champion and finalist, along with doubles semifinalists and consolation doubles champion and finalist advance to the end of fall national championship.
A player from the ACC has won the Saint Francis ITA Men’s All-American Singles Championship in each of the past seven years. Petros Chrysochos of Wake Forest won the 2016 event. Former Cavalier Thai-Son Kwiatkowski won both the singles and doubles titles in 2015. Stanford has won the most men’s singles titles with six, followed by Georgia and Virginia with five apiece. Tennessee has won the most men’s doubles titles with five, followed by UCLA with three.