Men's Tennis Prepares for Wilson/ITA Southeast Regional Championships
Thursday, October 22, 2009 | Men's Tennis
The Florida men's tennis team will take the courts Friday in the 2009 Wilson/ITA Southeast Regional Championship hosted by the University of Georgia at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
Following a qualifying round on Thursday, the main draw begins Friday, and the event will be capped by the finals on Monday. The Gators will have seven players in the singles 64-man main draw and four duos among the 32 in the doubles draw.
Three Gators – sophomore No. 105 Joey Burkhardt (St. Augustine), sophomore No. 11 Carlos Cueto (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain) and redshirt senior No. 107 Antoine Benneteau (Boulogne-Billancourt, France) – will face a qualifier in the first round. Cueto and Burkhardt will be seeing their first action of the fall season as they rebound from injury.
No. 23 junior Alexandre Lacroix (Paris, France), who holds a 6-1 record this fall and advanced to the ITA All-American quarterfinals earlier this month, drew Florida State's Connor Smith in first-round action. No. 117 junior Johnny Hamui (Wesley Chapel), with a 3-3 mark this fall, will take on Central Florida's Blaze Schwartz. Hamui and Schwartz were previously on opposite sides of the court this fall in a doubles semifinal at the Seminole Invitational on Oct. 4, a showdown that was won by Hamui and senior Dan Cash (Oslo, Norway), 8-3.
Cash will take on Miami's Barnabas Carrega in the opening round, while freshman Billy Federhofer (North Miami) meets Mark Mestan of Stetson.
The doubles pairings for UF will be as follows: Hamui/Cash (5-1 this fall), Federhofer/junior Erik Corace (Naples) (2-2), Cueto/Burkhardt and Benneteau/Lacroix (3-0).
The Southeast Regional Championship also serves as a qualifying tournament for the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships hosted by Yale University in West Haven, Conn., from Nov. 5-8.
For singles, the winner of each of the 12 regional championships will advance to the national tournament, joined by the four semifinalists from this fall's All-American tournament, the winner of the ITA National Small College Championships, two host wildcards, 12 at-large bids and one ITA wildcard. In doubles, the 12 regional champions will be joined by the All-American champion, the ITA National Small College Championships winner, a host wildcard and one at-large entrant.
To be considered for an at-large selection in singles, a player must have reached at least the quarterfinals of an ITA Regional Championship. From this pool, the ITA National Tournament Committee will select singles players in order of preseason ITA national ranking (once the ranking lists has been exhausted, the committee will make the selection based on fall results/performance). Wild card selections do not have to necessarily meet these criteria.
For doubles, the selections will be made from the pool of teams that have reached at least the quarterfinals at an ITA Regional Championship (but not necessarily in order of ranking).
The host school is guaranteed two players in main draw singles. If one player qualifies and only one wildcard is needed, the second host wildcard will become an at-large selection. If the host site qualifies two players, they will still receive one wildcard and the second wildcard will become an at-large selection.
An ITA wild card in singles can be given for any reason. The selection committee can also decide not to use the ITA wild card, in which case an at-large candidate would fill the spot.
2009 Wilson/ITA Southeast Regional Championship – Friday Schedule (UF only)
Doubles – Round of 32
9 a.m.
Hamui/Cash (UF) vs. Kenny/Ortiga (Georgia Tech)
Federhofer/Corace (UF) vs. Vardag/Harradine (Florida Atlantic)
Cueto/Burkhardt (UF) vs. Bernstein/Garrapiz (Georgia)
10 a.m.
Benneteau/Lacroix (UF) vs. Romano/Sakey (Central Florida)
Singles – Round of 64
11 a.m.
(105) Joey Burkhardt (UF) vs. Qualifier
Dan Cash (UF) vs. Barnabas Carrega (Miami)
Noon
Billy Federhofer (UF) vs. Mark Mestan (Stetson)
12:30 p.m.
(11) Carlos Cueto (UF) vs. Qualifier
(117) Johnny Hamui (UF) vs. Blaze Schwartz (Central Florida)
1 p.m.
(107) Antoine Benneteau (UF) vs. Qualifier
2 p.m.
(23) Alexandre Lacroix (UF) vs. Connor Smith (Florida State)
Saturday Schedule
9 a.m. – Doubles Quarterfinals
11 a.m. – Singles Round of 32
Not before 2 p.m. – Singles Consolation Round of 32
Not before 4 p.m. – Singles Consolation Round of 16
Sunday Schedule
10 a.m. – Singles Quarterfinals
2 p.m. – Singles Semifinals
TBA – Doubles Semifinals
TBA – Doubles Finals*
Monday Schedule
TBA – Singles Finals
TBA – Doubles Finals*
*Doubles finals could be played Sunday or Monday
-UF-
