TULSA, Okla. — The Vanderbilt men’s tennis team returns to action tomorrow at the ITA All-American Championships hosted by Tulsa. The Dores began the fall season last weekend at the SEC Challenge, where senior pair Nathan Cox and Michael Ross won their draw.
“Starting off at the SEC Challenge, we kind of saw a mixed bag, which is typical in the first tournament,” head coach Scott Brown said. “The biggest thing is that it was a great opportunity to see where the guys’ games were and everything. We’ve been working really hard in the fitness department, building their base up and everything, so we knew going in that the goal was not to go into that tournament with fresh legs. The goal was to get matches in and prepare for All-Americans the next weekend.”
Cox and Ross placed first in the White draw, defeating Auburn, Florida, and Oklahoma opponents. Hugo Coquelin and Henry Ruger battled in the Crimson draw, finishing fourth. Dylan Charlap and Callum Markowitz took the court as Commodores for the first time, with the freshman duo grabbing sixth-place finish in the White draw. Tighe Brunetti and Giuseppe Cerasuolo rounded out the competing Dores, falling to Auburn in the finals of the Houndstooth draw.
“I think guys that have been here, like Nathan and Mike, compared to this time last year, they were in a much better place, playing much better tennis, competing better,” Brown said. “It was good to see them win their draw. I thought Mike was the MVP of the weekend, to be honest. He won all three of his singles matches and was competing great.”
“It was also great to see Henry Ruger battle for the first time as a Commodore,” continued Brown. “He’s an animal with how he competes, the guy thrives in a competitive format. It was great for the guys to see that because he’s going to be a good leader with how he goes about his business out there. […] There were a lot of positives for our team this weekend.”
Vanderbilt does not have long to recover, as the season opener gave the team less than a week to prepare for All-Americans. Danil Panarin’s recovery time has been even less: the sophomore competed Tuesday through Thursday at the ITF M15 Futures tournament in Arkansas. With this in mind, Brown opted for a change in preparation.
“A lot of these guys are a lot fitter than last year, which is great to see,” Brown said. “It is a short turnaround this week. The biggest thing we’ve been trying to do is to get these guys coming off this last tournament fresh for All-Americans. They got the matches in, they put in the work, and now this week has been focused on getting the guys that are playing as rested as possible. We weren’t pushing too hard, just more focused on the quality and making sure our bodies are rested for this weekend.”
The ITA All-American Championships tournament page is available online.
