Sept. 29, 2014
Vanderbilt’s Rhys Johnson and Gonzales Austin, along with associate head coach Jamie Hunt, are in Tulsa, Oklahoma this week for the Saint Francis Health Systems ITA All-American Championships.
“I think the All-American is an opportunity for A.J. (Austin) and Rhys (Johnson) to show how they stack-up against the best in the nation”, said head coach Ian Duvenhage. “A.J. got to the semis there last year; so it’s an opportunity for him to do even better, potentially win the tournament. I think he’s improved a lot since last year and hopefully he can show that. For Rhys, it’s an opportunity to show that he’s arrived as one of the better players in the country.”
The University of Tulsa is hosting the tournament, with all matches taking place at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center. The All-American began on the 27th with a series pre-qualifying matches. A field of 64 singles players and 32 doubles teams will then compete in the main draw on Oct. 2. The tournament is scheduled to go until Monday, Oct. 6.
“I’m excited for both A.J. and Rhys as this is one of the top tournaments that they will play in all year in terms of the level of competition”, said associate head coach Jamie Hunt.
For Junior, No. 90 Rhys Johnson, this is his third tournament for the fall. Johnson begins tournament today at 4:00 this afternoon in the first round of qualifying draws. The Perth, Australia native faces off against Tobias Galskov of UC Santa Barbara. Galskov went 22-9 overall and 8-3 in tournament play last season for the UCSB Gauchos.
“For Rhys I’m raelly looking forward to seeing him build off his Quarterfinal showing last tournament. He did a lot of positive things last week in Gainesville and I want to see him take it a step forward this week. This is only A.J.’s second tournament of the year so I want to see him have a good week and continue to establish himself as one of the top players in the country.”
The winner of that match goes on to compete against either Michael Tenzer out of Wisconsin-Green Bay or Arjun Kadhe of Oklahoma State University at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.