NASHVILLE – The No. 4-ranked doubles duo in the nation, Vanderbilt’s Cameron Klinger and Billy Rowe, make their season debut this week at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The dynamic duo will compete in the main draw of doubles play beginning on Oct. 4.
This is the Commodores’ first appearance at the ITA All-American Championships since 2016 when Commodore alumni Daniel Valent represented Vanderbilt at the tournament in singles play. This year, Cameron Klinger, the seventh-ranked singles players in the country, representing the Dores at ITAs. Klinger advances to the main draw while junior Billy Rowe will compete in the qualifying rounds of the tournament in singles play beginning on Monday, Oct, 1. with hopes of advancing to the main draw.
This trip will mark the two players’ first appearances at the ITA All-American Championships.
“I’m super pumped up to be going out to Tulsa,” Rowe said. “It’s a tournament where everyone’s at, so it’s a really good place to sort of see where you’re at compared to everyone else in the country. In terms of preparation, the whole team has been putting in a lot of really good hours in practice, so I feel like we’ve prepared as best as we can. For Cam and I, we’re just excited to be playing again. Last year went really well for us, but this is a whole new year. We’ve been training hard since we got back to school so we’re just hoping to go out there give it our all.”
Last season in doubles play Klinger and Rowe recorded 15 wins, two of which were over top-25 opponents. The tandem also went 7-2 in SEC doubles play at the top spot of the Commodore lineup.
In singles play, Klinger earned 15 wins last season including two wins over top-5 opponents.
Rowe earned 14 dual-season singles victories in the 2017-18 season and played mainly at the No.4 spot of the Commodores’ singles lineup. Rowe will battle against Old Dominion’s Aziz Kijametovic Monday at 11 a.m. CT for a chance at advancing to the main draw of singles play on Oct. 4.
For updates as the Dores compete for the title of All-American, follow @VandyMensTennis on Twitter and Instagram.
