Dec. 13, 2001

Waco - Baylor's men's tennis team has three singles players and three doubles teams ranked among the nation's best according to recently released Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings.

Freshman Bennie Becker, a native of Orscholz, Germany, attained the highest ranking at No. 3 with 784 votes. Becker's most impressive performance during fall competition was making it to the finals of the Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships. Stanford's K.J. Hippensteel and Minnesota's Harsh Mankad claimed the top two spots with 799 and 793 votes, respectively. Becker, ranked No. 99 at the beginning of fall competition, posted a 14-4 singles record in the fall including victories over seven ranked players. All four of his losses came at the hands of ranked players. Sophomore Markus Hornung, from Ludwigshafen, Germany, checked in at No. 25 after posting a 14-5 fall record. Reiner Neurohr, a sophomore from Worms, Germany and last year's Big 12 Freshman of the Year, is ranked No. 91 after a 9-3 fall record.

In doubles, three teams were among the top 60 nationally. Hornung and Neurohr, previously unranked, are No. 8 while Becker and Hornung are No. 19 and Budapest, Hungary native Zoltan Papp and Nathan McGregor, from MacArthur, Australia, are No. 57. Hornung and Neurohr advanced to the semifinals of the Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships and were champions of both the Omni Hotels Region VI Championships and the Baylor Intercollegiates and posted an 11-1 fall record.

"We are really excited about the impact of our new guys," said men's head coach Matt Knoll. "The rankings are great for our program. Markus has been impressive in singles and doubles, as has Benni, ranking high in both. This will give us some confidence going into the spring which will help us win some tennis matches."