Sept. 29, 2011
WACO, Texas - Over the next week, the Baylor men's tennis team will face some of the country's top players as six Bears travel to the ITA Men's All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla., Oct. 1-9.
The Championships will be Baylor's second fall event and is the first ITA national event of the year. The tournament is being hosted by the University of Tulsa at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center for the fifth straight year.
The tournament's singles action includes a 256-player pre-qualifying draw that will feed 16 players into a 128-player qualifying draw in which 16 spots for the 64-player main draw will be up for grabs. Pre-qualifying will take place Oct. 1-2 with Baylor's Lars Behlen, Robbie Korth and Robert Verzaal looking to win four matches to advance to the qualifying draw.
Behlen enters the tournament with a 3-1 record after advancing to the quarterfinals of last week's Baylor-HEB Invitational, while Verzaal won a round of 64 match before falling in the round of 32 and Korth lost in the first round.
The Bears will have two players starting in the qualifying draw as freshmen Marko Krickovic and Mate Zsiga were selected. Zsiga, playing in his first collegiate competition, won the singles championship of last weekend's Baylor Invitational and boasts a 6-0 mark, while Krickovic was defeated in round of 16 play and enters the Championships with a 2-1 record. The qualifying draw will begin on Mon., Oct. 3; players must win three rounds to advance to the main draw.
Baylor will have at least one competitor in the singles main draw as 43rd-ranked Roberto Maytin earned one of 22 at-large selections into the 64-player field. The junior is 5-1 on the season after advancing to the tournament semifinals in Waco last weekend. The main draw will start on Thurs., Oct. 6.
The Bears have one doubles tandem competing. Maytin and Krickovic, ranked No. 23 nationally, were selected to the tournament's main draw. The duo won the doubles championship of last weekend's Baylor-HEB Invitational. It was the second straight year Maytin earned the doubles title.
For complete results and updated draws visit:ITA Results.
For live results of each match visit: .
