Nov. 1, 2012
THE FLATS – Five Georgia Tech players will compete this weekend along with some of the top stars in collegiate tennis and many of the top-ranked junior players in the USTA Clay Court Invitational, which runs Friday through Sunday at the Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Fla.
Two of Tech’s veteran players, senior Juan Melian of Las Palmas, Spain and sophomore Eduardo Segura of Madrid, Spain, have considerable experience playing on clay from their junior days in Spain. They are joined in the various brackets by Yellow Jacket freshmen Nathan Rakitt and Garrett Gordon of Marietta, Ga., and Anish Sharma of Alpharetta, Ga.
The Gold Draw, a 32-player bracket which features most of the higher-ranked collegiate stars, includes Tech’s Melian, a senior from Madrid, Spain, who will open play Thursday morning against Florida State’s Jordan Kelly-Houston.
Segura opens the 16-player Garnet Draw Thursday against Josh Levine of Duke, while Rakitt meets Eric Rubin of Colorado. Gordon and Sharma are in the lower Spear Draw. Sharma faces Joao Gauer of FSU in the opening round Thursday, while Gordon takes on Rich Meade of Florida Atlantic.
Rakitt and Melian will team up in doubles and open the 16-team Doubles Gold Draw against Kentucky’s Tom Jomby and Kai-Wen Lai. Segura and Garrett Gordon, a freshman from Marietta, have a bye in the Doubles Garnet Draw and will play a quarterfinal match against the winner of a match between Will Neuner and Jose Fantova of Florida Atlantic and a USTA junior team.
