Sept. 18, 2008
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech’s men’s tennis team gets its fall schedule underway Friday when all eight Yellow Jackets open competition in the Southern Intercollegiate Championships at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
The four-day event features 179 participants from 32 schools including Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College, Armstrong Atlantic State, College of Charleston, Davidson, Duke, East Tennessee State, Florida, Furman, Georgia, Georgia College & State University, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Jacksonville, Kennesaw State, Kentucky, Lander University, Middle Tennessee, Mississippi State, Morehead State, N.C. State, Tennessee-Martin, Central Florida, Charlotte, South Alabama, USC-Upstate, South Florida, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Winthrop and Wofford.
Singles competition in three divisions begins at 8 a.m. Friday, and doubles in two divisions at 3:30 p.m. Friday, culminating in championship matches Monday.
Kenny Thorne, beginning his 11th year as Tech’s head coach, welcomes back six letterwinners from last year’s 13-12 team, including the ACC and ITA Region Freshman of the Year in Guillermo Gomez. The 5-11 sophomore from Alicante, Spain posted a 27-12 singles record at No. 1 and a 17-10 doubles mark last year. Ranked No. 33 by the ITA in the preseason, Gomez reached the second round in Division I singles in this event and went on to earn a bid to the NCAA Singles Championship.
Also returning are junior Austin Roebuck of Athens, Ga., and four other sophomores in Doug Kenny of Roswell, Ga. (11-11 in singles, 4-4 in doubles), Miguel Muguruza of Wesley Chapel, Fla. (17-11 in singles, 13-11 in doubles), Eliot Potvin of Hampden, Maine (15-16 in singles, 19-13 in doubles) and Ryan Smith of Marietta, Ga. (17-17 in singles, 21-14 in doubles). Two freshmen, Kevin King of Peachtree City, Ga., and Dusan Miljevic of Novi Sad, Serbia, also are in the draw.
Potvin and Roebuck will pair for doubles competition, along with Gomez and King, Muguzura and Kenny, and Miljevic and Smith.
“The mindset is you’ve got to win, period. You show up at a tournament to win it,” said Thorne, who added, “But we’re going to find out a lot of information about where we are right now. A lot of guys played tournaments over the summer, so they’re not out of match play. You’re finding out individual information for the team season in January. Double teams, we try to find out as much information as we can. Who gels together, who plays well together. But we’re not going there just to gain a little information. We’re going there to win.”
Each player is guaranteed two matches in singles competition, with two rounds of consolation scheduled for first-round losers. The Division I singles champion will play seven matches between Friday and Monday.
