Men’s Tennis Earns ITA Academic Honors

Complete ITA Scholar-Athlete and Teams announcement

THE FLATS – Georgia Tech men’s tennis earned the ITA All-Academic Team award for the 2019-20 season. Individually, Zummy Bauer, Keshav Chopra, Brandon Freestone, Andres Martin, Brandon McKinney and Chris Yun were honored as ITA Scholar-Athletes as announced by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) on Monday.

As a team, the Yellow Jackets compiled a 3.40 aggregate grade-point average for the 2019-20 academic year, and earned the ITA team academic honor for the second straight year. This comes on the heels of the men’s tennis team receiving an NCAA Public Recognition Award for its perfect 1,000 multi-year score in the Academic Progress Report.

The ITA All-Academic Team award is open to any ITA program that has a cumulative team grade point average of 3.20 or above (on a 4.00 scale). In order to earn ITA Scholar-Athlete status a player must meet the following criteria: 1) be a varsity letter winner, 2) have a grade point average of at least 3.50 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year, and 3) have been enrolled at their present school for at least two semesters (including freshman through senior year).

“I’m very proud of our team for achieving this academic goal,” said head coach Kenny Thorne. “Credit goes to all our student-athletes and our incredible academic advisor, Ashby Sadowski. They all worked hard, and it’s a nice and well-deserved recognition for all of them, and a great tribute to the six guys who were honored individually. Those are significant recognitions achieved at an incredibly high level academic institution in Georgia Tech. I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

A redshirt sophomore in 2019-20, Bauer did not compete in the spring regular season, but finished the fall tournament season with an overall singles record of 0-2 and a doubles record of 3-1. The Suwanee, Ga., native earned all three doubles wins at the Southern Intercollegiate Championships in Athens partnering with true freshman Marcus McDaniel to take down Illinois (6-3), Texas (7-5) and Florida (6-3). It is the third time the business administration major has been named an ITA Scholar-Athlete.

Chopra, a redshirt freshman in 2019-20, sported a 10-7 singles record and 7-9 doubles record combined during fall tournaments and the 2020 spring match season. The business administration major from Marietta, Ga., picked up the singles title at the 2019 Georgia Tech Invitational after defeating Vanderbilt’s Macsen Sisam 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, and went 7-4 in singles during tournament play.

Freestone, a redshirt junior from Roswell, Ga., earned a 4-1 record during the 2020 regular season, and his 8-3 doubles record during tournament and regular season play gained him the highest win percentage for the Jackets, with a 5-1 tournament record. The business administration major reached the doubles semifinals at the ITA regional championships in Gainesville, Fla.

A freshman from Flowery Branch, Ga., Martin opened his career with a 6-2 singles record and 7-4 in doubles over the 2020 regular season. The industrial engineering major was ranked as high as No. 60 in the 2020 Oracle/ITA Division I Men’s Singles Rankings prior to the cancellation of the 2020 season. Martin won five straight doubles matches from Feb. 9 – Mar. 1, pairing with fellow freshman Keshav Chopra to defeat No. 10 Tennessee’s Adam Walton/Martim Prada. He defeated Auburn’s Tim Dollman 6-1, 7-6 to pick up first singles victory over a power five school on Feb. 9) and also downed No. 33 Miami’s Adria Soriano Barrer, who was the No. 41 ranked player in the country at the time.

McKinney, a 5-star recruit from Marietta, Ga., enrolled in business administration, was ranked as high as No. 7 in the 2019 class, but did not compete for the Jackets in 2019-20.

Yun, a senior from Marietta, Ga., went 6-6 in singles competition and 10-7 in doubles before competition was shut down in the spring. The industrial engineering major graduated in the spring with 46 singles wins and 25 doubles victories.

Alexander-Tharpe Fund

The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the A-T Fund’s Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes, and Athletics Initiative 2020, Georgia Tech athletics’ ongoing $125 million initiative to allow Tech to recruit the nation’s most elite student-athletes, build a better student-athlete once they arrive on The Flats and, ultimately, win! To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.   

ABOUT GEORGIA TECH MEN’S TENNIS

Georgia Tech’s men’s tennis team has competed under the direction of head coach Kenny Thorne since the 1998-99 season. The Yellow Jackets have played in the NCAA Championship 17 times. Connect with Georgia Tech Men’s Tennis on social media by liking their Facebook page, or following on Twitter (@GT_MTEN) and Instagram. For more information on Tech men’s tennis, visit Ramblinwreck.com.