The University of Mississippi Athletics
Catalin Gard To Open Season In California
1/12/2005 | Men's Tennis
Jan. 12, 2005
OXFORD, Miss. - Ole Miss men's tennis senior Catalin Gard, who remained No.1 in the nation in the latest singles rankings, will participate in the National Collegiate Tennis Classic this weekend at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Palm Springs, Calif. Fellow senior Karim Alayli will also participate.
The 26th annual event has been called "the Wimbledon of College Tennis" and is the first major collegiate invitational tournament of the spring season, featuring top-ranked individual players from the leading universities across the country. The top field includes players from UCLA, Kentucky, Rice, Duke, Arizona, Virginia and Pepperdine.
The Indian Wells Garden serves as the annual host to the Pacific Life Open, one of the major tournaments on the ATP and WTA tours.
Gard is coming off an outstanding fall in which he captured the year's first major collegiate event, the Icy Hot/ITA All-American Championships. The 2004 SEC Player of the Year, Gard defeated last year's Pac-10 player of the Year, Stanford's Sam Warburg in the final.
Play begins Friday at 8 a.m. PST., and concludes Sunday with the finals.
