The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
SEC Indoor Championships
Men's Tennis Concludes Successful Opening Weekend
1/16/2005 | Men's Tennis
Jan. 16, 2005
NEW ORLEANS, La. - The Ole Miss men's tennis team, ranked No. 6 in the preseason national team rankings, had a successful opening weekend to the 2005 season at the SEC Indoor Championships here and out West at the National Collegiate Tennis Classic in Indian Wells, Calif.
Rebel senior Catalin Gard, ranked No. 1 in the nation, advanced to the semifinals before losing, at the NCTC held at the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens. The 2004 SEC Player of the Year suffered just his second loss of the year and is now 9-2. At what has become known as the "Wimbledon of College Tennis", Gard defeated two players from Virginia - Treat Huey, who was one of the top junior Americans from 2004 and Rylan Rizza, who is ranked No. 36 in the latest ITA national rankings and will be one of the Cavalier's top players this season.
Fellow senior Karim Alayli posted a huge win at the tournament, defeating the preseason No. 11 ranked player, Robert Searle of Rice.
At the Hilton Rivercenter in New Orleans, where the rest of the team was competing in one of the nation's top indoor tournaments, the 2004 SEC Champions showed that they will definitely be a contender for the overall title in 2005.
All six of the Rebels won their opening matches on Friday, and junior Juan Pablo Di Cesare, sophomore Eric Claesson and freshman Jakob Klaeson advanced to the round of 16. In the round of 16, Di Cesare lost to LSU's top player and the tournament's No. 3 seed, Ken Skupski, 7-5, 6-2. Claesson faced Kentucky's Jesse Witten, who is ranked No. 3 in the nation, in the third round and took the All-American to three sets before falling.
Klaeson displayed his outstanding credentials to the rest of the league, knocking off Florida's Nestor Briceno (seeded 9-16) 6-4, 6-2 in the second round. Klaeson then took last year's SEC Freshman of the Year, No. 5 seed John Isner of Georgia, to two tough sets, before succumbing 6-4, 7-6.
The Rebs' other two freshmen had solid showings as well. Before his match with Di Cesare, Skupski had to deal with OM freshman Bram ten Berge. Berge held his own against the nation's 12th-ranked player, before Skupski won 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2.
Erling Tveit, the Rebels other newcomer who joined the team in January, battled Isner to the limit in their second-round match-up, before losing a tight three-setter, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3). Isner is currently ranked 18th in the nation. Both Isner and Skupski were in the semifinals as of press time Sunday.
The Rebel duo of sophomore Fredrik Aarum and fellow Norweigan Tveit, advanced to the quarterfinals in doubles at the SEC Indoor, and were supposed to play Georgia's John Isner and Antonio Ruiz on Sunday, but due to a scheduling conflict, the two teams elected not to play.
"Overall we are very pleased with our opening weekend of competition," head coach Billy Chadwick said. "Cat reached the semis at one of the top tournaments annually, and sometimes you are going to lose. It happens. The other guy played a good match.
"The SEC is once again going to be extremely strong, and the guys played well down in New Orleans. We went toe-to-toe with many of the nation's top 25 players, and we are looking forward to defending our SEC Championship.
