Klaeson Advances To Main Draw At All-American

TULSA, Okla. Ole Miss junior Jakob Klaeson won his final round match in qualifying at the Polo Ralph Lauren ITA All-American Championships to advance to the main draw, which begins Thursday at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.

Klaeson downed Nejc Smole of Denver in straight sets.  After getting the first set 6-4, Klaeson shut out Smole 6-0 to advance to the main draw for the first time in his career.   In the first two rounds, Klaeson beat two nationally-ranked opponents.

The Lidkoping, Sweden, native joins teammate Erling Tveit in the main draw.  Tveit, a 2006 NCAA semifinalist, was an automatic selection to the main draw. Klaeson will face Northwestern’s Christian Tempke, who is ranked No. 49 in the nation, in the first round. 

Tveit, seeded No. 6 in the 64-player field, will meet qualifier Steven Moneke of Ohio State in the first round.

In doubles qualifying, Bram ten Berge and Chris Rea dropped their final round match to North Carolina’s Lenny Gullan and David Stone, 8-4.

Klaeson will team up with Robbye Poole to face the No. 4 seeds, Brian Hung and Matko Maravic of Michigan in the 32-team doubles draw.  The Rebel duo brings a 13-3 record into the tournament, dating back to last year.

The Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Tennis Championships offer the first national singles and doubles titles of the 2006-07 collegiate tennis season, and are followed by the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in November, and the season-ending NCAA Championships in May. 

Highlighting this year’s singles field will be Georgia’s John Isner, the tournament’s defending champion and No. 1 seed.  All told, 36 of the top 40 players from the Fila national singles rankings will be competing in Tulsa. 

The doubles field includes defending NCAA champs Kevin Anderson and Ryan Rowe of Illinois and defending All-American champs Marco Born and Andreas Siljestrom of Middle Tennessee, who are No. 1 and 3, respectively in the preseason rankings.

The Rebels are looking to bring home their second title in three years, as three-time All-American Catalin Gard won the singles event in 2004. 

Both Klaeson and Tveit play at 11:30 a.m., while the doubles will be played at 6:30 p.m.  To follow the Rebels during the main draw, go to www.olemisssports.com and click on the live scoring link under multimedia.

POLO RALPH LAUREN ALL-AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS TULSA, Okla.

QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT

Singles

Final round Jakob Klaeson (OM) def. Nejc Smole (DENVER) 6-4, 6-0.

Doubles

Final round Lenny Gullan/David Stone (UNC def. Bram ten Berge/Chris Rea (OM) 8-4. 

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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