Men's Tennis Concludes Outstanding Weekend

OXFORD, Miss. The Ole Miss men’s tennis team concluded an outstanding weekend by capturing the Middle Tennessee Fall Invitational Flight A1 doubles title and having the runner-up in the Gold Draw singles at the Baylor Intercollegiate.

On Saturday, the Rebel duo of Jakob Klaeson and Chris Rea teamed up to defeat the nation’s No. 3 ranked team of Middle Tennessee’s Marco Born and Andreas Silejstrom on their home court, to win the Middle Tennessee Fall Invitational Flight A1 Doubles.

Play was delayed early in the day due to rain, and finally moved inside to the Murfreesboro Racquet Club. They elected to play all of the doubles on Saturday.  The Rebels were on the court from approximately 2:30-8:30 p.m., when they finally had the trophy in hand.   

Klaeson and Rea downed Tennessee’ Ben Rogers and Christopher Racz, 8-3, in the first round.    Rogers is ranked No. 10 in the preseason national doubles rankings with another partner.

In the second round, the Reb duo defeated Christian Bergh and Robert Jendelund of Armstrong Atlantic, 8-3, and in the semis, they defeated Memphis’ top team of Amrit Narasimhan and Benedikt Fischer, 8-5.

The final pitted the Ole Miss duo against the Blue Raider team of Born and Siljestrom, who were ranked as high as No. 2 last season.   Klaeson and Rea won the match 8-6, to capture the title in their first tournament together.

An impressive fact, in their first match Klaeson was broken early on.  After that, neither player lost their serve on the way to the title.

To give more  perspective,the veteran MTSU doubles team won the All-American Championships last fall and also reached the finals of the National Indoor and the semifinals of the NCAA Championships.  

In Waco, the Rebels battled one of the toughest fields in the country, and junior Erling Tveit, ranked No. 8 in the nation, reached the final before falling to the Bear’s Michael Kokta, ranked No. 23.   Kokta posted a 6-2, 6-4 win over the left-handed Tveit to become the fifth straight Baylor player to win the singles championship.

On Saturday, Tveit beat Louisville’s Damar Johnson in three sets in the round of 16.  In the quarterfinals, the 2006 NCAA Semifinalist came back to defeat Martin Sayer of Radford, ranked No. 22 in the nation, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals.

Tveit was supposed to play teammate Robbye Poole, who had a great tournament to reach the semifinals. However, Poole experienced some soreness in his foot, so they did not play the match. 

Poole, ranked No. 118 in the nation, did not drop a set in posting three straight wins to get to the semifinals, including impressive victories over No. 109-ranked Ben Harknett of Rice and No. 79-ranked Andrey Kumantsov of Texas A&M Corpus-Christi.

The impressive field included 31 players currently ranked among the FILA/Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s national rankings including 13 of the top 50 and four of the nation’s top 10.  In fact, almost half of the players in the gold draw were ranked nationally.

“This was a great weekend for the Rebels,” head coach Billy Chadwick said.  “To beat one of the top teams in doubles in the nation on their home court is outstanding.  They really played great.  We are also very proud of Erling and Robbye and their success at one of the premier tournaments in the fall.”  

Next up for the Rebels, will be the year’s first major tournament, the Polo All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla.

MIDDLE TENNESSEE FALL INVITATIONAL MURFREESBORO, Tenn.

FLIGHT A1 DOUBLES

First round Jakob Klaeson/Chris Rea (OM) def. Ben Rogers/Christopher Racz (UT) 8-3.  Second round Klaeson/Rea (OM) def. Christian Bergh/Robert Jendelund (AASU) 8-3.  Semifinals Klaeson/Rea (OM) def. Amrit Narasimhan/Benedikt Fischer (UM) 8-5.  Final Klaeson/Rea (OM) def. Marco Born/Andreas Siljestrom (MTSU) 8-6. 

FLIGHT A3 SINGLES

Semifinals Sebastian Serrano (ETSU) def. Rea (OM) 6-3, 2-6, 10-7.

 

BAYLOR HEB INTERCOLLEGIATE WACO, Texas

Round of 16 Erling Tveit (OM) def. Damar Johnson (UL) 6-4, 5-7, 6-0; Robbye Poole (OM) def. Ben Harknett (RICE) 6-1, 6-1.  Quarterfinals Tveit (OM) def. Martin Sayer (RU) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2; Poole (OM) def. Andrey Kumantsov (TAMU-CC) 6-3, 6-1.  Final Michael Kokta (BU) def. Tveit (OM) 6-2, 6-4.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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