Men's Tennis notebook: June 1
June 1, 2009 AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas junior Dimitar Kutrovsky has earned his second consecutive Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) singles All-America selection by way of his top-16 standing in the final ITA singles rankings. Kutrovsky (Sofia, Bulgaria) finished the season with a No. 14 ITA singles ranking after totaling a 28-14 overall singles record. Kutrovsky, who has occupied the No. 1 singles slot in the Texas lineup since he arrived in Austin, now ranks 25th on UT's all-time singles wins list with 82. At his current pace, Kutrovsky would finish near the top-five on UT's all-time singles wins list. Kutrovsky produced at the 2009 NCAA Championships much like he did during his clutch run at the 2008 NCAA Championships. Kutrovsky knocked off Georgia's Nate Schnugg in straight sets in the 2009 NCAA quarterfinals to help the Longhorns top the Bulldogs and put UT in the Final Four for the third time in four seasons. Longhorns land three doubles pairs in final ITA rankings Corrie and Damico held the No. 22 slot in the final ITA doubles rankings, and Kutrovsky teamed up with classmate Josh Zavala to finish with a No. 50 doubles ranking. Senior Miguel Reyes Varela, twice a member of the NCAA All-Tournament team in doubles and a 2006 ITA doubles All-American, teamed up with junior Olivier Sajous to hold the 83rd doubles ranking.
Corrie and Damico finished with a 14-12 overall doubles record. Notably, the Texas duo helped the Longhorns' clinch the doubles point against Tennessee at the NCAA Championships with an 8-5 win over the Vols' John-Patrick Smith and Davey Sandgren, who finished the season as the nation's top-ranked doubles pair. Kutrovsky and Zavala finished with a staggering 33-10 overall doubles record, including a 19-6 mark at No. 2 doubles in dual-match play. Reyes Varela and Sajous totaled a 20-6 overall doubles record with a 14-2 mark at No. 3 doubles in dual-match play. Corrie posted a 26-15 overall singles record and counted wins against a number of ranked opponents, including Virginia's 27th-ranked Michael Shabaz, Texas A&M's 48th-ranked Wil Spencer and USC's 53rd-ranked Steve Johnson. Perhaps no one finished his season as impressively as Damico, who ended the season by winning his last 12 decisions. Damico's last loss came on March 27 at Oklahoma State, and from that point forward, Damico went unbeaten and knocked off four ranked opponents along the way. Damico clinched Texas' 4-2 NCAA round-of-16 win over fifth-seeded Tennessee by outlasting the Vols' Matteo Fago, 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-3. ITA Kick-Off Weekend Draft set for June 3 The ITA Kick-Off Weekend is comprised of two-day tournaments played at 16 campus sites with four teams at each site. The winner from each site advances to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships set for Feb. 12-15, 2010 in Charlottesville, Va. The ITA Kick-Off Weekend will be held in late January of 2010. Texas hosted TCU, South Florida and UC-Santa Barbara at its 2009 ITA Kick-Off Weekend event earlier this season. The Longhorns earned their invitation to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships by knocking off UC-Santa Barbara and TCU. TennisRecruiting.net lauds Horns' incoming class Texas will welcome Ben Chen (Spring, Texas), David Holiner (Dallas, Texas), Chris Camillone (Austin, Texas), Daniel Whitehead (Sugar Land, Texas) and Vassil Mladenov (Sofia, Bulgaria) to its roster. TennisRecruiting.net ranks the four Texans among its top-100 players, nationally, and Mladenov ranks among the ATP's top-600 in doubles. Texas ranks No. 3 in postseason attendance |
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