ATHENS, Ga. — Six LSU men’s tennis players begin competition in the ITA Region Three Championship Tournament in Athens, Ga., Thursday morning on the campus of the University of Georgia. The event marks the Tigers’ final competition of the 2000 fall season.
“This is the top region in the nation,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “The depth of talent in this tournament is phenomenal. Even the 16th seed in the singles competition is nationally ranked.”
The LSU players competiting in the singles portion of the ITA Region Three Championship are Ajay Ramaswami, Dan Kiernan, Jesse Smatt, Sebastian Rutka, Bryan Fisher, and John Gray Pou.
In doubles play, the combinations of Ramaswami/Smatt and Kiernan/Rutka will represent the Tigers and vie for the Regional Doubles Championship.
The opening round of the singles tournament will begin Thursday morning at 9 a.m. with LSU’s Smatt facing Fernando Damus of Georgia State. Smatt, a junior from Cooper City, Fla., has accumulated a 6-4 record this fall.
The Tigers’ talented freshmen tandem of Fisher and Rutka open their portion of the ITA Regional Three Championship Tournament at 10 a.m. in the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. Fisher will take on Tennessee’s Matt Turner, while Rutka heads into a match against Memphis’ Richard Magney.
“This tournament is going to be a great opportunity for anyone that wants to make a run at the national pre-season rankings,” Brown said. “It will also allow a chance for the stock of the team as a whole to increase before the final pre-season poll of the fall season.”
Ramaswami, the Tiger senior from Mumbai, India, will begin his run at a higher ranking Thursday at noon after a first-round bye. He is currently the 57th-ranked singles player in the nation and possesses a fall record of 10-3. Ramaswami will face the winner of the match between Vanderbilt’s Bobby Reynolds and Yalin Bilgin from Florida Atlantic.
At 10:30 a.m., LSU’s Kiernan will take on South Alabama’s Zak Ahmer, and the Tigers’ John Gray Pou will battle Bram Tucker of Jacksonville. Kiernan heads into his match with a fall record of 5-4, while Pou comes in even at 3-3.