STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — LSU’s 29th-ranked tennis player, Dan Kiernan, is set to begin first-round competition in the main singles draw of the ITA All-American Championships on Thursday at the Lincoln Tennis Center in Stone Mountain, Ga.
“The All-American event is comprised of the best tennis players in the nation,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “Dan will be going up against the best of the best and it will be a real test for him. I think that he will do a good job, because he’s been looking for a challenge and they will give him one. It will definitely get tougher for him as he advances.”
The ITA All-American Championship tournament is the first leg of the ITA Grand Slam and consists of the top-collegiate players from across the nation. The six-day event includes both a singles and doubles championship draw and is the largest collegiate tennis tournament in the country. More than 360 players will compete in the singles draws throughout the week.
The top-five seeds of the 12th-annual ITA Men’s All-American Championships are (in order): Duke’s Phillip King, Pepperdine’s Al Garland, Stanford’s K.J. Hippensteel, Mississippi’s Alex Hartman and UCLA’s Jean-Julien Rojer.
King, a sophomore from Los Angeles, was an NCAA quarterfinalist and ITA National Rookie of the Year last season.
Stanford’s Hippensteel won this tournament as a sophomore in 1999. Recent All-American champions include up-and-coming professionals Bob Bryan of Stanford (?97) and James Blake of Harvard (?98). The tournament is being held at the Lincoln Tennis Center, site of the ?96 Olympic tennis competition.
LSU’s Kiernan recorded the best season of his three-year career in 2001 and looks to get his 2001-02 season started on a positive note on Thursday. He finished last season with an overall record of 25-9 and earned wins over seven opponents ranked among the nation’s top 100.
The Tigers’ senior leader from Newcastle, England, will also be competing in the doubles competition with teammate Sebastian Rutka. The pair led by Kiernan ended the 2001 campaign with an outstanding 22-6 overall record and a No. 29 national ranking. They earned four victories over top-50 opponents last season.
In Wednesday’s final round of qualifying competition, LSU’s Rutka failed to win a berth in the main singles draw after losing to Arkansas Little Rock’s 64th-ranked Mariano Pettigrosso in straight sets. Pettigroso, who was the third seed in the qualifying event defeated Rutka, 6-4, 6-1, to advance to Thursday’s main draw.
The opening round of the main draw of the ITA All-American Championships will begin at 9 a.m. (Central time) on Thursday at the Lincoln Tennis Center in Stone Mountain, Ga. The pairings for the main draw will be released early Thursday morning.
ITA All-American Championships
Qualifying Draw – Final round
#64 (3) Mariano Pettigrosso (UALR) def. Sebastian Rutka (LSU), 6-4, 6-1.