BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s tennis team debuted at No. 29 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, and three members of the team posted in the singles rankings released on Tuesday by the association.
Sophomore standout Neal Skupski posted the highest rank at No. 26 after several stellar fall performances that earned him an 8-3 overall record. Skupski posted a 4-1 mark against nationally-ranked opponents in tournament competition, including a victory over Georgia Tech’s preseason fifth-ranked Guillermo Gomez at the ITA All-American Championships.
Junior Sebastian Carlsson appeared at No. 97 after a successful fall campaign in which the Uppsala, Sweden, native notched a 7-2 record with a victory over Alabama’s 10th-ranked Saketh Myneni. Carlsson ended 2009 on a solid note as he made a run to the ITA Southern Regional semifinals and also captured the singles title at the USF Invitational.
Junior Julien Gauthier rounded out the list of ranked Tigers at No. 101 Gauthier tallied a 4-4 record in the fall and claimed the Flight A singles title at the Rice Invitational in September.
Skupski, Carlsson and Gauthier return to action with the rest of the Tigers on Friday for the Key Biscayne Invitational in their first test of the new year at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park.