BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s tennis team is set to open the 2018 fall campaign in competitions at the John Breaux Cajun Tennis Classic and the Ivy Plus Invitational Friday.
“We are very excited to start this weekend and see how our new additions will compete and perform,” co-head coach Andy Brandi said. “Our returners will show us how much they improved over the summer. It will be a revealing weekend to let us know where we are with our talent.”
Senior Shane Monroe and sophomore transfer Malik Bhatnagar will compete in Lafayette, Louisiana, for the Cajun Classic at the Culotta Tennis Center. The LSU duo will face players from Oklahoma State, Rice, South Florida, Texas, Texas Tech and UL-Lafayette.
There will be two rounds of singles, one at 8:30 a.m. CST and the other at 2 p.m. CST. Doubles play will begin at 5:45 p.m. CST.
Monroe, who is currently listed at No. 42 in singles in the ITA rankings, is the No. 1 seed in singles play, and the New Ventnor, New Jersey, native will square off against UL-Lafayette’s Elio Lago.
Bhatnagar will make his LSU debut against Oklahoma State’s Mathieu Scaglia, who is listed at No. 114 in ITA singles.
The rest of the Tigers, including Boris Kozlov, Agie Moreno, Daniel Moreno, Ruy Teixeira, Joey Thomas, Rafael Wagner and Nick Watson will be in Princeton, New Jersey, for the Ivy Plus Invitational at the Lenz Tennis Center.
The seven players from LSU will compete against players from Alabama, Brown, Buffalo, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Illinois, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Penn, Princeton, St. John’s, Texas, Tulsa, Wisconsin and Yale.
There will be 96 players with six 16-player singles draws and six eight-pair doubles draws. First serve each day is at 8:30 a.m. CST. There will be two rounds of doubles and one round of singles on Friday, two rounds of singles on Saturday and one round of both doubles and singles play Sunday.
In the Tiger singles draw, Thomas will compete against Toby Boyer of Nebraska. Wagner will face Princeton’s Damian Rodriguez in the Lenz draw, and in the Nassau draw, Daniel Moreno will play St. John’s Aditya Vashistha. There are two LSU players in the Pagoda draw: Agie Moreno and Teixeira. Agie Moreno will play Brown’s Peter Litsky and Teixeira will compete against Princeton’s Justin Barki. In the Jadwin draw, Watson will play Buffalo’s Ethan Nittolo. Kozlov will face Columbia’s Alex Keyser in the Cordish draw.
In doubles competition, Wagner and Thomas will take on the No. 25 pair in Caleb Chakravarthi and Alex Brown from Illinois in the Orange draw. Watson and Daniel Moreno will partner to face Vik Budic of Illinois and Chih Chi Huang from Texas in the White draw. Agie Moreno and Kozlov will compete against Robert Siniakowicz and Roger Chou of Brown in the Gold draw.
For up-to-date information and behind-the-scenes access on the Tigers, fans can follow the LSU men’s tennis team on Twitter and Instagram at @lsutennis and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lsutennis.
John Breaux Cajun Tennis Classic
September 21, 2018 at Lafayette, La. (Culotta Tennis Center)
Singles Round of 16- 8:30 a.m. CT
#42 Shane Monroe (LSU) vs. Elio Lago (UL-Lafayette)
Malik Bhatnagar (LSU) vs. #114 Mathieu Scaglia (Oklahoma State)
Doubles Quarterfinals- 5:45 p.m. CT
Shane Monroe/Malik Bhatnagar (LSU) vs. Mathieu Scaglia/Maxim Tybar (Oklahoma State)
Ivy Plus Invitational
September 21, 2018 at Princeton, N.J. (Lenz Tennis Center)
Singles
Tiger
Joey Thomas (LSU) vs. Toby Boyer (Nebraska)
Lenz
Damian Rodriguez (Princeton) vs. Rafael Wagner (LSU)
Cordish
Boris Kozlov (LSU) vs. Alex Keyser (Columbia)
Nassau
Daniel Moreno (LSU) vs. Aditya Vashistha (St. John’s)
Pagoda
Agie Moreno (LSU) vs. Peter Litsky (Brown)
Ruy Teixeira (LSU) vs. Justin Barki (Princeton)
Jadwin
Nick Watson (LSU) vs. Ethan Nittolo (Buffalo)
Doubles
Orange
Rafael Wagner/Joey Thomas (LSU) vs. #25 Caleb Chakravarthi/Alex Brown (Illinois)
White
Nick Watson/Daniel Moreno (LSU) vs. Vuk Budic (Illinois)/Chih Chi Huang (Texas)
Gold
Agie Moreno/Boris Kozlov (LSU) vs. Robert Siniakowicz/Roger Chou (Brown)