BATON ROUGE — LSU’s Peter Richman was named the Southeastern Conference men’s tennis Player of the Week on Tuesday after the Tiger sophomore earned a thrilling 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(5) victory over 28th-ranked Jean Simon to defeat No. 16 Texas, 4-3, on Saturday.
“This is quite an honor for Pete to be recognized by the SEC with this award,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “I think that the SEC realizes what a huge win that was for him and also for our team. We just need to keep our momentum up by having a good week of practice and by getting ready for two tough matches against Vanderbilt and Kentucky this weekend.”
With Saturday’s win over Simon, Richman snapped a seven-match losing streak in which he faced six opponents ranked among the nation’s top 100 and four rivals ranked in the top 50. The Tigers’ native of Toronto, Canada, owns a 13-12 overall record and a 4-3 mark during the 2003 campaign while playing at the No. 1 singles position.
Richman, the 51st-ranked singles player in the nation, has defeated three top-50 ranked opponents this season. Prior to beating No. 28 Simon, LSU’s lefthander knocked off Auburn’s 10th-ranked Rameez Junaid and Ole Miss’ 34th-ranked Catalin Gard.
The LSU men’s tennis team will next be in action on Friday, as the Tigers host the 14th-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores at 2 p.m. at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
Admission is free to all LSU home tennis matches and refreshments will be made available by the Tiger Tennis Athletic Foundation.