BATON ROUGE – Sophomore Neal Skupski, currently ranked No. 50 in the nation, will represent the LSU men’s tennis team at the NCAA Singles Championships May 26-31 in Athens, Ga., the NCAA released on Thursday.
Skupski anchored LSU at the top court during the dual season and owns the second-most overall wins on the team at 17. Skupski’s efforts earned him the team MVP award and Second-Team All-SEC honors. The Liverpool, England, native has been as highly ranked as No. 26 (Jan. 5) and has overcome a total of nine nationally-ranked opponents this season.
“This is a great opportunity for Neal to continue his progress,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “The year started with him moving into the top of the lineup, and as the season progressed, he settled into the position and got some big wins. This is the next step in continuing his progress to becoming a top-20 player at the onset of next season.”
The tournament hosted by the University of Georgia at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex will include a 64-player draw with competition based on the best of three sets. Regular scoring and a 12-point tiebreaker at six games all will be used for all matches.
SINGLES
Automatic qualifications (16), listed alphabetically by conference:
America East Sven Vloedgraven Binghamton University
Atlantic Coast Henrique Cunha Duke
Atlantic Sun Charles Bottoni East Tennessee State
Big East Austen Childs Louisville
Big Sky Kiryl Harbatsiuk Sacramento State
Big South Ivan Salec Radford
Big Ten Chase Buchanan Ohio State
Big 12 Austin Krajicek Texas A&M
Colonial Thibaut Charron VCU
Conference USA Bruno Rosa Rice
Ivy Jonathan Wong Columbia
Pacific-10 Steve Johnson Southern California
SEC John-Patrick Smith Tennessee
Sun Belt John Peers Middle Tennessee
West Coast Bassam Beidas Pepperdine
WAC James Meredith Boise State
At-large selections (48), listed alphabetically by last name:
Haythem Abid UCLA
Marcelo Arevalo Tulsa
Jean-Yves Aubone Florida State
Artem Baradach SMU
Moritz Baumann Wisconsin
Matt Brooklyn UCLA
Pedro Campos South Carolina
Tripper Carleton Wake Forest
Raony Carvalho Texas Tech
Boris Conkic Tennessee
Ed Corrie Texas
Drew Courtney Virginia
Diego Cubas South Carolina
Jeff Dadamo Texas A&M
Andrei Daescu Oklahoma
Clay Donato North Carolina
Gonzalo Escobar Texas Tech
Robert Farah Southern California
Steven Forman Wake Forest
Javier Garrapiz Georgia
Guillermo Gomez Georgia Tech
Jose Hernandez North Carolina
Jarmere Jenkins Virginia
Jason Jung Michigan
Bradley Klahn Stanford
Justin Kronauge Ohio State
Dimitar Kutrovsky Texas
Alexandre Lacroix Florida
Ryan Lipman Vanderbilt
Denes Lukacs Baylor
Marek Michalicka Wisconsin
Vahid Mirzadeh Florida State
Alex Musialek Kentucky
Saketh Myneni Alabama
Oleksandr Nedovyesov Oklahoma State
Dennis Nevolo Illinois
Tim Puetz Auburn
Eric Quigley Kentucky
Yoann Re Virginia Tech
Jordan Rux Baylor
Michael Shabaz Virginia
Sanam Singh Virginia
Neal Skupski LSU
Marcel Thiemann Mississippi
Ashley Watling Tulsa
Casey Watt Notre Dame
Rhyne Williams Tennessee
Pedro Zerbini California
Seeds 1-8:
1. Henrique Cunha Duke
2. Steve Johnson Southern California
3. John-Patrick Smith Tennessee
4. Guillermo Gomez Georgia Tech
5. Austin Krajicek Texas A&M
6. Oleksandr Nedovyesov Oklahoma State
7. Chase Buchanan Ohio State
8. Alexandre Lacroix Florida
Seeds 9-16, listed alphabetically by last name:
Robert Farah Southern California
Bradley Klahn Stanford
Dimitar Kutrovsky Texas
Denes Lukacs Baylor
Tim Puetz Auburn
Eric Quigley Kentucky
Michael Shabaz Virginia
Sanam Singh Virginia
ALTERNATES:
1. Jaime Pulgar North Carolina State
2. Alex Clayton Stanford
3. Louis Cant Mississippi State
4. Reid Carleton Duke
5. Ionut Beleleu Oklahoma
6. Clint Bowles Florida State
7. Chris Nott Arkansas
8. Sebastian Gallego Minnesota