LSU Gold

Tigers Send Pairs To Athens And Lafayette

by Christian Verde
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Tigers Send Pairs To Athens And Lafayette

Baton Rouge — Four members of LSU’s men’s tennis team will be in action this weekend. Junior Malik Bhatnagar and sophomore Boris Kozlov will be in Athens, Georgia for the 52nd Annual Southern Intercollegiate Championship. Senior Ruy Teixeira and freshman Tomas Descarrega will travel down the interstate to Lafayette, Louisiana to compete in the 42nd Annual John Breaux Cajun Tennis Classic. Both tournaments will run from Friday, Sept. 27 through Sunday, Sept. 29.

Southern Intercollegiate Championship

Kozlov and Bhatnager will begin their 2019-20 season in Athens. No. 91 Kozlov looks to build off his stellar freshman campaign where he accumulated 21 wins and made his way on to the SEC All-Freshman team. Bhatnager, who had a great sophomore season with 21 wins, looks to continue that success in his junior season.

The Tigers will face elite company in Athens. LSU is one of 12 teams that will be competing in the Southern Intercollegiate Championships, as 11 of the 12 teams finished the 2018-19 season ranked in the ITA Top-50. The teams include Texas (No. 1), Wake Forest (No. 2), Florida (No. 4), Illinois (No. 15), host Georgia (No. 21), UCF (No. 31), Miami (No. 36), Harvard (No. 41), Tulane (No. 44), Georgia Tech (No. 45), and Clemson. LSU finished the 2018-19 season ranked No. 48.

This year’s event is broken into four 16-player compass draws for singles and two 16-team compass draws for doubles. The action starts on Friday with two rounds of doubles slated to begin at 7:30 a.m., followed by singles in the afternoon.

Draws

Doubles

Boris Kozlov/ Malik Bhatnagar (LSU) v. No. 2 Johannes Imgildsen/ Brian Berdusco (Florida)

Singles

Malik Bhatnagar (LSU) v. No. 31 Andy Andrade (Florida)

No. 91 Boris Kozlov (LSU) v. Ronan Jachuck (Harvard)

 

John Breaux Cajun Tennis Classic

Teixeira and Descarrega will be taking the I-10 west to the Louisiana-Lafayette for the John Breaux Cajun Tennis Classic. Teixeira, a senior, will try to replicate his success he had in Destin last weekend. Descarrega, a rookie, will get his first action in an LSU uniform. The Rosario, Argentina native has reached a career-high of 70 in ITF juniors and has a universal tennis rating high of 13.7.

Tigers will go against tough competition, as six of the eight teams competing finished in the ITA Top-50: Baylor (No. 6), No. 22 Oklahoma State (No. 22) and Arizona State (No. 24), South Florida (No. 34), Ole Miss (No. 35), LSU (No. 48), Rice, and host ULL.

Teixeira and Descarrega first serve on singles play, which is set for 8:30 a.m. on Friday, with second-round/first-round consolation play following at 2 p.m. A full first day finishes up with the first round of doubles play as well.

Saturday includes consolation singles and doubles play, along with both semifinal matches. The tournament finishes up on Sunday with the remaining consolation matches, and the singles and doubles final.

Draws

Doubles

Ruy Teixeira/Tomas Descarrega (LSU) v. No. 2 Chase Ferguson/ Pierre Luquet (USF)

Singles

Ruy Teixeira (LSU) v. No. 97 Chase Ferguson (USF)

Tomas Descarrega (LSU) v. Emile Hudd (Oklahoma State)

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.