They say first impressions are important and the No. 19 Texas A&M men’s tennis team sure proved it by starting out its fall season strong, accumulating a combined singles and doubles record of 15-3 in the Oklahoma State Invitational.
The winning effort paid off, as the Maroon and White won the event’s Big 12/SEC Challenge.
Junior JC Roddick was the star of the show, going 6-0 on his way to winning tournament MVP. Coach Steve Denton said that the Invitational was the perfect event to start the season.
“I thought this was just what we needed for early season competition,” Denton said. “Our doubles and singles were pretty solid as our fundamentals improved over the three days. Some great takeaways from the tournament are that all four guys can go back home and work even more. I am happy for JC [Roddick] who was named the MVP as he continued to play better each and every match this weekend.”
Day 1 of the Invitational opened up with doubles play against No. 44 Oklahoma State. Sophomore Togan Tokac and junior Giulio Perego scored the first win for the Aggies, defeating Cowboys sophomore Alessio Basile and graduate
Alex Garcia in 6-3, 6-2 bout. Junior Luke Casper and Roddick ended Day 1 doubles with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Oklahoma State freshman Erik Schiessl and Carl Roothman.
Day 1 continued with singles play, with the Aggies matching up against No. 31 Texas Tech. Perego set the tone early with a 6-0, 7-6 win over Red Raiders junior Tyler Stewart. Though Tokac dropped his set to Texas Tech freshman
Jonas Gundacker, Roddick and Casper closed out the day with wins, giving the Maroon and White a 5-1 record through Day 1.
A&M’s second day was its strongest, going 6-0 in singles and doubles play and against No. 43 Baylor. Perego and Tokac tamed the Bears early on with a 6-3, 6-2 set win against Baylor sophomore Martin Breysach and junior Oskar
Brostrom. Casper and Roddick followed suit, closing out doubles play in a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Bears freshman Louis Bowden and Marko Miladinović.
In singles play of Day 2, all of A&M’s players lassoed in wins against Oklahoma State players to push their Invitational record to 11-1.
In the final day of play, A&M doubles swept Texas Tech en route to a perfect record in doubles play in the event. Perego and Tokac defeated junior Sebastian Abboud and Stewart with a final match score of 8-2. Casper and Roddick took down junior Takeyasu Sekiguchi and Gundacker in a 8-4 bout.
Though the Maroon and White dropped two singles matches against Baylor, Tokac and Roddick opened and closed out the event with a win, respectively.
Continuing its fall campaign of the season, the men’s tennis team will resume action from Sept. 30-Oct. 8 for ITA All-American play in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
