The Texas A&M men’s tennis team will open its fall campaign Sept. 23-25 at the Harvard Chowderfest Invite in Cambridge, Mass.
A&M will be competing in Chowderfest for the first time since 2016 where it took home the singles and doubles titles. The Aggies will be matched up with the host, Harvard, as well as Memphis and Arizona. The maroon and white are coming off a second round appearance in the 2021 season’s NCAA Tournament.
Over the offseason, the Aggies landed a pair of transfers from UCF — senior Trey Hilderbrand and sophomore JC Roddick, nephew of the former world No. 1 tennis player and 2003 U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick. JC Roddick was the No. 1 recruit in Texas coming out of high school in 2020.
“JC [Roddick] is a very talented ball striker and comes to us with a lot of tournament experience,” coach Steve Denton said back in August. “He was at the top of his class along with Giulio [Perego] and Luke [Casper]. All three of them only being sophomores, it bodes well for our future.”
Along with the pair of UCF transfers, A&M has 11 returning players, led by senior Noah Schachter and junior Raphael Perot.
The Aggies had three players receive singles Intercollegiate Tennis Association, or ITA, Preseason Rankings. Schachter came in at No. 19, Hilderbrand at No. 50 and Perot at No. 72. A&M also had two doubles pairs receive ITA Preseason Rankings. The pair of Schachter and Hilderbrand came in at No. 25 and the pair of Perot and junior Kenner Taylor came in at No. 45.
A&M will be opening up its season with a tough test as each team in the tournament has players ranked in the ITA Preseason Rankings.
Harvard is coming off its second round appearance in the NCAA Tournament and 30th Ivy League Championship in the 2021-22 season. Harvard has four players ranked in the singles ITA Preseason Rankings.
Harvard is led by junior Henry von der Schulenburg at No. 18, followed by senior Harris Walker at No. 39, sophomore Daniel Milavsky at No. 95 and junior Ronan Jachuck at No. 118. The doubles pair of Milavsky and first-year Marc Ktiri come in ranked No. 47 in the doubles ITA Preseason Rankings.
Although the pair of Milavsky and Ktiri are ranked, they did not compete together this past weekend, as the duo of Milavsky and Jachuck took home the Milwaukee Tennis Classic’s Doubles Championship. The duo took down the No. 4 ranked twin pair of graduate Charles Bertimon and senior Maxence Bertimon from Virginia Commonwealth.
The Arizona Wildcats are coming off a second round appearance in the NCAA Tournament and a 2021-22 Pac-12 regular season championship. The Wildcats have four players ranked in the singles ITA Preseason Rankings. They are led by fifth-year Jonas Ziverts at No. 32, followed by junior Gustaf Strom at No. 46, junior Herman Hoeyeraal at No. 77 and sophomore Colton Smith at No. 86. Arizona has one doubles pair ranked in the ITA Preseason Rankings with the pair of Ziverts and Hoeyeraal ranked at No. 13.
The Aggies defeated the Wildcats last season in the ITA Kickoff Weekend on Jan. 30, 2022 in College Station by a score of 4-1.
Memphis is coming off of a first-round appearance in the NCAA Tournament and runner-ups in the American Athletic Conference Tournament in the 2021-22 season. The Tigers have two players ranked in the singles ITA Preseason Rankings. They are led by sophomore Pablo Alemany at No. 103 followed by redshirt senior David Stevenson at No. 125. The doubles pair of Stevenson and Alemany are ranked No. 50 in the doubles ITA Preseason Rankings.
The tournament is set to run for three days and with all matches taking place at the Beren Tennis Center.
