Hogs Head to Lone Star State for ITA Kickoff Weekend

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas men’s tennis team (4-1) travels south to the Lone Star State to face Georgia Tech (3-1) on Saturday, January 25 for ITA Kickoff Weekend as part of a four-team regional hosted by Texas. The Razorbacks will take on the Yellow Jackets at 12 p.m. at Texas Tennis Center and either the No. 1 Longhorns (4-0) or Rice (3-0) on Sunday, January 26 at 1 p.m

Arkansas and Georgia Tech previously matched up once on March 24, 1987, as the Yellow Jackets earned a 9-0 victory. The winners of Saturday’s matches will battle for a spot in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Dallas and in Waco, Texas from February 14-18.

Last weekend, the Hogs swept their home opener over Incarnate Word, 7-0. The Razorbacks then split a doubleheader against Tulsa and Oral Roberts, falling to the Golden Hurricane 4-3 before rebounding with a 4-0 win over the Golden Eagles. Arthur Bellegy and Jakub Vrba both went 2-0 in singles play while the squad continued its impressive doubles performances, having not dropped a match yet this season.

Georgia Tech is off to a 3-1 start, losing to No. 19 Alabama before two 7-0 victories against Wofford this past weekend. The Yellow Jackets are led by No. 90 Nate Bonetto and Christophe Clement, who have four singles wins combined while playing at the No. 1 and 2 positions. The tandem of No. 19 Krish Arora/Clement are 2-1 in the top spot while No. 44 Bonetto and Gianluca Carlini are 2-0 this spring.

No. 1 Texas opened its season with wins over Lamar, Abilene Christian, UTRGV and then-No. 18 Arizona State. The Longhorns’ singles lineup consists of four ranked players, including two of the top three players in the nation, with No. 2 Sebastian Gorzny, No. 3 Timo Legout, No. 20 Jonah Braswell and No. 116 Lucas Brown. Brown and Legout combine to form the No. 7-ranked doubles pair and are currently 0-1 at the No. 1 position this spring.

Rice has started the season 3-0, securing three sweeps last weekend against UTRGV and Prairie View A&M (twice). Arthus de la Bassetiere and Petro Kuzmenok lead the Owls with two victories each on courts one and two, respectively. The duo of No. 43 de la Bassetiere and Kabeer Kapasi have started the year 2-0 in the top spot.

Live stats & video for both matches are available on the men’s tennis schedule page. Both matches will air on the Cracked Racquets YouTube page via their CrossCourt Coverage.