Men's Tennis Continues Fall Season at ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas men’s tennis team is set to compete in its second event of the fall at the ITA All-American Championships. Four Razorbacks will travel to Tulsa, Okla., to participate in the tournament held at Michael D. Case Tennis Center from Saturday, Sept. 21 to Sunday, Sept. 29.

Božo Barun, Benni Emesz, Connor Smillie and Jakub Vrba will represent the Hogs in Tulsa as they look to improve on their performances at the USTA 15K Fayetteville Futures. The prequalifying draws will begin on Saturday, Sept. 21 with qualifying draw action starting on Monday, Sept. 23 and main draw matches beginning on Wednesday, Sept. 25.

Barun faces Filipe Costa (Georgia) in the Round of 128 of the prequalifying singles draw on Saturday at 9 a.m. CT to open the event. Barun will team up with Smillie to compete in the prequalifying doubles draw later in the day with their Round of 32 match scheduled for 1:30 p.m. CT against Noroozian/Samaha (Mew Mexico). The Razorbacks will also have Emesz and Vrba playing in the prequalifying doubles draw as they are set to face Homberg/Papa (Pepperdine) in the Round of 32 on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. CT.

All four student-athletes competing in Tulsa saw action this past week at the USTA 15K Fayetteville Futures with Smillie and Vrba reaching the quarterfinals of the doubles main draw. Each player participated in the singles main draw with all four falling in their Round of 32 matches. Smillie qualified for the main draw after two victories in the qualifying draw. In doubles, Barun and Emesz separately dropped their opening matches.

The ITA All-American Championships are the first of four qualifiers for the NCAA Singles & Doubles Championships, which will be held from Nov. 19-24 in Waco, Texas. At the ITA All-American Championships, 10 singles players (eight main draw quarterfinalists & two feed-in consolation finalists) and four doubles teams (four main draw semifinalists) will earn an automatic berth to Waco later this fall.

For all information regarding the ITA All-American Championships, visit the tournament homepage to find draws, schedule of play and results. Prequalifying and qualifying round matches will be streamed on TrackTennis while Cracked Racquets is set to provide a crosscourt cast of main draw action starting on Wednesday. Fans can watch the main draw streams on the ITA YouTube page.

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