Men's Tennis Set to Open Spring Season in Hawaii

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas men’s tennis team travels to Honolulu for the second consecutive year to open the spring season against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. The Razorbacks will play a pair of matches in The Aloha State on Thursday, Jan. 9 and Friday, Jan. 10 with both contests slated to start at 8 p.m. CT.

Arkansas extended its series lead against Hawaii to 5-0 after defeating the Rainbow Warriors 7-0 in the 2024 season opener.

The Hogs are coming off an eventful fall season, having added six new players to the roster and claiming the Bonita Bay Classic title. Freshman No. 85 Jakub Vrba led the team in singles wins (6), including a victory over No. 41 Becroft (Oklahoma State) while being the only Razorback listed in the latest ITA rankings. Freshman Brendan Boland and senior Benni Emesz picked up five wins during the fall campaign in addition to sophomore Lukas Palovic securing the RockStar Passes Collegiate Tennis Challenge championship.

Senior Božo Barun and sophomore Connor Smillie return after posting impressive seasons in 2023-24. Barun was named an ITA Doubles All-American and earned 21 total wins with nine coming against ranked opponents while Smillie led the Hogs with 15 doubles wins last spring. Junior Jean-Baptiste Badon joins the Arkansas roster after recording a historical season last year at Glendale CC, finishing with a 29-2 overall singles record along with several conference and national accolades.

The Razorbacks also added New Mexico transfer senior Arthur Bellegy, Purdue transfer junior Marino Jakic and freshman Gabriel Elicha Navas from Spain. Bellegy was a mainstay in the singles lineup for the Lobos last season, accumulating a record of 12-7 during the dual season and finishing 21-9 overall. Jakic looks to repeat his success during the 2021-22 season at DePaul where he was named the Big East Freshman of the Year and Big East Tournament Most Outstanding Player. At Purdue, Jakic amassed records of 3-3 in singles and 2-4 in doubles after appearing in six matches in 2024. Elicha Navas comes to Fayetteville with career-high ATP rankings of No. 1135 in singles and No. 1412 in doubles while collecting 60 singles victories in events over the last four years.

Arkansas is coming off its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2021 and finished last season ranked No. 31, the highest year-end team ranking since 2016. The Hogs recorded their most wins in a season since 1986 (21) and achieved a streak of five straight victories over ranked opponents, the longest streak since 1985.

Hawaii is off to an 0-2 start this season after falling to Florida State and SMU last weekend. The Rainbow Warriors are led by No. 77 Azuma Visaya, who entered the dual season with a 9-4 record but dropped his first two singles matches to start the spring. Karl Collins and Andy Hernandez also headline the Hawaii singles lineup, competing at the No. 2 and 3 positions to open the year. The duo of Tianhao Hou and Visaya have a 1-0 record in doubles in the top spot while Collins and Diego Dalisay are 1-1 on court two.