A trio of Baylor men's tennis players will open play in the NCAA Singles Championship Wednesday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
Juan Benitez, Johannes Schretter and Max Tchoutakian all earned at-large bids into the 64-man singles bracket. Benitez is seeded in the 9-16 range of the bracket.
In the opening round, Benitez will play North Florida’s No. 69 Jack Findel-Hawkins at 9 a.m. CT. At 10 a.m. CT, Schretter opens up against Arkansas’ No. 10 Mike Redlicki, while Tchoutakian will take on Tennessee Tech’s No. 58 Eduardo Mena at 1 p.m. CT.
The BU trio's selection marks the 16th-consecutive year that the Bears have had at least one competitor in the NCAA singles draw.
Benitez, a sophomore, is currently ranked No. 15 and will appear in NCAA individual postseason action for the first time. He is 22-9 on the year in singles play. Benitez has lost six of his last eight decisions, but previously reeled off five-straight wins.
Tchoutakian, ranked No. 50, is a senior with a 28-9 overall record. He boasts a 9-5 mark against ranked opponents and has won four of his last five decisions. Tchoutakian made the NCAA Singles draw in 2015 as well, going 1-1 with a three-set loss in the round of 32 ending his run.
This season, Schretter is 21-3 overall. He is 7-2 against ranked foes with victories over the then No. 42, No. 82 and No. 84 ranked players in the country. At one point in the middle of the season, Schretter won nine-straight singles decisions. In the latest ITA singles rankings, Schretter is ranked No. 63 in the nation.
Meanwhile, Benitez and doubles partner Will Little will begin play in the NCAA Doubles Championship Thursday as one of 20 at-large selections to the 32-tandem draw. The BU duo will face Rice’s 61st-ranked Tommy Bennett and David Warren in first round action.
As the 22nd-ranked duo in the country, Benitez and Little are 6-4 on the year with all of those matches coming in dual-match play. The tandem owns victories over the country's then-No. 1 tandem of Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat of Cal and the then-No. 5 duo of Julian Cash and Arjun Kadhe of Oklahoma State. The BU twosome is 4-4 against nationally ranked pairings.
All matches will be the best-of-three sets. No-ad scoring and a 7-point tiebreaker at six-games-all will be used for all matches. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set.
