Baylor men's tennis had four singles players and two doubles duos in the final Oracle/ITA Collegiate Rankings for the 2016-17 season, which were announced Wednesday.
As a team, the Bears completed the season ranked No. 9, after going 23-8 and reaching the round of 16 at the NCAA Championships. Baylor tallied 59.43 points in the computer-based rankings.
With the 2017 ranking, BU carded its 15th-top 10 final ranking in program history. It is the 17th-time in program history that the Bears have been inside the final ITA top-20 and the 15th time in the last 16 years. This season, Baylor achieved a season-high ranking of No. 3 on April 4, after starting the year at No. 22.
As he has done throughout the year, sophomore Juan Benitez led BU with a singles ranking of No. 18. Meanwhile, Max Tchoutakian (No. 59), Johannes Schretter (No. 63) and Jimmy Bendeck (No. 120) rounded out BU’s contingent in the singles rankings.
In doubles, Benitez and Will Little teamed together to be No. 19, while Schretter paired with Bendeck to be 76th nationally.
On the year, Benitez wrapped his sophomore season at 22-10 and 10-10 against nationally ranked opponents. He was 17-9 in dual-match play, while playing exclusively at the No. 1 spot. Benitez was one of three Bears to earn a spot in the NCAA Singles Championship, along with Tchoutakian and Schretter.
To wrap up his career, Tchoutakian was 28-10 in singles action. That win total was the most of any player on the squad and raised his career singles record to 65-32. Tchoutakian was 15-3 in dual-match play and boasted a 9-6 mark against ranked foes.
Schretter produced a 21-4 record and a 20-3 mark in dual-match action. He was 7-3 against ranked foes in his sophomore season.
Bendeck finished his sophomore campaign with a 24-12 record overall and a 13-7 mark in dual-match play. He was 3-2 against nationally ranked opponents and jumped back into the final rankings after being unranked in the previous edition.
The Bears have now had at least four singles players ranked in five of the last seven years.
In doubles, Benitez and Little stayed among the nation’s top-20 in the doubles rankings, after making a run to the NCAA Championship quarterfinals. The duo was 8-5 on the year.
Meanwhile, Schretter and Bendeck were 11-3 overall to move up in the final rankings.
BU has now has at least one doubles tandem in the final rankings for 20 consecutive years.
Benitez by virtue of being a seeded player in the NCAA Singles Championship earned All-America honors in singles for the first time. Baylor has had at least one singles All-American in 14 of the last 16 years.
As a result of making the NCAA quarterfinals, the duo of Benitez and Little garnered All-American doubles honors.
Benitez is one of only three players in school history to be a singles and doubles All-America in the same season, joining Benedikt Dorsch (2003, ’04 and ’05) and Julian Lenz (2015).
Overall, head coach Matt Knoll has had 35 All-American selections in his 21 years at Baylor, including 21 singles selections and 14 doubles picks.
