The Intercollegiate Tennis Association is holding its first national championship tournament of the 2016-17 season, as the nation's top Division I men's players gather in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to take part in the 2016 Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships.
Pre-qualifying matches began on Saturday, Oct. 1, with qualifying matches starting on Oct. 3, and main draw contests getting underway on Oct. 6. The singles and doubles finals are scheduled for Oct. 10.
This marks the 12th straight year that the University of Tulsa serves as the official tournament host, and most of the action during the two-week event will take place on the courts of the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
The ITA Men's All-American event page will include draw updates, links to scoring updates, live streaming and photo galleries, in addition to daily main draw recaps. FloTennis will live stream up to four courts each day of the main draw at www.flotennis.com. You can also follow the conversation on Twitter by following @ITA_Tennis and using the hashtag #TulsaITA.
Singles quarterfinalists, doubles finalists and consolation champions will receive an automatic entry into the 2016 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships on Nov. 3-6, held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York.
Ohio State's Mikael Torpegaard, the No. 1-ranked player in the Oracle/ITA Men's Preseason Division I National Singles Rankings, highlights the list of competitors in the men's singles field. Virginia's Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, who won both the singles and doubles titles at last year's Men's All-American Championships, enters this year's tournament ranked No. 4. Georgia Tech's Christopher Eubanks (No. 5), Stanford's Tom Fawcett (No. 6), Wake Forest's Skander Mansouri (No. 7) and Petros Chrysochos (No. 8), Texas A&M'sArthur Rinderknech (No. 9) and North Carolina's Ronnie Schneider (No. 10) make it eight players in the Top 10 that will compete in Tulsa.
In doubles, Oklahoma State's top-ranked duo of Julian Cash and Arjun Kadhe return to Tulsa after winning the consolation draw in 2015. They highlight a deep field that includes all teams currently ranked in the Top 10.
A player from the ACC has won the Saint Francis ITA Men's All-American Singles Championship in each of the past six years, with Virginia's Kwiatkowski earning the crown last year. Kwiatkowski became the first player since 2009, and fourth overall in the history of the Men's All-American Championships, to win the singles and doubles titles in the same year. Kwiatkowski's double-dip gave the Cavaliers a sweep of the singles and doubles championships for the second time in Men's All-American history (2010), and it's just the sixth time in the history of the event that one program has taken home titles in both main draws.
Notable past winners of the Saint Francis ITA Men's All-American Singles Championship include: John Isner (Georgia, 2005); James Blake (Harvard, 1998); Bob Bryan (Stanford, 1997) and MaliVai Washington (Michigan, 1988). Al Parker (Georgia, 1989-90) is the only back-to-back singles champion in Saint Francis ITA Men's All-American Championship history.
A doubles team from the SEC has won 6 of the past 11 Saint Francis ITA Men's All-American Championship titles, including three of the last four. Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese (Tennessee, 2013-14) are the only back-to-back doubles champion in Saint Francis ITA Men's All-American Championship history.
Stanford has won the most men's singles titles with six, followed by Georgia and Virginia with five apiece. Tennessee has won the most men's doubles titles with five, followed by UCLA with three.
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