Men's Tennis Looks Toward Spring Season After Impessive Fall
January 06, 2009 | Men's Tennis
Jan. 6, 2009
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The University of Louisville men's tennis team will open the 2009 spring season Feb. 8-10 at the Florida Gulf Coast Shootout. The Cards enter the preseason tuneup after a very solid fall.
Freshman Andrew Carter posted a team-best 9-3 singles record while sophomore Austen Childs began the fall at No. 26 in the ITA preseason rankings and finished with a 9-8 record. Senior Robert Rotaru won the Louisville Fall Invitational en route to an 8-2 singles record. The 26th-ranked doubles team of Austen Childs and Simon Childs registered a 13-2 record and won the Virginia Ranked Plus One tournament and the Florida State Seminole Invitational and advanced to the finals of the ITA Midwest Regional. They also earned a spot in the ITA National Indoor Championship where they advanced to the quarterfinals.
U of L head coach Rex Ecarma was pleased with the fall season 2008 fall wrap up:
"This fall Individual Season has been truly historic for our program," said Ecarma. "It started at the Indiana University Invitational with freshman Robert Hall dominating the `B' Division singles in which he only lost three games in the final two matches. The next tournament was senior Robert Rotaru and sophomore Alejandro Calligari's turn to showcase their abilities. They reached the National Tennis Center `A' Division doubles final where they lost a close match to a Mississippi doubles team which won the All-American National Championships."
"The Virginia Ranked Plus One is one of the toughest tournaments in the country that featured approximately 20 nationally ranked players. This tournament is even better than many of the ITA regionals around the country. Sophomore Simon Childs had a breakout tournament with two ranked singles wins and a third place finish. He teamed up with sophomore Austen Childs to win the doubles division."
"Robert Rotaru and Alejandro Calligari were on the loose again winning five of their six matches at the South Carolina Invitational. Viktor Maxsimcuk scored an impressive singles win over a USA junior national champion who plays for North Carolina. Rotaru followed up that impressive result capturing the Louisville Invitational A division singles Championship. This was one of the more deeper fields that we have had in many years and Robert just outfought everyone and became the seventh U of L player ever to capture the singles title."
"Simon and Austen Childs were just getting warmed up after the Virginia Plus One performance, following with an impressive second place finish of 64 of the top Midwest doubles teams. They became just the third U of L doubles team to make it to the finals of this event. Austen's singles game started to get back to normal with a quarterfinal finish. Childs and Childs got even hotter by defeating Florida and Miami among others to win their second title at the Florida State Invitational."
"Austen made his second quarterfinal singles finish. If the semester ended with these results it still could have been the most accomplished Fall ever but we were in for a nice surprise when the ITA National Committee informed us that out of 7,000 collegiate players from 5 divisions, Austen Childs was selected to participate in the ITA National Indoor Singles Championships. This consisted of the best 32 players in the country. Austen upset the fourth ranked player in the country from Stanford. More good news came when the doubles team of Childs/Childs were invited from among 3,500 doubles teams in the country to compete in the field of just 16.
Childs and Childs defeated Texas Tech who were semi-finalists of the All-American Doubles Championship and became U of L's first National quarter-finalist. All in all, we were in seven individual finals winning four of them. We qualified for both the National Individual Championships and had a lot of fun along the way. This team has worked hard, never missed a workout and did it all in a very positive way."
Players Mentioned
