Childs and Childs Ranked Sixth in the Nation
February 20, 2009 | Men's Tennis
Feb. 20, 2009
Austen Childs and Simon Childs achieved the highest ranking in University of Louisville men's tennis program history when they appeared at No. 6 in the Campbell's ITA Doubles rankings on Feb. 19. Also in the same rankings, the doubles team of Robert Rotaru and Alejandro Calligari moved up 11 spots from No. 44 to No. 33. Austen Childs improved one spot to No. 46 in the singles rankings. The Cards have also moved up to No. 38 in the team rankings.
"I am pleased to see that the ITA rankings have recognized truly one of the hottest doubles teams in the country," said U of L head coach Rex Ecarma. "This is the highest ranking of any sort in U of L tennis history. Slavko Radman and Damar Johnson were ranked seventh, our team was ranked twelfth, Michael Mather was ranked thirteenth in singles and Cody Conley and Joachim Lien were also ranked thirteenth in doubles."
Sophomores Austen Childs (Mt. Maunganui, New Zealand) and Simon Childs (Hillington, England) have registered a team-best 19-5 overall record and are 6-2 as the No. 1 seed.
"Austen and Simon played in the most prestigious tournaments in the fall and they won Virginia's Ranked Plus One and Florida State Invitational. They were also runner-up at the ITA Midwest Regional Championships," said Ecarma. "Once Austen bought into the fact that he can succeed serve and volleying in doubles and also beefing up his serve, his doubles game went to another level. He worked very hard to get in really good shape last semester and it paid off. Simon made a commitment to attack the services returns more instead of just bumping them back and also has become very aggressive with his positioning at the net. They were really happy when I decided to keep them together for every match and rewarded us for that decision. This will be a doubles team to be reckoned with this year."
Austen Childs is 16-9 and 7-1 as U of L's top seeded player. After appearing at No. 26 in the preseason rankings, and was 47th in the initial singles rankings in January.
Senior Robert Rotaru (Toronto, Ontario) and sophomore Alejandro Calligari (Bradenton, Fla.) have tallied a 17-4 overall record and are 7-2 while playing most at No. 2 in the doubles lineup.
The 38th ranked Cardinals (9-1) will travel to No. 28 Vanderbilt on Sunday, Feb. 22.
Players Mentioned
