University of Louisville
ITA All-American Championships
Stiefelmeyer Wins ITA All-American Championship
October 06, 2014 | Men's Tennis
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"Winning this tournament is a great honor," said Stiefelmeyer. "Being the first University of Louisville player to win the title makes it even more special. Right now, it is unreal to me, even when I was holding the trophy... I don't think I'm going to realize today what I accomplished at this tournament. It's going to take me a couple of days."
"Sebastian continued his underdog march to our program's first national championship," said UofL head coach Rex Ecarma. "In our sport, you have the All-American, National Indoor, and NCAA Outdoor Championship to win an individual national championship. We have come close a few times with Austen Childs' NCAA runner-up showing and three quarterfinal appearances, but to finally get one is surreal. It could not have happened to a classier person than Sebastian."
The title match capped a week-long run in which Stiefelmeyer (Vienna, Austria) won nine straight matches starting with the qualifying draw which took place Sept. 29-Oct. 1. In the qualifying draw, he registered three consecutive wins including two three-set victories. Upon qualifying for the main draw, Stiefelmeyer, who stands at No. 110 in the ITA preseason rankings, upset six players ranked ahead of him - including two top 10 opponents.
"My goal was to qualify for the main draw, everything else on top of that was bonus," said Stiefelmeyer. "In the last three matches, I didn't feel a lot of pressure because my opponents were all supposed to win. I was able to relax and play my game."
"Sebastian has developed so much over the course of his career and played with great poise and executed the game plan to perfection," said Ecarma. " In his win in the semis versus Virginia, he defeated the player with the longest current winning streak in college tennis and in the finals beat the player that experts say is the most talented player in America who owns two NCAA team Championship rings. I want to also acknowledge the great on court work of my new assistant coach, Jakob Gustafsson and the help that my former assistant Rodrigo DaSilva did with him the last three seasons as well. This is just the start of our season and we hope to accomplish more program firsts."
The road to the title
In his first match in the main draw on Thursday, Oct. 2, he posted a three-set win over Duke's 59th ranked Bruno Semenzato. On Friday, he defeated the fifth-ranked player in the nation, Sorenson Hess-Olesen of Texas in to sets to reach the round of 16. On Saturday, posted a pair of three-set wins, over New Mexico's No. 101 Samir Iftikhar and Tulane's 98th ranked Dominik Koepfer to advance to Sunday's semifinal match against Virginia's 80th- ranked Thai-Son Kwiatkowski. After winning his fifth three-set match, Stiefelmeyer became the first qualifier to reach the ITA All-American finals since 2007.
The championship match pitted Stiefelmeyer against second-ranked Yannick Hanfmann of the University of Southern California who had entered the tournament as the overall No. 2 seed. Stiefelmeyer proceeded to a 6-3, 6-2 victory to become the first UofL player to win the prestigious tournament.
"I am speechless," said UofL assistant coach Jakob Gustafsson. "No words can describe what this young man has done. This is unbelievable. Another extremely clean match from Sebastian and the moment never became too big for him."
About the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships The tournament marks the first men's national title of the 2014 fall season. The first major championship of the fall collegiate season for the men has been hosted by the University of Tulsa at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center since 2005. Since 1979, this event has successfully combined competitors who had stellar seasons the year before with the cream of the crop from the freshman class.
Stiefelmeyer has also earned an automatic entry into the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships on Nov. 7-10, held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, NY.
 
Sebastian Stiefelmeyer singles results
2014 Saint Francis Health Systems ITA All-American Championships
Main Draw - Oct. 2-6, 2014
Finals: #110 Sebastian Stiefelmeyer (UL) d. #2 Yannick Hanfmann (USC) 6-3, 6-2
Semifinals: # 110 Sebastian Stiefelmeyer (UL) d. #80 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (UVA) 6-1, 3-6, 6-1
Quarterfinals: Stiefelmeyer d. #98 Dominik Koepfer (Tulane) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
Third Round: #110 Sebastian Stiefelmeyer (UL) d. #101 Samir Iftikhar (New Mexico) 6-1, 7-6 (1)
Second round: #110 Sebastian Stiefelmeyer (UL) d. #5 Sorenson Hess-Olesen (Texas) 6-4, 6-2
First round: #110 Sebastian Stiefelmeyer d. #59 Bruno Semenzato (Duke) 4-6, 6-2, 6-0
Qualifying Draw
Sept. 29 - Oct. 1
Third round: #110 Sebastian Stiefelmeyer (UL) d. Robert Kelly (UNC) 6-2, 1-6, 6-2
Second round: Sebastian Stiefelmeyer (UL) d. Ricky Medinilla (Purdue) 6-0, 0-6, 7-6 (3)
First round: #110 Sebastian Stiefelmeyer (UL) d. #123 Ace Matias (UNLV) 6-1, 6-2
Portions of this release courtesy of the ITA
