Oct. 28, 2011
MALIBU, Calif. - For the second-straight season, Sebastian Fanselow will be competing at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship in Flushing, N.Y. on Nov. 3-6. Joining him will be Finn Tearney, who reached the semifinals of the USTA/ITA Southwest Regional last week and received an at-large bid.
The 2011 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, is the only event on the ITA calendar featuring elite players from every level of college tennis.
Hosted by Columbia University, the tournament features a 32-player singles draw and a 20-team doubles draw for men and women. Heading the field are champions from USTA/ITA Division I Regional Championships held across the country in October, winners of the USTA/ITA National Small College "Super Bowl," and the singles quarterfinalists, doubles finalists and consolation champions from the ITA Men's and Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships.
Last year, Fanselow (Essen, Germany/Kaplan Prep) won the Southwest Regional to earn the automatic entry into the national event. This season the junior received one of two ITA wildcards, awarded based on preseason rankings and other past results.
Fanselow is listed at #10 in the Campbell's/ITA collegiate preseason rankings and achieved All-American status last season after reaching the round of 16 at the NCAA singles championship.
Tearney (Wellington, Australia/Wellington College) was one of six at-large selections. To be considered, a student-athlete must have reached as least the quarterfinals of the regional championships. Tearney advanced to the semifinals of last week's Southwest Regional, and is ranked #19 on the preseason singles poll.
Twenty-three schools are represented in the 32-player singles bracket. Pepperdine is one of eight schools, including Kentucky, USC, Illinois, Ohio State, Duke, Virginia and Oklahoma, to have more than one entry in the draw.
The USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships was inaugurated in 1978 for the men and 1984 for the women. Past champions and finalists include current professionals John Isner (Georgia), James Blake (Harvard), Somdev Devvarman (Virginia), Irina Falconi (Georgia Tech), Lisa Raymond (Florida) and Bob and Mike Bryan (Stanford).
The Waves' champions include Andrew Sznajder in 1988 and Ginger Helgeson in 1990.
