Tulsa, Okla. – Oct. 8th concluded the Wildcats run in the ITA Men’s All-American Championship. No.23 Colton Smith and No.87 Jay Friend did an amazing job as they represented Arizona and made history for the program. These Cats both finished the tournament with a 5-1 record, each gaining four more ranked wins.
“Incredible week from Jay and Colton. Both of them put together 5-1 records, beat four nationally ranked players and made history in our program.”, says Coach Clancy. “I’m not sure if we’ve ever had a player reach the quarterfinals or win the consolation draw here, so exciting to have two Wildcats making a big splash on the national scene!”
Smith began his week with a close loss against No.12 JJ Tracy (OSU) 3-6, 6-7(5), 6-3. This gave Smith the momentum to gain consecutive victories leading to his win in the consolation draw against high ranked players.
Smith dominated the competition by defeating No.58 Justin Schlageter (UO) 7-5, 1-6, 6-1, No.30 Olle Wallin (Texas Tech) 6-1, 6-3, Samuel Sippel (BSU) 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-4, and No. 62 Max Westphal (Columbia) 6-1, 6-4. To earn himself the victory in the final round, Smith defeated No.13 Jeffrey Von der Schulenburg (UVA) 1-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Coach Clancy added to Smith’s wins by saying,”I love how Colton bounced back after a tough loss on the first day. He got better as the event went on, worked through the different problems that came about, and finished on a 5 match winning streak. Proud of the way he finished beating No. 13 from Virginia, especially against an experienced player. He is getting better all the time and I’m happy to see the results follow the hard work he is putting in.”
All eyes were on Friend as he represented Arizona all the way up to the quarterfinals of the main draw, which was a special moment for the program. Friend had an amazing performance by taking down four ranked opponents along the way.
His qualifying draw performance consisted of victories against No.101 Edoardo Graziani (UVA) 6-2, 6-4, Luc Koenig (Baylor) 6-4, 1-6, 6-1, No.117 Liam Krull (SMU) 6-0, 6-3. He advanced to the main draw alongside Smith. There he earned wins defeating No.28 Siem Woldeab (UT Austin) 6-4, 6-3, and No.34 Nikola Slavic (Ole Miss) 6-3, 6-2. Even though this is where his tournament ended he put up a great fight against the No.1…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at University of Arizona Athletics…