Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina men’s tennis will open their fall season at home this weekend, hosting the Gamecock Ranked +1. Ten schools from across the country will be represented including six of which finished in the team top-15 last season and nine from the top-30.
The Ranked +1 aims to highlight some of the best collegiate players in the country with a total of 21 individuals ranked inside the ITA Preseason Singles Rankings out of the field of 40 competitors.
The tournament will consist of three singles flights and three doubles flights. A and B singles flights will be compass draws of 16 while the C singles flight will be broken into two round robin draws of four.
Keeping Up with the Gamecocks
South Carolina will have five competitors participating in the Ranked +1, highlighted by junior Casey Hoole who is ranked No. 59 in the ITA Singles Preseason Rankings. Hoole had a breakout fall season in 2022, putting up a team-leading record of 14-3. He earned the first ranked upsets of his career last fall, tallying wins over Nos. 23, 60 and 80 en route to his ITA Carolina Region Champion title. His wins catapulted him up into last season’s end-of-fall rankings at No. 56. Hoole will be the No. 4 seed in the A-flight for this weekend’s tournament.
Also returning for the Gamecocks this season are senior Carter Morgan and sophomore Lucas da Silva. Morgan picked up two singles wins last fall, including a season-opening win over Mississippi’s Gordon Whitwell. Da Silva claimed eight singles wins in tournament play last fall with five of them in straight sets. Both Gamecocks will compete in the C-flight.
Making their Garnet & Black debuts this weekend will be freshmen Jelani Sarr and Sean Daryabeigi. Sarr, a redshirt freshman from Baltimore, Maryland, joined the team in January and will see his first collegiate matches on Friday in the B-flight. Daryabeigi, a true freshman from Delray Beach, Florida, joined the ream as a blue-chip recruit and is listed as the No. 2 ranked recruit in the class of 2023 via tennisrecruiting.net. He will also be in the B-flight
Spectator Information
Admission is free and open to the public. Gates will open 30 minutes prior to the start of each day’s events. Friday parking will be available on the streets surrounding the athletic village. Compliance with all City of Columbia parking signage is encouraged. Saturday and Sunday parking will be available in the grass lot behind the women’s side courts. An entrance to…