UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State men’s tennis team will send four representatives to the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla, hosted by the University of Tulsa. The tournament will run from Sept. 29-Oct. 7 and feature some of the nation’s best competition.
The three prequalifying rounds will be played on Saturday, Sept. 29, and Sunday, Sept. 30. The players that make it through that round will advance to the qualifying rounds, held Oct. 1-3. The players that advance out of the qualifying rounds will then move into the main draw, played Oct. 4-7.
Russell Bader(Austin, Texas), Roman Trkulja(Toronto, Canada), and Bryan Welnetz(Laredo, Texas) will all start in the prequalifying singles bracket. Bader will make his fall debut in singles. He competed last weekend at the Ranked plus One Invitational in Virginia, but only in the doubles portion. The freshman, Trkulja, will be looking for his first collegiate singles win after falling in tough matches last weekend. Welnetz picked up a pair of wins in Virginia over Louisville’s Michael Lippins(6-3, 6-2) and Radford’s Joe Mills(6-2, ret(inj.)).
Sophomore Tomas Hanzlik(Prague, Czech Republic) will start this tournament in the qualifying singles round, looking to build on a great start to the year. Hanzlik had a very impressive weekend in Virginia, picking up three wins and advancing to the singles draw final. He defeated Memphis’ David O’Hare(6-2, 6-0), Ole Miss’ William Kallberg(0-6, 6-4, 6-4), and NC State’s Sean Weber(2-6, 6-4, 6-2). Kallberg was the 56th ranked singles player in the 2012 ITA Preseason Poll.
Bader and Trkulja will pair up to compete out of the qualifying doubles round. The duo earned a ranking of 28th in the preseason doubles poll and picked up their first win of the fall last weekend. They defeated NC State’s Thomas Weigel and Rafael Paez 8-4.
Hanzlik and Welnetz will also combine in the qualifying doubles round. The pair also picked up a win in Virginia with an 8-0 victory over North Carolina’s Andrew Gores and Stuart Depaolo.