Men's Tennis Opens Fall Season in Illinois
Sept. 17, 2009
CORAL GABLES, FLA… The University of Miami men’s tennis team is set to open its fall season at the University of Illinois’ Olympia Fields Country Club (OFCC) Fighting Illini Invitational on Friday. The event – held on the clay courts of the Olympia Fields Country Club – runs Sept. 18-20 and will feature strong competition from five teams that advanced to the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
Three teams – Miami, Florida State and host Illinois – reached the NCAA’s Sweet Sixteen and finished the 2009 season ranked among the nation’s top 20. Northwestern and Notre Dame closed last season ranked among the nation’s top-50 men’s tennis programs.
The OFCC Fighting Illini Invitational is the only NCAA Division I clay court event of the season.
Four Hurricanes will travel to Illinois to represent Miami this weekend – seniors David Simon (Vienna, Austria) and Hector Nieto (Mexico City, Mexico) and juniors Carl Sundberg (Oslo, Norway) and Christian Blöcker (Hamburg, Germany).
Sundberg, who earned All-ACC honors as a sophomore and All-America accolades as a freshman, enters the season ranked No. 79 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) preseason poll. He was among three Hurricanes to finish with 20-plus singles wins in 2009, posting a 20-7 record, including a team-best 9-1 mark versus ACC competition.
The Hurricanes, who finished last season ranked 19th in the nation, open the OFCC Fighting Illini Invitational with doubles competition at 9 a.m., followed by the start of singles play at 1 p.m.
