The Clemson men’s tennis team kicked off its fall campaign this weekend at the Southern Intercollegiate Championships in Athens, Georgia. Clemson players reached the finals in three of the four singles brackets, winning two.
The Tigers showed promise in doubles play and acquired a sense of what this season has to offer.
In the red draw, Clemson’s No. 1 ranked singles player, Wissam Abderrahman, advanced past Georgia State’s Baran Soyler in straight sets before losing in the quarterfinals. In a match against Michael Zheng, the nation’s No. 2 ranked singles player, Noa Vukadin kept his nerves to win a tense second-set tiebreak 8-6, forcing the match to a third set. Zheng beat Vukadin 6-3 in the third and eventually became the red draw champion without dropping another set.
Meanwhile, Maxwell Smith and three other Tigers fought in the black draw. After dropping just one set en route to the final, Smith earned a singles championship victory by dominating the deciding third set 6-0 against UGA’s Ratiu Niels, who was ranked No. 2 in the nation in doubles last month.
The silver draw saw similar success, with Matt Pitts advancing to the semifinals and Stewart Aronson finishing as the runner-up against Georgia Tech’s Christophe Clement.
Nathan Pitts earned first-place honors in the white draw, thanks to a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Georgia Tech’s Robert Bauer. With Pitts’ win, the Tigers were victors in two singles brackets and had a finalist in three of the four.
Clemson showed its prowess across the board in doubles play, with all five duos winning their first-round matchup. No. 5 ranked doubles team Noa Vukadin and Maxwell Smith reached the quarterfinals, losing to Georgia’s Oscar Pinto Sansano and Miguel Perez Pena. Max Damn and Stewart Aronson made some noise as they clinched a semifinal berth in the doubles black draw.
Following the team’s early success, head coach Brandon Wagner says he is “glad to be back at it with our guys competing at a great event with great competition.”
In their first event of the fall season, all 11 Tigers competed in Athens, Georgia, where they showed just how deep their roster is. The Tigers will have a quick turnaround as they head to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where they will compete again beginning on Sept. 16.
