Tennis

The Oregon men’s tennis team begins the pre-qualifying rounds today for the 2002 Icy Hot/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Men’s All-American Championships in Chattanooga, Tenn.
The tournament is a weeklong event, with the pre-qualifying rounds going until Monday.
Sixteen singles players and eight doubles teams advance to the qualifying rounds, which finish Wednesday. The 16 players that advance from the singles qualifier go on to face the 47 pre-determined, nationally-ranked athletes in the main-draw portion of the tournament. Eight doubles teams advance into a pool of 23.
This is the first of three national-championship events that will take place during the 2002-03 season. The Omni Hotels/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships will take place in November and the NCAA Championships begin in May.
The only Ducks officially on the entry list are senior Oded Teig and sophomore Sven Swinnen. Both will be competing in singles play on the weekend, then will team up to take on doubles opponents Wednesday. They received a bye through the pre-qualifying doubles rounds.
Swinnen will start at 11:30 a.m. ET and take on Scott Green of Ohio State. Teig drew Benedikt Dorsch from Baylor for his first-round match.
Last year’s ITA National Rookie of the Year and top-ranked singles player Jesse Witten of Kentucky is one of many big names appearing in Chattanooga this weekend. Teig and Swinnen will have to compete with Witten and 41 of the other top 50 players in the nation. Among them are No. 2 Tobias Clemens of UCLA and No. 11 David Martin from Stanford.
On the doubles side, last year’s Icy Hot champions and top-ranked team Marcin Matkowski and Jean-Julien Rojer of UCLA are surprisingly absent. But second-ranked Martin and Scott Lipsky from Stanford, runners-up of a year ago, will compete and most likely be the favorites.
This is the first year the event will be held in Tennessee. Last year’s tournament was held in Stone Mountain, Ga., and was won by Stanford’s K.J. Hippensteel, who has since graduated.
Past winners of the Icy Hot include former Wimbledon finalist MaliVai Washington and former French Open finalist Mikael Pernfors.