NCAA Singles Championships Bracket
By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information Coordinator
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Already one of the most decorated tennis players in Tennessee Tech history, junior Eduardo Mena is set to take his spot in rarified air Wednesday afternoon in the 2017 NCAA Division I singles championships. After earning a selection as one of the 64 participants at the beginning of May, Mena learned his first round matchup following the release of the bracket early in the week.
Mena, the nation's 58th ranked player in the latest ITA rankings, will hook up with Baylor's Maxime Tchoutakian at 1 p.m. CT from the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga. the same site as the team national quarterfinals, semifinals and championship. The University of Georgia will serve as host.
The Mena-Tchoutakian victor will square off with the winner of Stanford's Tom Fawcett and Georgia's Wayne Montgomery, another first round matchup, also slated for 1 p.m. The second round tilt is scheduled for Thursday. The Round of 16 is on Friday, while Saturday marks the quarterfinals, Sunday the semifinals and the National Championship match is set for Monday.
Mena's nod to complete in the singles championships marks just the second time a Tech player has received an individual bid, and first since Borja Zarco (2007-08).
A two-time Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year, Mena secured his bid in the field of 64 as one of 15 automatic qualifiers, representing the OVC in the exclusive field. The conference was awarded with an automatic qualification by virtue of having one or more eligible singles players ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Top 125. All singles players must have a minimum of 13 completed singles matches, with six matches in the spring, in order to be selected as an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection.
Mena enters the championships with a 17-2 spring singles record, having won 13-straight matches that included a pair of wins in the OVC Tournament to help lead the Golden Eagles to the tourney title. The 6-foot junior did all of his damage out of the No. 1 spot in the lineup, and was a perfect 6-0 in conference action.
In TTU's NCAA Tournament bout at No. 10 Cal on May 12, Mena was right in the thick of things with No. 12 Florian Lakat, a fellow participant in this week's championships. The OVC Player of the Year fell 6-3 in the first set, but held a 4-3 edge in the second at the clash was called.
Baylor's Maxime Tchoutakian, the country's 50th ranked player, found himself on the All-Big 12 singles second team after compiling a 15-3 mark during the spring. The Aix en Provence, France native did a bulk of his work out of the No. 2 slot in the Bears' lineup, registering a 10-3 record out of that position. Tchoutakian won his only singles match out of the No. 1 spot.
Photo by Tony Marable
