University of Washington
All-American Championships
Egger Wins Opener To Kick Off Season
October 03, 2011 | Men's Tennis
Oct. 3, 2011
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TULSA, Okla. - The 2011-12 men's tennis season officially began today at the ITA All-American Championships, and Husky freshman Emmett Egger opened it on a successful note with a victory in the first round of qualifying. Egger and junior Kyle McMorrow are at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center at the University of Tulsa for the season's largest individual tournament.
The ITA All-American Championships are the first of three major college tennis tournaments, followed by the ITA National Indoor Championships, and the NCAA Championships in the spring. Hundreds of players enter the draw and several rounds are played just to reach the main draws in singles and doubles. Prequalifying rounds were held over the weekend, which Egger and McMorrow bypassed. McMorrow will be an automatic main draw entrant in singles, while the two will start qualifying doubles play tomorrow.
Three wins are required for Egger to make it into the 64-player main draw and join McMorrow. He picked up the first one today, going against Ohio State's Hunter Callahan. Coincidentally, Egger and Callahan are both tied for 10th in the ITA's preseason newcomer/freshman rankings. The rankings hinted at a competitive match, and that came to fruition, as Callahan won the first set, 7-5, but Egger rallied back to win the second set, 6-4, then pulled away for a 6-1 third set win.
In the second round of qualifying Egger will face Guillermo Alcorta of Oklahoma at 9 a.m. Central time. In doubles, he and McMorrow are the No. 1 seeds in qualifying, and will play Raphael Hemmeler and Fred Saba of Duke in the first round tomorrow a 2:30 p.m.
Players Mentioned
