Baylor
ITA All-American
Men's Tennis: Rux Victorious In First Round Action
10/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Oct. 8, 2009
TULSA, Okla.- Jordan Rux stayed perfect in fall season play as he took down Jaak Poldma of Southern California, Thursday at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center to advance to second round action of the D'Novo ITA All-American Championships.
Rain forced the match to be played indoors, but Rux, the 27th-ranked player in the ITA preseason rankings, had little trouble adjusting to the setting change and took the first set 6-4. Poldma, the 49th-ranked player, battled back to grab the second set 6-3. In the third and deciding set Rux reestablished himself and cruised to a 6-4 victory.
"In the first set Jordan played really aggressive and took control of the match," assistant coach Chris Brandi said. "Then in the second set he reverted to playing a little passive, but in the third he played a little more aggressive especially on the other guy's serve and I think that was the difference."
The win moves Rux's fall record to 7-0, however the second set loss marked the first time all season the junior had taken a loss in a set.
Next, Rux will face Eric Quigley of Kentucky, who knocked off the No. 1 player in the country, Oleksandr Nedovyesov from Oklahoma State, 7-5, 6-1 Thursday. Quigley is sporting a 4-0 record and is ranked No. 70 in the preseason listings. The sophomore got the chance to play Nedovyesov after winning three straight qualifying matches.
"Quigley is a really good player," Brandi said. "He may not have as much exposure as other guys just because he was a freshman last year. So on paper it looks like a really big upset, but Quigley is as good as anybody here and Jordan knows that."
The time for tomorrow's match will be announced later this evening and the plan of tournament officials is to play two matches tomorrow.
If Rux were to win tomorrow's second round match he would face the winner of Sanam Singh of Virginia or Jay Goldman of Arizona in the round of 16.
The D'Novo All-American Tennis Championships, held for the third straight year in Tulsa, entails five days of qualifying events. It began with a 256-player pre-qualifying singles tournament on Oct. 3-4. The top 16 pre-qualifiers fed into the 128-player qualifying tournament on Oct. 5-7, which then fed 16 players into the 64-player main draw on Oct. 8-11.
Tournament draws and results can be viewed here for this week's matches.
Thursday Results
Round of 64
Jordan Rux (BU) def. Jaak Poldma (USC) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
Friday Schedule
Round of 32
Jordan Rux (BU) vs. Eric Quigley (UK)
Players Mentioned
