Men's Tennis: Peers Earns Invite To ITA Indoor
11/3/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Nov. 3, 2010
TOURNAMENT CENTRAL | LIVE RESULTS
WACO, Texas - Senior John Peers earned a spot into the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships on Wednesday when as the first alternate he was called to take the spot of Virginia's Michael Shabaz in the 32-man singles draw.
The National Indoor tournament will be held at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, in Flushing, New York, and is slated to run Thursday through Sunday.
"This is a great opportunity for John," head coach Matt Knoll said. "It is going to be a good test. It is not ideal, but hopefully it is a challenge he will be able to meet."
On Thursday in first round action, Peers will face Sven Vloedgraven of Binghamton. Vloedgraven won the ITA Northeast Regional for the second straight year to earn an automatic bid into this weekend's tournament.
"Vloedgraven won his region and is a good player," Knoll said. "We feel if John can get through that one, he can get his feet under him and start moving through the draw."
The spot opened up for Peers, because Shabaz will be participating at the Virginia National Bank Tennis Championships in Charlottesville, Va.
At last month's USTA/ITA Texas Regional, Peers came up just two wins shy of earning an automatic bid into the national tournament. The Melbourne, Australia, native was beaten in the semifinals by 24th-ranked Gonzalo Escobar of Texas Tech. In quarterfinal action, Peers beat the tournament's No. 1 seed and 12th-ranked Austin Krajicek of Texas A&M.
The Texas regional was one of 12 held around the country in October with the winners of the singles and doubles brackets advancing to the national event.
On the season, Peers is 9-3 and 2-3 against ranked opponents.
"John is in a really tough spot in a lot of ways to be honest," Knoll said. "It has rained here the last couple of days, so we haven't practiced at all and we don't practice indoors ever. He is basically going to jump off a plane at midnight and wake up that next day and play a match without much practice."
In the past Baylor has had success in the National Indoor Championships with Benjamin Becker making it to the finals in 2001 and Benedikt Dorsch taking the title in 2002.
Players Mentioned
