Regional Repeat on the Radar

There are a lot of good teams and players in the draw and we are going to have to play well to have a good showing.
John Roddick

NORMAN, Okla. – The University of Oklahoma will host the 2014 USTA/ITA Central Region Championship at the Headington Family Tennis Center and the Gregg Wadley Indoor Pavilion, Oct. 9-13.

The tournament features more than 100 of the best players from around the Central Region. In total, 18 schools will be represented including Oklahoma State, Tulsa, Nebraska, and Arkansas.

“We are looking forward to hosting our regional championships,” head coach John Roddick said. “There are a lot of good teams and players in the draw and we are going to have to play well to have a good showing. I feel like we are starting to play better as team and we have the opportunity to show that this weekend.”

The Sooners are looking to match their performance from the Regional Championship last season when senior Dane Webb and junior Axel Alvarez played each other in the championship match of the main singles draw. Alvarez took home the singles title for OU.

Alvarez, ranked 3rd nationally, and Webb, ranked 14th, are the top two seeds in this year's main singles draw. Fellow Sooners Alex Ghilea, a sophomore, and Nick Papac, a redshirt senior, were also preselected for the main singles draw, which is scheduled to begin Friday.

Sophomore Sam Gray will begin play in the 64-man qualifying singles draw on Thursday. Gray will face Aiden Saggers of Southern Illinois at 8 a.m. Main draw matchups and times will be released Thursday.

Oklahoma will also have two doubles teams in play this weekend. Alvarez and Webb, ranked No. 40, and Ghilea and Papac will represent OU in the main doubles draw, slated to begin Friday.

This will be the second time that Oklahoma has hosted the USTA/ITA Central Region Championship since the opening of the Headington Family Tennis Center in 2001. OU also hosted the event in 2010 when two Sooners played in the main draw singles final match with Ionut Beleleu claiming the title.

The qualifying singles draw can be found here, or in the related links section.

For more information on OU Men's Tennis, follow the team on Twitter at @OU_MTennis.