Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Compete In All-American Championships
9/29/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Sept. 29, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern travels to Chattanooga, Tenn. this weekend to open up fall season competition at this year's ITA All-American Championship. The Wildcats' eight-man roster will join over 300 players in competition for the first national singles and doubles titles of the season.
Other than sophomore Christian Tempke (Wentorf, Germany/Gymnasium LohbrUgge), who began his season last weekend at the Baylor Intercollegiate Tournament, this weekend will mark the first competition for the Wildcats since ending last year with a 15-9 record --- NU's best finish since 1998.
The championships begin Fri., Oct. 1, with prequalifying tournaments featuring 192-singles players and 96-doubles teams. Those prequalifying tournaments feed into 128-player and 64-doubles team qualifying tournaments that run from Monday, Oct. 4 through Wednesday, Oct. 6. The main draw -- 64-players, 32-doubles teams--then starts next Thursday, Oct. 7, with the finals taking place on Sunday, Oct. 10.
Senior Tommy Hanus (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) --- who comes into the season ranked No. 69 --- has been given a virtual bye into the qualifier portion of the championships. Tempke (Wentorf, Germany) is scheduled to begin competition in the qualifying round too, but is questionable after injuring his ankle at Baylor last weekend, where he posted a strong 2-1 record.
The rest of the team will begin competition in the pre-qualifier portion of the tournament.
As a whole, the `Cats return a veteran-laden squad for the 2004-05 season with everyone from last year's team coming back except for former captain Ahmed Wahla. Everyone lettered in '04 and the `Cats will be led by the strong senior class of Justin Hoeveler (Ross, Calif./The Branson School), Chuck Perrin (Atlanta, Ga./The Walker School) and Hanus.
