BLACKSBURG, Va. – The Virginia Tech men’s tennis team has earned a preseason ranking of 43rd while freshmen Andreas Bjerrehus and Amerigo Contini have been tabbed in both singles and doubles as announced this week by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
Bjerrehus and Contini have earned a No. 15 national ranking in doubles. The duo went 6-3 in the fall tournament season. The duo secured a pair of impressive wins at the ITA Atlantic Regional as they claimed the title to advance to the ITA National Indoor Championships. In the semifinals of the regional event, Bjerrehus and Contini defeated UVa’s duo of Alex Domijan and Harrison Richmond 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. The Cavalier pair enters the 2013 spring with a preseason ranking of No. 8. Bjerrehus and Contini defeated the UVa’s Justin Shane and Julien Uriguen in the final round of the regional tournament with scores of 6-0, 6-7(4), 6-2. Shane and Uriguen are tabbed No. 9 in the preseason doubles standings.
This marks the highest doubles ranking for the Hokies since Pedro Graber and Nicholas Delgado were selected No. 3 in the 2007 fall rankings.
In singles, Bjerrehus has been picked 29th after totaling a fall record of 14-4 and 3-3 against ranked foes. Bjerrehus tabbed wins against the then No. 32 and No. 17 players in the country. He also secured a win against preseason No. 26 Florent Diep out of Florida. Bjerrehus took Duke’s No. 38 Raphel Hemmeler and UVa’s No. 4 Jarmere Jenkins to three sets, including a 6-0 shutout against Jenkins in the second set.
Contini tabulated a fall record of 12-4 and was 1-2 against ranked opponents. He secured a win against then-No. 74 Nicholas Sayer of Radford. Contini secured a win in straight sets against UVa’s Ryan Shane who was unranked at the time, but enters the spring season picked 22nd. In addition, Contini battled against Georgia’s Nathan Pasha, who is ranked No. 19 in the preseason, to three sets before falling 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-7(3)
Both Contini and Bjerrehus advanced through the singles prequalifying rounds of the ITA All-American Championships and followed that up by advancing to the semifnials of the ITA Atlantic Regionals in singles.
Bjerrehus joins five freshmen ranked in the top-30, four of who come from the ACC. The ACC has 10 of its 11 men’s tennis teams ranked in the preseason poll with UVa holding the No. 1 spot. Duke was picked fifth and North Carolina claimed a No. 18 ranking. Florida State (32nd), NC State (40th), Georgia Tech (59th), Clemson (60th), Miami (65th) and Wake Forest (66th) all join the Hokies in the rankings.
Virginia Tech will open the spring slate on January 19 at home in a doubleheader against College of Charleston and Longwood.
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