King Begins Season Ranked No. 8 Nationally
9/12/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Sept. 12, 2011
SKILLMAN, N.J. -- Junior Evan King (Chicago, Ill./Kaplan HS) of the University of Michigan men's tennis team will enter the season as the No. 8-ranked singles player in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). It marks a career-high national ranking for the Maize and Blue's top player.
King, who listed No. 17 in the final national poll of the 2011 season, is the fourth-highest ranked player in the Big Ten Conference behind Ohio State's Blaz Rola (No. 2) and Chase Buchanan (No. 5) and Illinois' Dennis Nevolo (No. 7).
King enters his junior campaign with an overall singles record of 51-22. He has played at the top of the lineup since his arrival on campus, compiling a dual-match mark of 24-5 at No. 1 and 9-7 at No. 2. King will look to improve on a stellar sophomore season, when he tallied a career-best 30-9 record en route to ITA All-America honors and his second straight All-Big Ten nomination.
Joining King in the year's first national poll is sophomore Shaun Bernstein (Plainview, N.Y./Plainview Old Bethpage JFK HS), who makes his rankings debut at No. 125. King and Bernstein represent the Wolverines in the national doubles rankings at No. 33.
In addition to the release of the preseason national rankings, the ITA office revealed its selections for its All-American Championships. King earned his second straight automatic invitation into the 48-player main singles draw and will team with Bernstein in the 64-team qualifying doubles draw. The pair is included on the alternate list for the main doubles draw.
Bernstein will also compete in the 112-player qualifying singles draw at the event.
The ITA All-American Championships, which will be held Monday through Sunday, Oct. 3-9, in the University of Tulsa's Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla., are the first of three national championships during the 2011-12 men's collegiate tennis season. The other two events are the USTA/ITA National Indoors Championships, to be held Nov. 3-6, and the NCAA Championships, to be played May 17-28.
U-M kicks off its fall campaign at the Harvard Chowder Invitational, scheduled for Sept. 23-25, at the Beren Tennis Center in Cambridge, Mass. The three-day event will feature three-time defending national champion USC, the Big 12's Texas A&M and host Harvard.
Contact: Leah Howard (734) 763-4423
