Elon Men’s Tennis: Sarrasague Earns Bid to 2019 NCAA Singles Championships

INDIANAPOLIS – Elon University men’s tennis senior Felipe Sarrasague has received a bid to the 2019 NCAA Singles Tournament Championship, as announced by the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Subcommittee on Tuesday, April 30.

NCAA RELEASE

The singles competition of 64 players will be conducted May 20-25 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida, after the conclusion of the team championship, which runs from May 16-19. The University of Central Florida and the Greater Orlando Sports Commission will serve as hosts. Sarrasague’s opponent will not be determined until the day before the tournament begins.

Sarrasague reached the tournament by virtue of the automatic bid for the Colonial Athletic Association. Automatic qualification into the Division I singles championship is awarded to any conference with one or more eligible singles players ranked in the ITA Top 125 for eligible/entered singles players.

In the most recent Oracle ITA Singles Rankings on April 23, Sarrasague is ranked No. 102 in the national polls and holds a 15-5 record this season. He has earned several wins against players currently ranked in the most recent poll, such as No. 44-ranked Sumit Sarkar of Rice and No. 96-ranked Simon Baudry of Clemson. Four of his five losses this season have come against players who owned a national ranking at one point during the fall or spring season in 2018-19.

Earlier this season, Sarrasague had an 11-match winning streak after losing his opener on Jan. 12, but that streak was snapped against Frazier Rengifo of ETSU on March 17. The reigning 2018 CAA Player of the Year has won 59 career dual singles matches, which currently ranks tied for 4th in program history with Chase Helpingstine ’11. Sarrasague earned a big victory in the 2019 CAA Championship final on April 20 against top-seeded UNCW with a 6-4, 6-2 victory against Austin Hussey.

Yesterday, the Phoenix earned the No. 3 seed in the Chapel Hill, N.C. pod of the NCAA team championships and will take on second-seeded Georgia on Friday, May 3, at 1 p.m. The winner of that match will take on the winner of No. 1 North Carolina and No. 4 Navy on Saturday, May 4, at 4 p.m.