Championship Central

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – UCF’s has earned the No. 1 seed for the American Athletic Conference Men’s Tennis Championship presented by Air Force Reserve, which will be played at the USTA National Campus in Orlando April 18-21.
 
The Knights earned their first No. 1 seed in the six-year history of the championship on the heels of a 13-9 regular season. UCF went 3-0 against other American Athletic Conference opponents and scored three wins against nationally ranked teams during the season.
 
Seeds for the championships are determined by the Oracle/ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings. The winner of the men’s championship will earn The American’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Tennis Championships.
 
The top six seeds in the tournament received byes to the quarterfinal round. UCF will face the winner of Thursday’s first-round match between No. 8-seeded ECU and No. 9 SMU.
 
Tulane, which won the 2017 American title, enters as the No. 2 seed for the third consecutive season. The Green Wave closed the regular season with six straight wins to bring a 14-11 mark into this year’s tournament.
 
Each match in the championship will consist of three doubles matches, each consisting of one set to 6, followed by six singles matches, which will be played in a best-of-three-sets format.
 
Complete coverage of The American Tennis Championships, including live scoring of each match, can be found on the conference’s Championship Central site. Live coverage of the women’s and men’s finals will be available on the American Digital Network.
 
 
Championship Notes
Tulane became the first team other than USF to claim the American Championship when the Green Wave won its first title last season. USF had won the first four American titles.
 
USF has gone 14-1 all-time in the American Championship. The Bulls have reached the final in all five previous championships.
 
The No. 1-seeded team has won three American Athletic Conference titles, all by USF, which won as the top seed in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
 
No seed lower than No. 5 has reached the semifinal round of the American Championship. USF reached the final as the No. 5 seed last season before falling to No. 2-seeded Tulane 4-3.
 
Three American Athletic Conference teams were listed in the April 9 Oracle/ITA rankings. UCF was No. 32, Tulane was No. 42, and USF was No. 44.
 
The highest-ranked singles player in The American, as of the April 9 rankings, was USF senior Alberto Barroso-Campos, who was No. 17. UCF’s Gabriel Decamps was No. 32, while SMU’s Carles Sarrio was No. 66, Tulane’s Ewan Moore was No. 68, Tulsa’s Majed Kilani was No. 72 and Tulane’s Luis Erlenbusch was No. 89.
 
The American had seven doubles tandems ranked in last week’s Oracle/ITA list, led by UCF’s Trey Hilderbrand/Bogdan Pavel, who checked in at No. 24.
 
Tulane faced 13 ranked opponents among its 25 dual matches this spring, including matches against the current No. 1 (Texas) and No. 2 (Ohio State) teams in the nation.

AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN’S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
presented by AIR FORCE RESERVE
April 18-21 | Orlando, Florida
 

First Round | Thursday, April 18
Match 1: No. 10 UConn (7-14) vs. No. 7 Temple (13-6)	9 a.m.
Match 2: No. 9 SMU (11-16) vs. No. 8 ECU (14-6)	9 a.m.
Quarterfinals | Friday, April 19
Match 3: UConn/Temple winner vs. No. 2 Tulane (14-11)	9 a.m.
Match 4: No. 6 Memphis (11-12) vs. No. 3 USF (14-7)	9 a.m.
Match 5: No. 5 Wichita State (15-9) vs. No. 4 Tulsa (14-11)	Noon
Match 6: SMU/ECU winner vs. No. 1 UCF (13-9)	Noon
Semifinals | Saturday, April 20
Match 7: Match 3 winner vs. Match 4 winner	Noon
Match 8: Match 5 winner vs. Match 6 winner	Noon
Final | Sunday, April 21 | American Digital Network
Match 9: Semifinal winners	Noon

 
 
 
all times Eastern