ORLANDO, Fla. – In a rematch of the last American Athletic Conference Men’s Tennis Championship final, UCF and USF will battle for the conference title Saturday at the USTA National Campus.
 
The top-seeded Knights reached the final with a 4-0 win against Wichita State Friday, while the No. 3-seeded Bulls took a hard-fought 4-2 victory against SMU.
 
UCF has taken both of its regular-season meetings with its War On I-4 rival in 2021. The Knights took a 6-1 decision in Orlando Jan. 31 and edged the Bulls 4-3 in Tampa April 3. USF scored a 4-3 win against USF in the 2019 American Championship final at the USTA National Campus, when the Bulls were also seeded No. 3 and the Knights were the No. 1 seed.
 
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 ESPN+.
 
 
USF 4, SMU 2
Records: USF (15-9), SMU (17-14)
 
Antonio Muniz Hidalgo won a third-set tiebreaker at No. 3 singles to end a three-and-a-half hour match and send USF on to The American Championship final with a 4-2 win against SMU Friday.
 
The Bulls, who improved to 19-1 all-time in The American Championship, won four of the five singles matches that were completed after the Mustangs had taken a closely contested doubles point.
 
Muniz-Hidalgo’s clinching win came as the Bulls’ Sergio Gomez Montesa and the Mustangs’ Clarke Wilson were locked in a third-set battle that saw Gomez Montesa win a second-set tiebreaker 12-10,
 
The Bulls won at the top three positions on the singles ladder as Chase Ferguson scored a three-set win at No. 1, Ivan Yatsuk cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 victory at No. 2 and Muniz Hidalgo took the No. 3 match.
 
The teams had split the first two doubles sets before SMU’s tandem of Tomas Vaise and Caleb Chakravarthi fought off six set points to win a tiebreaker at No. 2, 7-6 (5), giving SMU an early 1-0 lead.
 
After Yatsuk and Manuel Goncalves scored straight-set wins to give USF a 2-1 lead, SMU’s Jan-Simon Vrbsky took the No. 4 singles match 7-5, 6-2 to tie it at 2-2. Ferguson, who is ranked No. 62 nationally, put the Bulls one win away from the clincher with his three-set victory, setting the stage for Muniz Hidalgo’s late heroics.
 
 
 
UCF 4, Wichita State 0
Records: UCF (20-3), Wichita State (15-8)
 
Top-seeded UCF won three singles matches in straight sets after taking the doubles point to take a 4-0 win against Wichita State Friday afternoon, sending the Knights to the American Athletic Conference Championship Final for the second straight season.
 
The Knights, who are ranked No. 11 nationally, extended their winning streak to 12 matches. UCF will play for its first American tournament championship Saturday.
 
UCF took an early 1-0 lead as the Knights won at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, including a 6-0 decision by Alan Rubio and Kento Yamada at No. 3.
 
Trey Hilderbrand put the first singles match in the book with a 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 5, while Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi took a 6-4, 6-0 victory at No. 3 to make it 2-0. Yamada scored the clinching fourth point with a 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 4 singles.
 
UCF has won 18 of its last 19 matches.
 
 
 
 
2021 AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN’S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
April 22-24 | USTA National Campus | Orlando, Florida
 

First Round | Thursday, April 22
No. 5 Wichita State 4, No. 4 Memphis 3
No. 3 USF 4, No. 6 Tulsa 2
No. 7 SMU 4, No. 2 Tulane 1
Semifinals | Friday, April 23
No. 1 UCF 4, Wichita State 0
USF 4, SMU 2
Final | Saturday, April 24 | ESPN+
USF (15-9) vs. UCF (20-3)	3 p.m.

 
 
 
all times Eastern