Trojan Men’s Tennis Mixes It Up In Malibu At ITA Southwest Regional Championships

The USC men's tennis team is back in action this week as the Trojans roll over to Malibu for competition at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships, hosted by Pepperdine. USC boast three of the top-four seeds in the singles draw. Logan Smith weighs in as the top seed, with Jack Jaede the No. 3 seed and Thibault Forget at No. 4. In all, USC is sending eight Trojans into the mix for singles, with three pairs locked into the doubles draw. Action in Malibu begins tomorrow (Oct. 19) and runs through championship matches held Monday (Oct. 23). Competition will be held at Pepperdine's Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center and the Crest Tennis Courts.

Reporting for duty in the singles draw are those three high-seeded Trojans — Logan Smith, Jack Jaede and Thibault Forget — along with No. 12 seed Laurens Verboven and unseeded Jake DeVine, Tanner Smith, Mateusz Smolicki and Jens Sweaney. All but two of that crew will double up with doubles duty. The No. 5 seeded duo in the draw combines Polish newcomer Smolicki and Belgian veteran Verboven for their first action together as a doubles pairing. Another all-new pairing in Aussie junior Jack Jaede and redshirt junior Tanner Smith, who weigh in as the No. 6 seeded duo. Also lined up for doubles play after a year apart are redshirt sophomore Jake DeVine and senior Thibault Forget. That combo went 3-2 together back in 2015-16.

Smolicki, DeVine and Tanner Smith will all have opening-round matches tomorrow (Oct. 19), while the other five Trojans have byes to start the singles draw. So, too, will all three USC doubles pairs have byes in their opening rounds to move directly to the Round of 32 tomorrow morning.

Forget and Logan Smith made deep runs at last year's event, as Forget reached the title match and Smith was a semifinalist in the 2016 singles race. Forget and Smith also paired up for a run to the doubles quarterfinals last year.

This year, Logan Smith enters the tournament ranked #54 in the nation in singles, followed by #82 Jack Jaede and #96 Thibault Forget.

See below for USC's singles and doubles opening round draws.

2017 ITA SOUTHWEST REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (Malibu, Calif.)

SINGLES
First Round - Oct. 19
[1] #54 Logan Smith (USC) — bye
Mateusz Smolicki (USC) vs. Chase Masciorini (UCSB) — 10:45 a.m.
[4] #96 Thibault Forget (USC) — bye
Jake DeVine (USC) vs. Daniel DeLaTorre (SDSU) — 12:15 p.m.
Jens Sweaney (USC) — bye
[3] #82 Jack Jaede (USC) — bye
[12] Laurens Verboven (USC) — bye
Tanner Smith (USC) vs. Andrew Whitehouse (CP) — 12:15 p.m.

DOUBLES
Round of 64 - Oct. 19
[5] Smolicki/Verboven (USC) — bye
[6] Jaede/T. Smith (USC) — bye
DeVine/Forget (USC) — bye

Round of 32 - Oct. 19
[5] Smolicki/Verboven (USC) vs. TBD — 9:45 a.m.
[6] Jaede/T. Smith (USC) vs. TBD — 9:45 a.m.
DeVine/Forget (USC) vs. TBD — 9:45 a.m.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Jake DeVine

Thibault Forget

Jack Jaede

Logan Smith

Tanner Smith

Mateusz Smolicki

Jens Sweaney

Laurens Verboven