Trojan Tennis Splits Up For Three Tourneys This Week

Fall tennis gets officially underway this week, with members of the USC men's tennis team heading three different directions to engage in their first action of the 2018-19 campaign. Trojans are slated for competition at the Milwaukee Tennis Classic, the Battle in the Bay and the Oracle ITA Masters.

The winner of the Oracle ITA Masters singles and mixed doubles titles last year, junior Brandon Holt will leave it up to fellow Trojans Daniel Cukierman and Laurens Verboven to defend his crowns. Holt is slated for singles and doubles action at the Battle in the Bay in San Francisco along with redshirt senior Tanner Smith and freshmen Bradley Frye and Jake Sands. It will be the first official action as Trojans for Frye and Sands. Competition at the Battle in the Bay runs Sept. 21-23. Holt last competed at the Battle in the Bay as a freshman, reaching the singles semifinals and falling in the doubles title match alongside Riley Smith.

In Malibu, Cukierman and Verboven are locked into the 32-player singles draw and have yet to be assigned their mixed doubles partners. Action at the elite ITA event runs Sept. 20-23, with matches taking place at Malibu Racquet Club and on the Pepperdine campus. Cukierman and Verboven both carry career-high singles rankings into Malibu, with Cukierman standing at No. 31 in the nation and Verboven at No. 81 as they kick off fall 2018 competition. Cukierman has scored the No. 2 seed into the singles draw and will pair with USC freshman Salma Ewing as the No. 3 seeded team in mixed doubles. Verboven is on the opposite side of the singles bracket and the No. 6 seed. He'll team up with UCLA's Elysia Bolton in mixed doubles as the draw's No. 2 seeded pair. The singles championship match is slated to be televised on ESPNU on Sunday (Sept. 23).

While those six Trojans are sprinkled around California, two other USC players are off to Wisconsin to compete at the 43rd annual Milwaukee Tennis Classic. Senior Logan Smith and redshirt junior Jake DeVine are in the mix for the long-standing event that was last won by a Trojan in 1990, when Byron Black claimed the singles title and paired with Kent Seton for the doubles crown.

For more information and updates, visit the tournament links above.

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Players Mentioned

Daniel Cukierman

Jake DeVine

Bradley Frye

Brandon Holt

Jake Sands

Logan Smith

Riley Smith

Tanner Smith

Laurens Verboven