Rebels tennis wraps up play at ITA All-American Championships

Ole Miss men’s tennis saw its ITA All-American Championships come to a close on Thursday with senior Nikola Slavic’s defeat in the main draw’s consolation bracket for singles.

The Rebels ultimately finish the tournament with a 3-4 record in singles and 2-1 record in doubles spanning across the pre-qualifying, qualifying and main draws of play.

Slavic, who entered the tournament as the No. 5 overall seed in singles, received an automatic bid into the main draw of the tournament’s singles bracket. The reigning All-American saw a difficult matchup to open his tournament, facing off against Virginia’s No. 21 ranked Jeffrey von der Schulenberg in the Round of 64.

Slavic’s match with von der Schulenberg started with a tightly contested opening set, where Slavic fought valiantly before von der Schulenberg took the opening set 7-5. Slavic wasn’t able to mount a comeback in his second set, falling 6-3 to von der Schulenberg to drop into the tournament’s consolation bracket.

In his consolation match on Thursday, Slavic saw himself matched up against Baylor’s Finn Bass, who entered the ITA All-American Championships ranked as the No. 100 singles player in the nation. Slavic battled, but it was Bass that would take a 6-1, 7-5 victory at the end of the day, ending Slavic’s time in Tulsa.

The Rebels will return to action at the ITA Southern Championships hosted at the University of Alabama, with the tournament set to run Oct. 13-17 in Tuscaloosa.