Joshua Clayton
Rebel tennis is primed for another impressive fall as both the men’s and women’s teams return impact players and welcome new faces looking to take the competition to a new level.
The new Intercollegiate Tennis Association Preseason Rankings released this week came out in favor of a few Rebels preparing for the upcoming slate of tournaments and invitationals. Senior Tim Sandkaulen was slotted as the No. 25 singles player in the nation, one of seven SEC players in the top25, just under No. 24 Giovanni Oradini of Mississippi State.
Sandkaulen finished the 2019 spring season at No. 48 after falling as the lone Ole Miss representative in the NCAA Individual Championships. He boasts back-to-back All-SEC honors in the past two seasons.
He and his doubles partner, fellow German Lukas Engelhardt, were tabbed the No. 52 ranked duo in the nation. Sandkaulen and the freshman out of Augsburg, Germany, showed some gusto in the Four-in-the-Fall tournament last weekend.
Senior Alexa Bortles and junior Sabina Machalova found their names on the women’s rankings as well, coming in as the No. 17 doubles pair in the nation. Bortles, a 2018 doubles All-American, and Machalova, ITA’s 2019 South Regional Player to Watch, teamed up halfway through conference play and found chemistry.
Machalova was also slotted as the No. 58 singles player in the nation.
The men launched their fall campaign last weekend at the Four-In-The-Fall tournament when the team split between Nashville and Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Sandkaulen, Engelhardt and sophomores Simon Junk and Jan Soren Hain represented the Rebels in Tuscaloosa, while Cotter Wilson, Sebastian Rios and freshman Nikola Slavic played in Nashville.
Sandkaulen fell to Alabama’s Riccardo Roberto in the singles Crimson Draw Championship in a close matchup. Englehardt fell to Roberto in the semifinal.
Rios grabbed two victories in Nashville with a win in singles and doubles, teaming up with Grant Kelly out of Belmont to beat a Vanderbilt duo.
The men will be back in action next weekend at the John Breaux Cajun Tennis Classic in Lafayette, Louisiana along with Baylor, Oklahoma State, Arizona State and others.
The women’s squad will have a weekend similar to the men’s opening action as the team will divide for two different tournaments. Half the team will head to Auburn for the Marliss Gruver Fall Invitational with the other half in Charlottesville, Virginia, for the UVA Fall Invite.
Both teams will look to improve upon an up-and-down spring season that saw the men fall to Oklahoma State in the NCAA Regional Tournament and the women get knocked out of the SEC Tournament in the second round by Florida.
