Men’s Tennis Opens Fall With Three in National Rankings

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Men’s Tennis Opens Fall With Three in National Rankings

Sep 13, 2016 | Men's Tennis

Junior trio of Watson, Peniston and Lemke in national singles rankings to start fall.

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – The University of Memphis men's tennis team will open its 2016 fall season at the Alabama Four-in-the-Fall tournament next weekend, and will do so with three players in the national singles rankings released Tuesday afternoon. The junior trio of Andrew Watson, Ryan Peniston and Kai Lemke were all listed among the top 90 players in the country in the first Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings.

Watson finished last year as number 81 in the country, and starts his junior season at number 52. Peniston, who was also ranked at the end of his sophomore season after earning all-conference honors, starts this fall at number 57.

Lemke rounds of the trio of Memphis juniors in the rankings, starting the season at number 86.

Memphis finished last year at 14-11 overall and made the NCAA tournament field for the fourth time in five seasons. The Tigers lost just one player from that squad, Louis Asser, and will have the services of redshirt freshmen Matthew Story and Turner Voges. This fall will also mark the college debut of freshman Jan Pallares Monreal from Spain in the Tiger lineup.

As a team, Memphis capped last year at No. 41 in the country, at one point surging as high as 17 in the country, a program record. That marked the third straight season the men's tennis team ranked in the top 25 of the ITA national polls during the season.

Former Tigers Reunited on ATP Challenger Tour

Former Memphis men's tennis players David O'Hare and Joe Salisbury have reunited back on the professional tennis tour, joining forces to advance to the finals of the Challenger Event in St. Remy, France, last weekend before falling to Ken and Neal Skupski (both in the top 100 in the world in doubles), 6-7 (5), 6-4, 10-5. O'Hare has moved in to the top 150 in the world in doubles play, currently ranked at 140, a career-best. Salisbury is returning to play after illness forced him to miss a substantial part of the summer. The former Tiger did recover to make a run at a Wimbledon qualifying spot earlier this summer, and is currently at 258 in the world in doubles.

The former Tiger tandem is back stateside for the Atlantic Tire Championships in Cary, N.C. and will face Adam El Mihdawy and Darian King on Wednesday in the Round of 16.

Order of Play for Wednesday | Live Scoring