No. 34 Tigers Earn AAC's Top Seed, Open Postseason Play Friday against Temple

Friday, April 21

Orlando, Fla. / USTA National Campus

8:00 AM

University of Memphis

(8) Temple

No. 34 Tigers Earn AAC's Top Seed, Open Postseason Play Friday against Temple

Apr 19, 2023 | Men's Tennis

Live Stats Live Stream Full AAC Bracket (PDF)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The No. 34 Memphis men's tennis team earned the No. 1 seed for the 2023 American Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Championship.

The Tigers earned the AAC's top seed for the first time since 2018, which was their first season as a league member.

Top-seeded Memphis is slated to take on No. 8 Temple at 8 a.m. CT Friday. The winner of the match will advance to face the winner of No. 4 SMU and No. 5 Tulsa on Saturday at 11 a.m.

The Tigers and Owls did not meet in the regular season.

Memphis enters the championship 12-6 overall and 4-1 against AAC opponents.
After starting the season 0-2, the Tigers rebounded with eight-straight victories and then closed with four wins in its last five matches heading into postseason play.

Pablo Alemany led the team with 10 doubles victories on the season. He and Pau Fanlo teamed up for six of them.

Memphis also got six doubles wins from each tandem of David Stevenson and Jeremy Taylor at the top spot and Harry Rock and Conor Gannon at the No. 2 position.

The sophomore Rock posted a team-best 12-2 mark in singles action between the No. 4-6 spots. He won his first seven battles before suffering his first defeat, and then reeled off another five-straight wins.

Alemany enters the AAC Championship ranked 69^th in the ITA ratings in singles after going 8-7 at the top position, which included eight matchups against nationally ranked opponents. Fanlo and Gannon also each earned eight wins in singles.

Memphis begins its ninth AAC Championship under the direction of head coach Paul Goebel. The Tigers have yet to capture an AAC crown, but have still earned eight trips to the NCAA Tournament in the past 10 years under Goebel. This will also be the third time he has led the No. 1 team in the American Tournament after the Tigers clinched the top seed in 2014 and 2018.

Temple brings a 19-4 overall mark to Orlando as the eight seed. The Owls only faced once conference opponent this year, defeating Wichita State 4-3 in the regular season finale on Tuesday.

Doubles pairing of Hussein El Tawil and Louis Gorregues have posted 17 victories together, while Thibault Frumholz has compiled a team-best 19-1 record in singles across the No. 2-6 positions.

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