ITA Central Regional begins Thursday

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas men’s tennis hosts the ITA Wilson Central Region Championships this weekend, kicking off with a round of qualifying matches on Thursday morning at the Dills Indoor Stadium and George M. Billingsley Tennis Center.Hogs Matt Walters, Nick Spinazze, Connor Smith and Tariq Ismail will each play a qualifying match on Thursday in hopes of playing in the main draw, beginning Friday. Smith and Spinazze both played at the 2007 ITA Wilson Central Regional Championships.In the main draw on Friday, the Razorbacks will see action from No.125 Matt Hogan, Chris Nott, Dmitry Lebedev, Bradwin Williams, Tyler Tarnasky, and Taylor King, all of whom already have spots in the draw. Arkansas’ No.1 singles player, Blake Strode will not play singles in this weekend’s regional tournament, having advanced to the quarterfinals at the D’Novo Men’s All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla. last weekend, and earning himself a spot in the National Men’s Team Indoor Championships in Charlottesville, VA taking place in November. Last year, Strode and Nott advanced to the quarterfinals of the regional held in Tulsa, Okla where they lost to Dalibor Pavic of Drake and Andrei Daescu of Oklahoma, respectively. In doubles on Friday, Arkansas will send the teams of Hogan and Strode, Nott and King, Williams and Tarnasky, Lebedev and Walters, and Spinazze and Smith to the courts. At last season’s tournament, two Arkansas doubles teams made it to the semifinals and Strode and former-Razorback Colin Mascall advanced into the finals before losing to Oklahoma’s Daescu and Frederico Chavarria.On display at this year’s ITA Wilson Central Region Championships, will be 70 players from 11 schools, including seven nationally-ranked players in the singles draw and one nationally-ranked doubles team. The event concludes Monday with the finals of both the singles and doubles tournaments.First serve in the qualifying draw is set for 11 a.m. on Thursday, with play in the main draw to follow on Friday. For complete coverage of the ITA Wilson Central Region Championship, including start times in the main draw, and of the Arkansas Razorbacks men’s tennis team, log onto ArkansasRazorbacks.com.