The Texas men’s tennis team started the fall season off to an impressive start by winning the singles title in one tournament, while also posting wins in another.

Junior Daniel Whitehead beat out fellow teammate Soren Hess-Olesen in the final of the Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational in Midland this past weekend. Whitehead was leading 3-2 when Hess-Olesen suffered a minor injury and was forced to retire from the match.

“Daniel came out on top, and he got better as the tournament went on,” said head coach Michael Center. “He deserved to win.”

In his first round match, Whitehead defeated Will Stein of Texas Christian, 6-4, 6-4 before beating Grant Ive of Tulsa, 6-1, 6-4. In the semifinal, Whitehead recorded a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Texas Tech’s Raphael Pfister.

Hess-Olesen beat Hans Hach of Abilene Christian 6-2, 6-1 and then Jordan Szabo of Texas A&M 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semifinals, where he defeated Clifford Marsland of Tulsa 6-2, 6-4, to set up an all-Texas final.

“It was too bad that Soren hurt himself, but I give Daniel a lot of credit for his play this weekend,” Center said. “Soren had a great weekend, too. He showed that he is a tremendous player.”

Junior Alex Hilliard won two singles match before falling to Pfister in three sets.

Freshman Jacoby Lewis posted a victory in his first match before falling to Rafael Garcia of Texas Tech in three sets.

In the Olympia Fields Invitational in Illinois, juniors Chris Camillone and Ben Chen, along with sophomores David Holiner and freshman Sudanwa Sitaram all recorded first round victories. Holiner beat Carlos Taborga of Alabama 6-2, 6-2 in his second match, while Chen defeated Tim Kopinski of Illinois by a 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 count. Camillone and Sitaram both lost their second matches.

Camillone teamed up with Holiner to post the lone UT victory in doubles matches on Friday, an 8-5 decision over the University of Kentucky’s Ryuji Hiroonka and Alejandro Gomez.

“We had some nice performances at Olympia Fields,” Center said. “It was a great weekend for those guys.”  

Printed on September 20, 2011 as: Whitehead comes out on top in all-Longhorns final