Sachire draws top seed in ITA tourney
Special to The Observer
Irish senior Ryan Sachire was named the top seed of the 64-player draw of the 1999 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Men's All-American Championships.
The All-American is favored in the second leg of the ITA grand slam that begins Thursday at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center at the University of Texas. Sachire, the second ranked singles player in the preseason ITA rankings, will face Arizona's Alex Aybar at 8:30 a.m. in the first round of the tournament, which begins Thursday and concludes on Monday.
Sachire reached the final at the '98 ITA Men's All-American Championships before losing to Harvard's James Blake and was a quarterfinalist as a sophomore in '97. The top seeding marks the second for Sachire in as many grand slams for the Irish senior from Canfield, Ohio.
Sachire turned in his best showing over at the T. Rowe Price National Clay Championships last month by reaching the semifinals as the top-seeded player in the first grand slam of the season.
The draw contains 15 players who appear in the ITA preseason top 20. Six others from the current Top 10 will be in action: No. 4 Esteban Carril of TCU, No. 5 Francisco Rodriguez of Alabama, No. 7 Michal Chmela of LSU, No. 8 Peter Handoyo of Tennessee, No. 9 Brian Vahaly of Virginia and No. 10 Justin O' Neal of Florida. Also competing will be VCU's Daniel Andersson who won the T. Rowe Price National Clay Court Championships last month.
The ITA All-American Championships have been played annually since 1979. This is the ninth straight year that this second leg of the ITA Grand Slam is taking place at the University of Texas.
Between the two qualifying tournaments and main draw, over 350 players compete during the nine-day tournament, making it the largest NCAA Division I tennis tournament in the country. The ITA Grand Slam also includes the T. Rowe Price National Clay Court Championships, the Rolex National Indoor Championships in February and the NCAA Championship in May.
The women's equivalent of the All-American - the Riviera Women's All-American Championships takes place in Pacific Palisades, Calif., next week.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, October 14, 1999
