Men’s Tennis Central: #10 Tennessee vs. #3 TCU

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – In a rematch of the 2022 ITA National Indoor Championship final, the 10th-ranked Tennessee men's tennis team faces No. 3 TCU at home in Goodfriend Tennis Center Thursday at 5 p.m. ET.

Tennessee (6-2) and the undefeated Horned Frogs (5-0) face off for the third time in the past two dual seasons. Live stats will be provided by UTsports.com and can be found here. Live streaming is available for free through Playsight here.

Admission is free and complimentary tennis parking is located in SC40 at the Kingston Pike Building. Additional parking information can be found here. Free pizza will be available to fans at Thursday's match.

LAST TIME OUT
Tennessee booked its trip to the ITA National Indoor Championship for a third consecutive season with a 4-3 win over Oklahoma. Johannus Monday's third-set tiebreak victory clinched the four-hour battle.

SCOUTING TCU
Thursday marks the 10^th all-time meeting between the Vols and Horned Frogs. Holding a 7-2 all-time advantage over TCU, Tennessee won the first five matches of the series, which dates to 1983, and has won two of the past three.

The Vols and Frogs went from 2002-18 without meeting, before renewing the series in 2019, a 4-0 TCU win in Knoxville. In a consolation match at the 2021 ITA National Indoor Championship, the No. 10 Vols captured a 4-3 win over third-ranked TCU. Then, a season ago, No. 4 UT traveled to Fort Worth for a 4-3 win over No. 5 TCU in a nearly five-hour affair. The most recent meeting between the two squads came in the finals of ITA Indoors in 2022, with TCU emerging with a 4-1 win.

TCU opened its 2023 campaign with wins over Abilene Christian, SMU and Tulsa, before earning a pair of 4-0 sweeps over Gonzaga and Texas Tech at the Fort Worth Regional of the ITA Kickoff Weekend to advance to Indoor Nationals for a fifth consecutive season. TCU has won 31 of its 36 doubles points dating to the start of the 2022 dual season.

SENIOR ANGEL DIAZ ON TCU MATCHUP…
"We had two battles against TCU last year, and losing one of those in the final of National Indoors motivates us for this one. We are ready for Thursday and will bring our best."

VOLS IN THE RANKINGS
Singles
#59 – Shunsuke Mitsui
#81 – Emile Hudd
#86 – Blaise Bicknell

Doubles
#25 – Emile Hudd/Shunsuke Mitsui

HORNED FROGS IN THE RANKINGS
Singles
#8 – Jake Fearnley
#28 – Luc Fomba
#76 – Pedro Vives

Doubles
#4 – Alexander Jong / Lui Maxted

VOLS FACE TOP-5 FOE IN KNOXVILLE
A Tennessee win on Thursday would be its first home win over a top-five opponent since April 12, 2008, when the tenth-ranked Vols took down No. 3 Georgia, 4-3. Tennessee currently holds an ITA ranking of No. 10, with TCU standing at No. 3.

MILESTONE TRACKER
• Bicknell's singles win at the No. 3 position Saturday to help the Vols get past Oklahoma marked his 60^thcareer overall singles win and seventh in the Orange and White.
• Graduate students Pat Harper and Emile Hudd each sit at 82 career overall doubles victories. All 82 of Harper's wins have come at Tennessee, while 39 of Hudd's have come since he arrived on Rocky Top.
• Sophomore sensation Shunsuke Mitsui stands one singles win shy of his 50^th career overall win on the singles courts. He is 49-13 in overall singles play and 29-6 in dual singles matches.

QUICK HITTERS
• Tennessee's 4-3 win over Oklahoma at the ITA Kickoff Weekend Saturday lasted 4 hours and 4 minutes from first serve to Monday's clinch.
• Five different Vols have clinched Tennessee's six wins this season: Boris Kozlov (1), Blaise Bicknell (2), Martim Prata (1), Emile Hudd (1) and Johannus Monday (1).
• Tennessee has racked up nine top-10 wins since the start of the 2021 dual season, including six top-five triumphs.
• Thursday serves as the fourth consecutive top-10 meeting between the Vols and Frogs.
• With a top-10 matchup brewing in Knoxville, it marks the first such home match for UT since top-ranked Tennessee overcame No. 10 Wake Forest, 4-3 on Jan. 25, 2022.

UP NEXT
Tennessee takes a week off following Thursday's action, before traveling to New York City for a road dual match with No. 19 Columbia on Saturday, Feb. 11. First serve from The Big Apple is set for 1 p.m. ET.

For the most up-to-date information about the program, follow Tennessee men's tennis on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook.

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Players Mentioned

Blaise Bicknell

Pat Harper

Emile Hudd

Boris Kozlov

Shunsuke Mitsui

Johannus Monday

Martim Prata

University of Tennessee Athletics