Rodrigues, Thomson Ready for NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships

Champaign, Ill. –South Carolina men’s tennis junior Daniel Rodrigues and sophomore Connor Thomson learned their opponents in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships with the release of both brackets today. The events in Champaign, Ill., begin on Mon., May 23, with matches streaming on the free TennisONE app.
 
In the 64-player singles event, second-seeded Rodrigues will begin play with No. 37 Mason Beiler of Oklahoma at 11 a.m. on Monday. Depite being the No. 2 seed in the tournament, Rodrigues is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation.
 
Notably in Rodrigues’ quadrant of the bracket is No. 28 Sam Riffice of Florida who defeated Rodrigues in the 2021 singles title match. The two are joined by other SEC foes Johannus Monday of Tennessee who is a 9-16 seed and Ronnie Hohmann of LSU.
 
The 32-team doubles event will start on Tues., May 24, with No. 18 Rodrigues/Thomson facing No. 8 Eliot Spizzirri and Siem Woldeab of Texas. The Longhorn duo enters the doubles tournament as a 5-8 seed. Times for doubles matches will be announced at a later date.
 
Rodrigues extends the Gamecocks’ streak of having a seeded singles entry in the NCAA Championships to three straight tournaments. During the 2019 event, fifth-seeded Paul Jubb went on to win the title and in 2021 Rodrigues was again the No. 2 seed and went on to be the tournament runner-up.
 
The first Gamecock to earn multiple First-Team All-SEC honors since 1999, Rodrigues brings a 25-4 singles record into the event with his season already ranking among the best in program history. He became the first Gamecock to earn a No. 1 ranking during the 2021 season and is one of only a select few in the history of college tennis to earn the ranking during back-to-back seasons.
 
The junior is well-tested and has 18 wins against ranked opponents on the season which ranks second in program history. Of his 18 ranked wins, ten of them came against top-50 opponents including five in the top-25.
 
In doubles, the duo is 19-7 on the season and holds nine ranked wins with three of them coming over top-20 opponents. The pair’s most notable win of the season came against then-No. 2 Lukas/Engelhardt of Ole Miss. The duo started the dual season with a seven-match win streak and have won eight of their last ten completed matches to close out the dual season.
 
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