Men’s Tennis Opens Dual Season This Weekend

Columbia, S.C. – No. 9 South Carolina men’s tennis will begin the 2023 dual season in weekend, welcoming Charlotte and The Citadel for a Friday doubleheader and No. 18 North Carolina for a Sunday matinee.

The Gamecocks will have their first dual against Charlotte on Fri., Jan. 20, beginning at 9 a.m. They will then follow it with a dual against The Citadel starting not before 12 p.m. The Carolina Indoor Tennis Center will then play host to a neutral site match between Charlotte and the Citadel beginning not before 3 p.m.

On Sun., Jan, 22, the Gamecocks will host a border battle, taking on No. 18 North Carolina at noon.

All opening weekend matches will take place at the Carolina Indoor Tennis Center located at 523 Superior Street in Columbia. Matches are free and open to the public with doors opening one hour prior to each match.

Those not in attendance can watch Friday’s matches here and Sunday’s matches here.

Gamecock Notables

• South Carolina is ranked No. 9 in the latest ITA Coaches Top-25 poll. The team ended the 2022 season ranked No. 10, the highest final team ranking since the 1989 season.
• South Carolina enters the dual season with two players ranked in singles – No. 15 Toby Samuel and No. 56 Casey Hoole.
• Samuel went 5-1 through the fall season with ranked wins over Nos. 8 and 98.
• Hoole has put up a 15-5 record in tournament play this season, including adding the ITA Carolina Region Singles Champion title to his resume. The sophomore earned his first career ranked win over No. 80 at the Regional Championships and has since picked up ranked wins over Nos. 23, 60, and 104.
• South Carolina is home to the nation’s No. 1 doubles team in Samuel and fellow junior Connor Thomson. The pair won the ITA All-American Doubles title in the fall, becoming the first All-American title holders in program history.
• The Gamecocks have an abundance of senior leadership on the team this year with the return of Jake Beasley and Raphael Lambling for their fifth seasons.
• Beasley was named MVP of the SEC-Big 12 Challenge in the fall after going 3-0 in both singles and doubles at the event. Both Beasley and Lambling were perfect in singles and doubles at the recent Miami Spring Invite with each Gamecock earning one ranked singles win and one ranked doubles win.

Scouting Charlotte

•  The 49ers are 1-1 to start the dual season, having competed in dual action at the Tennessee Invitational where they fell to No. 6 Tennessee 1-6 before taking down Texas Tech 4-3.
• Charlotte is led by redshirt sophomore Coy Simon who is 12-8 overall in singles. Simon played at No. 4 singles last season, compiling a 13-7 record in dual action.

Scouting The Citadel

• The Bulldogs are 1-3 on the season so far, having opened dual play with back-to-back doubleheaders against South Carolina State and Coastal Carolina last weekend. The Citadel split results with SC State and fell in both matches to Coastal.
• Junior Hayden Shoemake leads the team this year and is a perfect 4-0 from the No. 1 position.

Scouting North Carolina

• The Tar Heels finished the 2022 season with an 18-9 overall record and advanced to the NCAA Tournament Round of 16.
• North Carolina is home to the nation’s No. 9 singles player Ryan Seggerman as well as a pair of ranked doubles teams – No. 18 Seggerman and Brian Cernoch and No. 39 Seggerman and Benjamin Kittay.
• Seggerman is a transfer from Princeton where he earned multiple All-Ivy League honors and was a qualifier for the NCAA Doubles Tournament.
• The 18th-ranked doubles pair of Seggerman and Cernoch made a deep run at the 2022 ITA All-American Doubles Championship but were taken down by Thomson and Samuel in the title match.
• North Carolina leads the all-time series 46-17-1 and won the most recent matchup in 2022, taking the match 4-2 in Chapel Hill.

For all the latest South Carolina men’s tennis information, continue to follow GamecocksOnline.com or the team on social media (@GamecockMTennis).