College tennis stars to play in LV event

Victoria Sun

Thursday, Sept. 20, 2001 | 10:12 a.m.

Next January when the world's top men's and women's professional tennis players are competing at the Australian Open, some of the best men's and women's collegiate tennis players will be in Las Vegas competing in the National Collegiate Tennis Classic.

The three-day invitational tournament will feature men's and women's players from seven of the top teams in the country and UNLV competing Jan. 18-20 in single-elimination, 32-draw singles and 16-draw doubles tournaments.

Tournament director Bob Cannon already has received verbal commitments from women's teams including defending NCAA champion Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, USC and UCLA. On the men's side Cannon has received verbal commitments from defending NCAA champion Georgia, Stanford, UCLA, NCAA runner-up Tennessee, Duke and TCU.

"It's one of the few invitationals in the country with men and women," Cannon said. "The caliber of play is going to be very, very high.

"One of our sponsors was a top 50 professional. He told me that many of the players we've had could succcessfully compete on a professional level. These kids want to make it. They take tennis very seriously."

Every player will be guaranteed four matches including feed-in consolation rounds.

For the first two days of the tournament matches will be played at both Red Rock Country Club and the Fertitta Tennis Complex on the UNLV campus. The finals will be held at the Fertitta Tennis Complex.

The tournament was started in 1976 and played solely in Southern California until now.

Cannon said a four-year agreement to have the tournament in Las Vegas has been reached.

"We thought that Las Vegas has a very high oriented tennis community," Cannon said of the decision to move the tournament. "Some of the people we talked to said it would be great to have it there.

"UNLV has tremendous courts so it seemed like a good place."

On the Thursday prior to the first round a celebrity tennis exhibition will be held at a site to be determined. The celebrity list has not been confirmed, but it will feature some of the college players and local teaching professionals.

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