Thirty-one of college tennis' top singles players will come to Charlottesville this weekend to participate in the U.Va. Ranked Plus One Invitational. It's no mistake that nearly one-third of the players are Cavaliers.
"We started the concept a few years ago - to invite each team to bring one player that is ranked, if they have a nationally ranked player, and then they get one non-ranked player on their team," Virginia coach Brian Boland said.
This is the third year Virginia will host the tournament, Boland said. The singles component features four flights of 16-player brackets. Both No. 14 junior Michael Shabaz and No. 9 junior Sanam Singh are the top seeds in their respective flights. The competition includes No. 2 John-Patrick Smith from Tennessee - whom Shabaz defeated in the NCAA doubles championships last year - as well as familiar ACC opponents, North Carolina's Clay Donato and Duke's Taylor Fogleman.
Nine other Cavaliers will compete - four additional ranked players and five unranked ones - including freshman phenom Jarmere Jenkins. The 2008 No. 1 high school recruit in the country made a strong debut in last week's U.Va. Classic, defeating senior teammate Lee Singer in the finals of the A2 bracket.
"It was a great experience for me," Jenkins said. "Obviously [Singer] wasn't on his best day. I felt I played good and caught him on one of his off days."
Although Jenkins will have another opportunity this weekend to showcase his skills in singles, his individual play may be overshadowed by his first official doubles match with Shabaz as his partner. The tandem enters the tournament already ranked No. 17 in the country, but having not played a single match together.
"We're looking forward to it," Shabaz said. "Obviously it's going to take a little while to get used to everything, but we're excited to get things going."
Jenkins will have to fill the void as Shabaz' double partner left by 2008 graduate Dominic Inglot - which could prove to be quite a difficult task, considering last year's pair won the NCAA doubles championship. Shabaz, though, said he is optimistic his new partner will be able to step in immediately for an already experienced Virginia team that returns five of six singles starters and two intact doubles teams from a year ago. Jenkins, whom Shabaz referred to as a "natural doubles player," has already gained experience against national competition before coming to Virginia.
"I played in the four junior grand slams, and I actually competed on the World Team Tennis," Jenkins said. "I've also played [former Cavalier] Treat [Huey], so I was familiar with the team."
Jenkins managed to beat Huey - a 2007 graduate who played alongside Virginia great Somdev Devvarman during his Virginia doubles career
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