Preview: ITA Sectional Championships – TCU Athletics

FORT WORTH – TCU men’s tennis is serving it up on the Bartzen Varsity Courts for the first time since winning the 2024 NCAA title.
 
The reigning national champion Horned Frogs are hosting the inaugural ITA Central Sectional Championships from Thursday-Sunday.
 
The event represents the last chance for players to qualify for the NCAA Individual Championships.
 
A total of 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams comprise the field. From the tournament, six singles players (semifinalists, two quarterfinal playoff winners) and three doubles teams (finalists, third place) advance to the NCAA Championships.
 

The Central section encompasses the ITA Central, Midwest and Texas regions. Among programs with at least one player entered are Michigan State, Notre Dane, Ohio State, Texas, Texas A&M and other perennial NCAA Tournament teams. 
 
TCU already has twofold representation at the NCAA Championships, which run from Nov. 19-24 in Waco. Pedro Vives and Lui Maxted both qualified in singles. They reached the quarterfinals of the ITA All-American Championships in September and claimed two of 10 guaranteed spots.
 
All six active players are in action for TCU.
 
Vives and Maxted are competing in doubles after narrowly missing out on punching their tickets at the All-American Championships. The senior duo downed two ITA top-25 doubles tandems before bowing out in a three-set quarterfinal tilt. Both players engaged in two singles matches prior to taking the court for doubles that day.
 
By virtue of hosting, TCU received one wild card onto the singles and doubles draws. 
 
Julian Alonso was awarded the Horned Frogs’ singles wild card. He defeated two ranked players in No. 63 Joan Torres Espinosa (Nebraska) and No. 19 Trevor Svajda (SMU) in straight sets at the Ralston/Neufeld Coaches Challenge on Friday and Sunday, respectively. Alonso, from Barcelona, Spain, holds a 6-3 singles record across four fall invitationals.
 
In doubles, TCU is going with a wild card tandem of Duncan Chan and Kaj Quirijns. Alonso and Filip Apltauer also received fifth priority positioning on the strength of their combined world tennis number in singles.
 
Chan has notched a team-leading 13 combined victories this fall and won at least once in doubles with four different players. Chan most recently teamed up with Maxted on a 6-1 takedown of 21^st-ranked Michael Zheng and Hugo Hashimoto of Columbia on Saturday at the LSU Invitational.
 
Quirijns has been a doubles ace since commencing his college career in 2023. He has produced a team-best 9-2 fall doubles record. Quirijns most recently went 3-0 at the Ralston/Neufeld Coaches Challenge in tandem with fellow sophomore Filip Apltauer. Quirijns was crowned the Big 12 No. 3 Doubles Individual Season Champion in April.
 
Tournament Schedule 
The four-day affair is free and open to the public. Play commences at 9 a.m. each day starting with doubles. All TCU matches will be contested on the Bartzen Varsity Courts and be streamed live via PlaySight.
 
In the event of inclement weather, any unfinished matches will be moved to the indoor Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center. Fans are still permitted to attend the tournament if shifted indoors.
 
Thursday, Nov. 7 – Doubles RD16, followed by singles RD32
Friday, Nov. 8 – Doubles quarterfinals, followed by singles RD16 and quarterfinals
Saturday, Nov. 9 – Semifinal doubles, followed by semifinal singles and singles quarterfinal playoffs
Sunday, Nov. 10 – Doubles final and doubles third place, followed by singles final
 
Tournament Draw (Thursday)
 
Doubles RD16
9:30 a.m. – Lui Maxted / Pedro Vives vs. Jack Anthrop / Preston Stearns (Ohio State)
9:30 a.m. – Julian Alonso / Filip Apltauer vs. Asahi Harazaki / Luis Alvarez (Oklahoma)
9:30 a.m. – Duncan Chan / Kaj Quirijns vs. Pierre-Yves Bailly / Sebastian Gorzny (Texas)
 
Singles RD32
11 a.m. – Julian Alonso vs. #124 Lucas Brown (Texas)
 
Scoring Format
All singles and doubles matches are scored as best-of-three tiebreak sets, with a 10-point tiebreaker in effect for doubles affairs tied at one set apiece.
 
Competing for TCU
 
Pedro Vives

• Career fall singles record: 24-12
• Career fall doubles record: 24-10
• Vives was tabbed 37^th in the preseason ITA singles rankings. He received a career-high ranking of 14^th following the 2023 fall season.
• He notched four ITA top-30 wins in his run to the singles semifinals of the ITA All-American Championships in September. Vives defeated No. 2 Michael Zheng (Columbia), No. 6 Radu Papoe (Cornell), No. 15 Jay Friend (Arizona) and No. 28 Ryan Colby (Georgia).
• Vives will compete in the NCAA Individual Championships for the second straight season. He became the 31^st All-American in program history in May after earning seeded positioning in doubles at the 2023-24 NCAA Individual Championships.
• The Spaniard is TCU’s active career leader in combined overall victories with 135. Of his wins, 77 are in doubles.
• Vives reached the singles quarterfinals and doubles semifinals of last season’s ITA National Fall Championships, formerly the grand finale of fall tennis. He 
• He has accumulated a 24-11 combined overall record (13-6 singles, 11-5 doubles) in fall invitationals over the last two seasons.  

Lui Maxted

• Career fall singles record: 10-5
• Career fall doubles record: 16-8
• Maxted became the eighth Frog in the last three seasons to qualify for the NCAA Individual Championships. He joined an exclusive list that includes All-Americans Juan Carlos Aguilar, Jake Fearnley, Luc Fomba and Jack Pinnington.
• Maxted earned a trio of ranked wins over Alex Kotzen (Tennessee), No. 44 Theo Dean (Cal) and No. 35 Will Jansen (Ohio State) in his quarterfinal run at the ITA All-American Championships.
• Maxted sports a 28-9 singles record in 2024.
• He achieved a career-high ITA singles ranking of No. 39 in the 2024 preseason rankings.
• Maxted opened the fall season by finishing as the singles finalist at the Battle in the Bay Classic on Sept. 15. He earned the highest-ranked win of his career during his stay in San Francisco, defeating No. 15 Jay Friend (Arizona) in the semifinals.
• Partnering with Maxted in doubles has been a proven guarantee of a ticket to fall tennis’ finale. He advanced to the ITA National Fall Championships every year from 2021-23 seasons, all with different partners. He and Sander Jong reached the finals in 2022. Last year, Maxted and Chan advanced to the quarterfinals. 

Duncan Chan

• Career fall singles record: 11-7
• Career fall doubles record: 17-10
• The sophomore was named tournament MVP at the U.S. College Cup Invitational on Sept. 27-29. He anchored court one singles play all weekend and did not surrender a set in defeats of Yair Sarouk (Rice), Nicola Cigna (Arizona State) and Daniel Morozov (Abilene Christian).
• He defeated No. 122 Henry Ruger of Vanderbilt in prequalifying singles action of the ITA All-American Championships to register his first career ranked win.
• The Ontario, Canada native enjoyed a breakthrough start to sophomore season at the Battle un the Bay Classic in September.. He was a doubles finalist alongside Danial Rakhmatullayev of Michigan State. Chan collected an opening round singles victory and pushed preseason ITA No. 1 Ozan Baris to a set three tiebreaker in the round of 16.
• Chan and Maxted reached the quarterfinals of last season’s ITA National Fall Championships after finishing as finalists in Regionals
• He achieved a career-high ITA doubles ranking of No. 15 last year following Fall Nationals. 

Julian Alonso

• Career fall singles record: 10-7
• Career fall doubles record: 6-6
• Alonso went 3-1 at the U.S. College Cup Invitational. He and Quirijns were victorious in doubles vs. Arizona State and ACU. Alonso also picked up a singles win over Rice’s Santiago Navarro, 7-5, 4-6, [10-7], on court two. He sat out singles play vs. the Sun Devils and Wildcats due to injury.
• He made his 2024-25 debut at the Waco Fall Kickoff Classic on Sept. 12-14, posting a 3-2 combined overall record.
• Alonso anchored court six in singles play for TCU as a freshman in 2023-24. He posted a 5-1 record in the position, with four of his wins coming in Big 12 play. 
• Alonso reached the doubles quarterfinals of the ITA Texas Regional in 2023 on his way to earning his first career ITA ranking. He was tabbed No. 58 in the final set of fall rankings.

Kaj Quirijns

• Career fall singles record: 10-9
• Career fall doubles record: 9-2
• Quirijns has pocketed 20 of his combined career 25 wins in fall invitationals.
• He was a perfect 6-0 at the U.S. College Cup Invitational, splitting time in singles on courts three and four.
• Quirijns led all players at the U.S. College Cup in overall wins and was the only player to finish undefeated.

Filip Apltauer

• Career fall singles record: 9-11
• Career fall doubles record: 6-6
• Apltauer transferred to TCU from Tennessee in August. The sophomore helped the Volunteers reach the quarterfinals of the ITA Indoor National Championships and NCAA D1 Men’s Tennis Championship as a freshman.
• The sophomore picked up his first Horned Frog victories at the U.S. College Cup Invitational. He teamed up with Chan on a 7-6 (3) doubles triumph over Mikey Anderson and Daniel Phillips of Arizona State and got the better of ACU’s Benjamin McDonald, 6-4, 6-0, in singles.

Up Next: NCAA Individual Championships
The NCAA Individual Championships are being held during the fall season for the first time ever in conjunction with a two-year pilot program between the NCAA and ITA. Baylor will serve as host, with both the men’s and women’s championships overlapping.