Men's tennis team in Texas to compete for national title

The Eastern Florida State College men's tennis team will be heading to the NJCAA Division I National Championship for the eighth straight season.

The Titans are ranked third in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association NJCAA Division I National Poll and will compete for a national title beginning Monday, May 11 in Plano, Texas.

"The JUCO national tournament is arguably the most rigorous of all the national tournaments because of the amount they are asked to play," Eastern Florida State College men's tennis coach Nick Rosatti said. "We have been working on executing and playing to win since the matches can be longer. It's going to be fun and I think it goes back to preparation and who can be the most efficient in the early rounds. The teams who execute early in the rounds are usually set up later in the tournament."

Eastern Florida State College finished sixth last season and has finished in the top six in three straight seasons.

This year's squad has four players back from that team and believe they have the experience and the talent to make a deep run this season.

Fernando Martinez Belinchon will play in his first national tournament but finished in third place at the ITA Cup in the fall. He will play at No. 1 singles in the national tournament and is ranked No. 2 in the latest national rankings.

"I feel pretty excited, it is going to be a good tournament. My first time in nationals, we have been training hard and we have a good team so we are hoping to do pretty well," Martinez said. "I played pretty well this spring and played some good matches. My level is pretty high and I think I can do pretty well."

Salva Mulet is ranked 11^th in the nation in singles and will play No. 2 singles in the national tournament and will team with Martinez in No. 1 doubles.

The national tournament is set up with singles matches in the morning session and then doubles in the afternoon.

"I think that we are crossing our T's and dotting our I's but you never know what kind of shape you are in until you get in the actual tournament and see how they respond," Rosatti said. "Hopefully we have prepared enough so it won't be much of a factor. Everyone has to play under the same conditions so we are focused on hydration, sleep and nutrition right now and we will see if we did a good job of that."

Martinez knows it will be a challenging week but is excited for the challenge.

"It is very tough, very very tough. But we have prepared ourselves for that, we have to take care of our body and mentally it is difficult," Martinez said. "We will be on the court for three hours every day. It is very exciting, I am pretty excited to play in this tournament and see how I do."

Johan Mottlau is ranked 20^th and will make his national tournament debut at No. 3 singles while Ignacio Sendra makes his tournament debut at No. 6 singles.

Pablo Garcia made the quarterfinals last season and had a solid spring season and will be at No. 4 singles while Tomas Kurz Cardozo lost in the semifinals last season. He will be playing No. 5 singles again this season.

Garcia And Kurz will team up in No. 3 doubles once again after making the consolation semifinal last season.

Filip Sormaz will team with Mottlau at No. 2 doubles for this national tournament. Sormaz teamed with Mulet last season and they reached the quarterfinals.

"We are very tight, we are a good group and train hard every day," Martinez said. "This year I think we can do well with this team. We are talented and we are all close so hopefully that leads us to good results."

The tournament begins Monday with the first rounds and the finals are set for Friday, May 15.