WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The men's tennis team takes to the courts today for the second weekend in a row; this time in its own tournament, the 7th annual Purdue Fall Invitational. Four veterans traveled to various events in the Midwest last weekend; though, the results were mixed. Senior Ricky Medinilla produced the strongest showing at the $50K Challenger in Columbus, Ohio. He beat Alex Kobelt of Ohio State 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 and moved up to No. 1498 in the ATP world rankings - a career best.
This weekend though, the focus shifts from the team's familiar faces to Purdue's two true freshmen; both are set to make their college debuts today. Carlos Macias, a 6-3 powerhouse from Guayaquil, Ecuador, and Athell Bennett, a 5-9 player from Valley Stream, New York, have looked forward to this day since arriving at Purdue four weeks ago.
"I'm very excited," Macias said. "This is my first competition since April, and I'm ready to get back out on the court. Both Athell and I have worked really hard, playing a lot of tennis and conditioning our bodies for this moment. We want to make our teammates proud."
Bennett agreed, "Our teammates welcomed us immediately, and I've already learned so much from them. They push me to work harder at every practice; they remind me to respect the game and stay to focused during competition. We're going to face some talented players this weekend, and it's important to keep that focus during every point."
The talented players Bennett spoke of come from 15 different schools, including Butler, DePaul, Indiana and Marquette, and each will have the option of playing in both a singles and doubles draw. In all, the tournament is divided into 6 flights of singles and 3 flights of doubles. Two rounds of singles from each flight and one round of doubles are scheduled for Friday; all nine finals will be played on Sunday.
Macias and Bennett will play as a pair in flight B of doubles this afternoon, but will see their first collegiate action at 8:30 a.m. ET in their respected singles flights.
Follow @PurdueMT and @PUInvite for results and updates throughout the weekend.
