COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Three Texas A&M tennis players, Alexis Klegou, Niall Angus and Junior Ore helped the Aggies win the 2011 Big 12 Championships and all three are listed in the preseason Top 125 in singles, according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings.
Klegou (pronounced CLAY-goo), a senior from Dunkerque, France, is the top Aggie listed at No. 42 in the country. Klegou ended the spring with a 15 dual match winning streak and earned Big 12 Champion honors at No. 4 singles. His straight sets victory against Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championships hosted in Waco clinched the championship for the Aggies. His match against LSU in the second round of the NCAA Championships clinched that victory to send the Aggies to the Sweet 16 in Stanford. He ended the spring with a 21-2 record in dual matches. Klegou's father is a native of Benin and Klegou was named to the Benin Davis Cup team this past summer and the senior won his first Davis Cup singles match against Madagascar.
Angus, a junior from London, England, is ranked No. 87. Last spring, the righthander posted a 12-1 record in singles and posted a 6-1 mark at the No. 6 line.
Ore (pronounced OAR-a), a sophomore from Gaithersburg, Maryland, is ranked No. 114. Ore joined the Aggie program last January and promptly made a mark competing at the No. 2 doubles with senior Alexey Grigorov. In singles play, Ore was 9-1 including a win against LSU in the second round of the NCAA Championships last spring. At the 2011 USTA National Championships, Ore had one of the biggest upsets of the tournament with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over the No. 3 seed Bjorn Fratangelo.
The top Aggie doubles team of junior Alberto Bautista and Ore are ranked No. 44 in the preseason rankings. Bautista played the majority of doubles in 2011 with teammate Colin Hoover at the No. 3 doubles position while Ore and Grigorov played the majority of time at No. 2 doubles.
The Aggie men's tennis team, fresh off of a school record 29-6 dual record in the spring and ended the season ranked No. 10 in the country, will open the 2011 fall campaign with a few players playing in the Midland (Texas) Invitational, Sept. 16-18.