Jackson Withrow Wins National Title
Aug 14, 2011 | Men's Tennis
KALAMAZOO, MI - Jackson Withrow, a freshman on the Texas A&M men's tennis team, combined with his doubles teammate Jack Sock to win the 2011 United States Tennis Association (USTA) Doubles National Championship on Saturday at Kalamazoo, Michigan.
The championship match had an Aggie feel as Junior Ore (pronounced OAR-a), another Texas A&M freshman tennis player, was across the net from Withrow. Withrow and Sock, seeded No. 1 in the field, defeated the No. 5 seed Ore and Mitchell Frank, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
"I am very proud of Jackson, as well as all of our guys who competed in the national championships," Aggie head tennis coach Steve Denton said. "To have two of our players in the national doubles final is quite an accomplishment."
The current Texas A&M players posted an overall 32-7 record in both singles and doubles matches during the national championships and knocked out 15 seeds along the way. The incoming freshman, Jeremy Efferding, posted a 9-2 record and knocked out three seeds in his body of work.
Withrow, from Omaha, Nebraska, and Sock receive an automatic invite to the U.S. Open Championships in New York later this fall.
Withrow and Ore had some of the biggest upsets in singles play. Withrow was unseeded and the Aggie freshman took out the tournament's No. 6 seed Shane Vinsant. Vinsant was the 2010 National 16s finalist.
Ore, from Gaithersburg, Maryland, was seeded No. 29 in the tournament and he defeated the No. 3 seed Bjorn Fratangelo and Ore advanced to the quarterfinal round. Fratangelo was the 2011 French Open Junior Champion.
The grueling event has a great reward as the 18s Champions in Singles and Doubles receive an automatic bid to the main draw of the U.S. Open Tournament. Some of tennis biggest names such as Rod Laver, Stan Smith, Arthur Ashe, John McEnroe, Michael Chang, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras, James Blake have won this prestigious title. Former Texas A&M All-American Austin Krajicek won the singles title in 2008 and current Aggie assistant head coach Bob McKinley won the 18s singles crown in 1968 as well as teaming up with F.D. Robbins to win the doubles championship while a young 16-year-old by the name of Jimmy Connors was winning the National 16s title.
The Aggie men's tennis team posted a school-record 29-6 dual victory mark and won the 2011 Big 12 Championships while Krajicek and teammate Jeff Dadamo won the NCAA Doubles Championship earlier this year.
Players Mentioned
