Oct. 29, 2009
Big Ten Singles Championship Main Draw 
Big Ten Flight A Doubles Draw
Big Ten Flight B Doubles Draw
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Sophomore Tobias Reitz (Reinbeck, Germany/Sachsenwaldschule Reinbeck) leads the Wildcats into the Big Ten Singles Championship, hosted by Michigan State, this weekend. A semifinalist in the consolation draw last season, Reitz is the No. 7 seed in this year's tournament where a total of eight Wildcats will vie for the title in the 64-player main draw.
The tournament begins on Friday, Oct. 30 with doubles action in two flights. In Flight A, Reitz and Alex Sanborn (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid) will face Illini Marek Czerwinski and Abe Souza in the first round. Andrew McCarthy (Cincinnati, Ohio/Indian Hill) and Eric Spector (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North) will face Purdue's P.J. Rose and Paul Foley.
The 'Cats also have representation in Flight B doubles, where two freshman duos will make their Big Ten debuts. Mark Schanerman (North Miami Beach, Fla./Dr. Michael M. Krop HS) and Chris Jackman (Key Biscayne, Fla./Gulliver Prep) will team to face Will Davis and Denis Bogatov of host MSU. Spencer Wolf (Coral Springs, Fla./Laurel Springs) and Sidarth Balaji (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax) will face Minnesota's Brendon Ruddock and Eddie Svenda.
Singles play commences Saturday morning and continues through the championship match on Monday. With four Wildcats on either half of the draw, NU is tied with Iowa for having the most players in the draw with eight.
In the top half of the draw, Schanerman will start off against Penn State's Guillaume St. Maurice while Wolf will face Minnesota's Brendan Ruddock. Balaji's first round foe is Hoosier Santiago Gruter.
Sophomore Eric Spector will look to match last season's result of reaching the second round when he faces off against Iowa's Nikita Zotov.
In the bottom half of the draw, Sanborn will face MSU's Ronnie Hulewicz in the first round. The Spartan took a 3-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-7) decision over the Wildcat senior when the teams met for a conference dual in March.
Also in the bottom half, Jackman will have a difficult match as he is set to face 5th seeded Mike Sroczynski of Michigan. Reitz and McCarthy round out the draw as they are set to face Golden Gopher Jonathon Hadash and Hoosier Alex Van Gils, respectively.