ITA Oracle Cup to start in earnest Thursday
Top college tennis players from across the country are in Rome this week.
Top college tennis players from across the country are in Rome this week.
The best of the best of small college tennis players from all over the country will be in Rome through Sunday for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Oracle Cup.
Play-in competition begins today in both the men’s and women’s draws.
“It’s over 200 players and over a hundred coaches,” said Rome Center Director Tom Daglis. “This is an individual competition with Division Two and Division Three, NAIA and junior college players included in the mix.”
“Some of the kids that are in Division Three, like from Berry, they could easily play at 90 percent of the Division One schools in the United States,” Daglis said. “They made the decision that they wanted a smaller school or an education from a certain school. It will be a very high caliber of tennis out here.”
Match play will be taking place on 16 courts at any given time beginning Thursday; however, players will have the rest of the facility to practice on when they are not in live matches.
Players from two Georgia schools are top seeds in the NAIA division.
Frederico Herrera Duran of Georgia Gwinnett is the top seeded male while Camille Gbaguidi from the Savannah College of Art and Design is the defending champion and top-seeded female.
In preparation for hosting this event, The Rome Tennis Center has installed cameras on the six NCAA courts and has the capability to livestream action on those courts at anytime, not just this tournament.
“Players from around the country are going to be able to watch some of the matches live, which is pretty cool,” Daglis said.
The plan to install the live cameras has been a part of the master plan for the one-year old tennis center, but the project was fast-tracked to get everything ready for this tournament.
“We’re providing a lot of little details to upgrade the event, so I believe the ITA is going to be pretty happy with this and I can see this as a long term relationship,” Daglis said.