Tennis: Midland Raquet Club plays host to annual collegiate tournament

The Ninth Annual Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational tennis tournament begins at 9 a.m. today at The Racquet Club of Midland and will include men's and women's players from 14 NCAA Division I schools, one NCAA Division II school and one junior college program.

Play also will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday leading up to singles finals at 1 p.m. Sunday.

A handful of former high school players from West Texas are playing, including Tyler Junior College's Sureena Weir (Midland Lee), Texas Tech's Kelsy Garland (Lubbock Coronado) and Abilene Christian's Jaclyn Walker (Abilene High) in women's singles.

Abilene Christian University's Ryan Hudson (Abilene High), Luke Hawk (Clyde) and Tyler Junior College's Nathan Robinson (Abilene Cooper) are in men's singles.

Texas A&M's Elze Potgieter is the top seed in women's singles and Pepperdine's Anamika Bhargava is seeded No. 2 in the 64-player draw. Baylor's Karolina Filipak is seeded third while Rice's Julie Chao is No. 9.

In men's singles, Illinois' Dennis Nevolo is seeded No. 1 and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Dmitry Novikov is seeded second, while Texas Tech's Michael Breier is No. 4.