State Tennis Tournament Showcases Top Talent
By Stephanie Ramirez, Communications Officer | Monday, May 09, 2011 1:59 PM
Lindsey Bennett from Frisco Liberty High School returns a serve from Leanne Cantalupo from Dripping Springs High School in the Girls' Singles quarterfinals at the 2011 State Tennis Tournament. Bennet won the quarterfinal game. The 4A tournament was held at the Penick-Alison Tennis Center on the University of Texas campus.
Photo by Jeanne Acton
As the second oldest UIL-sanctioned sport, tennis has a long list of former UIL State Champions. Tennis was officially added as a boys’ sport in 1914 and as a girls’ sport in 1920. The only UIL sport that has been in existence longer than tennis is track and field, one of the founding events of the UIL in 1910.
Between boys’ and girls’ competitors, the UIL has crowned 625 Singles’ State Champions since its inception. Of all those state champions, eight boys and nine girls have earned four state titles in a row. Similarly, eight boys and 11 girls have earned three state titles in a row.
Assistant Athletic Director and Tennis State Tournament Director Darryl Beasley said earning repeat titles is not an easy challenge.
“Texas is one of the states that has the most participants in tennis, so you’d expect to see some very dominant talent,” Beasley said. “Every year, new talent comes on the scene. As a junior or senior returning to the state tournament, you’re not necessarily getting matched up against the same people you did in previous years. All of these things make it very difficult to win the state title in consecutive years.”
Depending on where a player gets placed in the bracket, a returning participant could be playing someone in the first round that they had to play in the finals the year prior. After the top two seeds from a region are separated in to opposite sides of the bracket, the remainder of the bracket is drawn at random leaving the pairings up to chance.
“I think it speaks to the competitive nature of high school tennis players in Texas that so few of them have been able to win consecutive championship titles,” said UIL Athletic Director and former Tennis State Tournament Director Mark Cousins.
The number of students that participate in tennis each year shows how difficult it can be to win a consecutive title. Unlike other UIL state championship events, competitors are not playing on a team and you do not have the option of competing in multiple events.
The culmination of the Tennis State Tournament matches the single two best players against each other in every conference. Out of all the state associations in the National Federation of State High School Associations to offer tennis, Texas is second only to California with the most student participants of almost 40,000 students.
For results from the State Tennis Tournament, go to: http://www.uiltexas.org/tennis/state/brackets.