Hernandez Tong Ranked 23rd in Singles

2018 Oracle ITA Fall Singles Championships Main Draw Bracket | Consolation Bracket

TEMPE, Ariz. — After winning the ITA Mountain Regionals, UNM’s first regional winner in 15 years, and a tremendous showing at the ITA Fall Championships in which he lost in the consolation draw semifinals, Lobo senior Ricky Hernandez Tong earned a No. 23 singles ranking, a leap of 82 spots from his preseason ranking of No. 105.
 
For Hernandez Tong, he is the highest-ranked player in the Mountain West, and in fact he is the only Mountain West singles player in the top 125 that is ranked.  Among schools in the Mountain or Pacific time zones, Hernandez Tong is the No. 7 ranked player.
 
The senior from Cardiff, Wales dropped his round of 64 match in the 2018 Oracle ITA National Fall Championship, losing to the now No. 21 Adria Sorriano Barrera of Miami 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.  That sent Hernandez Tong into the consolation bracket. 
 
He took a win in the round of 32 over the No. 4 seed Brandon Holt of USC before facing another seeded player in Aziz Kijametovic of Old Dominion.  Kijametovic is ranked No. 94 currently.  Hernandez Tong dropped the first set but bounced back for a 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 7-5 win.  That moved him into the quarterfinals where he faced Illinois’ Alex Brown, and won handily 6-3, 6-1.  Brown is ranked as the current No. 10 player in the country.
 
In the semifinals he faced another seeded opponent in Notre Dame’s Ale Lebedev, and that’s where the run ended with a 7-5, 6-3 loss.  Lebedev is ranked No. 16 in the latest rankings. 
 
The Lobos are off until the Spring semester hits, when the team opens its season in a neutral site match in Lubbock, Texas against Lamar on Saturday, January 19.