Friday, 02/19/2010

Junior John-Patrick Smith was named Southeastern Conference Player of the Week on the heels of helping lead the Tennessee Volunteers to the finals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship earlier this week.

 

During the four-day tournament, Smith finished 2-1 in No. 1 singles and 4-0 in No. 1 doubles with senior Davey Sandgren to earn with his third career SEC Player of the Week honor.

 

Smith defeated No. 43 Dennis Nevolo to clinch a first-round 4-0 shutout victory over Illinois. Two days later, he picked up his third win this season over a top-10 opponent, beating No. 5 Dimitar Kutrovsky of Texas 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals as the Vols advanced to the finals of the Indoor Championship for the second time in school history.

 

Smith, ranked second nationally, improved his season singles record to 24-5, still well ahead of his sophomore pace when he logged 36 wins. He currently has 93 career victories and is poised to become just the seventh UT player in history to reach No. 100.

 

In doubles, Smith and Sandgren proved once again they are among the nation’s best doubles teams as the Vols picked up the doubles point in all four rounds of the tournament. In the semifinals against Texas, they defeated 22nd-ranked Kutrovsky and Josh Zevala 8-6. The following day, Smith and Sandgren posted a lopsided 8-1 victory over Virginia’s Michael Shabaz and Drew Courtney in the championship match.

 

Smith and Sandgren have started 2010 with 10 consecutive victories and have improved to 21-3 this season. They have 60 wins as a team, good for third-best in the UT record book. They are currently ranked seventh by the ITA, but they finished the 2009 season as the top doubles team in the country and were finalists at the NCAA Championships last year.

 

Winning conference awards is nothing new for Smith. He was the SEC Freshman of the Year in 2008, and he has been a first-team All-SEC as a freshman and sophomore. He was awarded two SEC Freshman of the Week honors his first year with the Vols.