Connor Van Schalkwyk is headed to the NCAA Singles Championship this fall in Athens after grinding through the consolation bracket at the ITA All-American Championships, a run that stood out in a productive week for Baylor men’s tennis in Tulsa, Okla.
The senior from Windhoek, Namibia, finished the tournament 7-2 in singles and delivered the result Baylor needed most on Sunday, when he beat No. 78 Luca Preda of Virginia 6-3, 6(3)-7, 6-3 in the consolation semifinal to clinch one of the two NCAA Singles Championship berths awarded through the feed-in bracket.
Van Schalkwyk’s week started with a clean win in the main draw, as he beat No. 48 Pablo Martinez Gomez of Vanderbilt 6-2, 6-3.
After that came a tight three-set loss in the round of 32 to No. 15 Amirkhamza Nasridinov of Texas A&M, 7-5, 7-6(6).
From there, he ripped off five straight consolation wins to keep moving toward Athens.
That stretch included a walkover over No. 43 Oliver Ojakaar of Texas, a 6-2, 6-4 win over No.
10 Matthew Forbes of Ohio State, a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory over No. 88 Tomasz Berkieta of Texas and a 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over No.
34 Paul Barbier Gazeu of South Carolina before the semifinal victory over Preda.
Baylor also got strong work from Erik Schiessl, who went 3-2 in singles. He opened with three straight wins in qualifying, beating Danial Rakhmatullayev of Michigan State 6-4, 6-3, No.
75 Azariah Rusher of Florida State 6-2, 6-0 and No. 33 Jangjun Kim of Virginia 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the main draw round of 32.
His run ended there against No. 3 seed Aidan Kim of Ohio State, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (5), and he later fell in consolation to No. 56 Hudson Rivera of Stanford 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-6 (5).
The Bears’ doubles entries also saw plenty of action. Van Schalkwyk and Schiessl, ranked No. 14, opened with a 2-6, 6-3, 11-9 win over No.
30 Roh and Martinez Gomez of Vanderbilt before dropping a 6-3, 7-5 decision to South Carolina’s Robertson and Barbier Gazeu. They finished 1-1.
No. 5 Devin Badenhorst went 0-2 in singles, falling to No.
85 Toby Kodat of NC State 6-3, 6-1 in the main draw and then to Paul Gazeu Barbier of South Carolina 6-4, 6-4 in consolation. In doubles, Badenhorst and Calvin Baierl, the sixth-seeded pair, went 3-1.
They beat Fairfield’s Alcala and Krolikowski 6-0, 7-5 and Georgia’s Alonso and Dubouch 6-4, 6-2, with a walkover over Cal’s Pouatcha and Luemkemann in between, before losing to Ohio State’s Okonkow and Forbes.
Baierl also picked up two singles wins in pre-qualifying, beating No. 21 Tiago Pires of Clemson 6-1, 7-5 and Callum Markowitz of Pennsylvania 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 before a walkover loss to UCLA’s Andy Nguyen.
Radek Chodora went 1-1, defeating Luis Llorens Saracho of Notre Dame 6-4, 6-2 before falling to No. 21 Kevin Edengren of Florida 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Louis Bowden finished 1-2, advancing by walkover over Kentucky’s Jack Loutit before a main-draw loss to No. 12 Preston Stearns of Ohio State, 5-7, 7-5, 7-5, and then a walkover loss to Texas’ Gabriel Debru in consolation.
The 2026 ITA Men’s All-American Championships featured 160-player pre-qualifying and 64-player qualifying and main draws in singles, plus 32-team doubles draws in each bracket. Ten singles players earned NCAA Singles Championship spots, including the eight main draw quarterfinalists and two feed-in consolation finalists, while five doubles teams advanced to the NCAA Doubles Championship.
Van Schalkwyk’s next stop is the NCAA Singles Championship later this fall in Athens.
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