October 9, 2003

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Andreas Laulund had to wait a long time to play his first match in the main draw at the Icy Hot/ITA Men's All-American Championships and once he finally stepped onto the court, the results were not good.

Laulund, (Sr., Odense, Denmark), ranked No. 57 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association preseason rankings, lost 6-1, 6-3 in the first round of the main draw to No. 26 Doug Stewart (Virginia). The Tech senior received a walkover in the consolation round Thursday afternoon when Federico Ueltschi (Montana State) withdrew with an injury. Laulund will play either Chris Martin (Illinois) or Erik Nyman (Brigham Young) Friday at 9 a.m. Laulund was scheduled to see his first action in the tournament on Tuesday in doubles qualifying but his partner, Stephene Rod, suffered an injury in his morning singles qualifying match and was forced to withdraw from the doubles competition.

The Icy Hot/ITA Men's All-American Championships, being played at the Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tenn., include 256-singles player and 128-doubles team prequalifying tournaments which were played October 3-6 and fed into 64-player and 32-doubles team qualifying tournaments October 7-8. The 64-player, 32-doubles team main draw began today and continues through Oct. 12. The singles tournament fields can run over 300 players, making it the largest collegiate event of the season.

Following the All-American Championships, Tech will return to action Oct. 17-21 at the Omni Regional in Ithaca, N.Y.