Baris Headlines Spartans Historic ITA All-American Championships Run

TULSA, OKLA. - Before the 2023 ITA All-American Championships got underway on Saturday, Sept. 30, Michigan State had never had a singles main draw win at the tournament, let alone more than one entrant in either main draws. By the end of the tournament, sophomore Ozan Baris highlighted MSUs' four main draw entrants' seven wins with a run to the singles semifinals.

"From top to bottom, it was a breakout weekend on all levels," head coach Harry Jadun said. "We discuss together striving to be the team of firsts and we set a lot of program firsts this weekend. Im excited because so far this season we've lined ourselves up with some of the top in the nation and we've showed that we can line up with the best of them."

The tournament began in the singles pre-qualifying rounds with 256 title-hopefuls. One of them was senior Luke Baylis who won consecutive matches to start, but fell a win short of the qualifying round. Senior Graydon Lair and sophomore Josh Portnoy also collected pre-qualifying victories. Junior Max Sheldon would later pick up a qualifier consolation victory over ITA No. 99 Hoeyeraal of Arizona on Tuesday.

On Monday, the third day of play, the doubles qualifying round kicked off for grad-seniors Ronald Hohmann III and Sebastien Collard, competing for the title with 63 other teams. With three victories over power-five opponents, the ITA's preseason No. 52 ranked duo clinched the main draw but ultimately fell in the round of 32.

Also competing in the doubles main draw with an automatic bid was the ITA's No. 2 ranked pairing of Sheldon and Baris. The two would collect an opening win but dropped the round of 16 match to Virginia's Montes/Hopper.

In the singles main draw, automatic qualifiers Baris and Hohmann kicked off their runs on Wednesday. Hohmann got things started with a victory over ITA's No. 16 Pierre-Yves Bailly of Texas, 6-4, 6-2. The win marked Hohmann's sixth over a ITA-ranked opponent, third over a top-25 opponent, just three weeks into the fall season. Baris followed Hohmann's win with a win of his own over a Longhorn, earning entry into the round of 32 by way of a victory over Texas' Cleeve Harper, 7-5, 6-4.

In the round of 32, Hohmann collected yet another ranked victory, topping ITA No. 63 Wojtek Marek of USC, who retired of injury while Hohmann was up 6-4, 5-3 while Baris won handily, 6-2, 6-1 over Virginia Tech's Ryan Fishback, ITA's No. 19 ranked player. In the round of 16, Hohmann would fall at the hands of ITA No. 24 Ettienne Donnet of Louisville.

Baris marched on, however, notching another commanding win, this time over ITA No. 5 Sebastian Dominko of Notre Dame, 6-3, 6-3. In the quarterfinals, after seven straight sets won to start his campaign in Tulsa, the Okemos, Michigan native finally dropped one but held on to beat ITA No. 8 Inaki Montes of Virginia, who had a hand in Baris and Sheldon's doubles exit.

In the semifinals on Saturday, Oct. 7, Baris battled, but failed to collect his third consecutive top-10 win, falling to the nation's top college tennis player in Texas' Eliot Spizzirri. The sophomore phenom took the first set from ITA's No. 1 overall, one of three sets the eventual champion lost in 15 played across the singles tournament. The experienced Spizzirri bounced back, however, to move on to the final, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

After two weeks rest and preparation in East Lansing, the Spartans will be back in ITA-action at the Midwest Regional on Thursday, Oct. 19 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Baris Headlines Spartans Historic ITA All-American Championships Run

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Players Mentioned

Ozan Baris

Luke Baylis

Sebastien Collard

Ronald Hohmann

Graydon Lair

Josh Portnoy

Max Sheldon