Waves Tennis Players to Compete Against Top Players

Five Pepperdine Waves tennis players will compete against some of the best college tennis players in the nation within a couple of weeks. 

Men’s tennis players Guilherme Hadlich and Gabriel Sidney, and women’s tennis team members Luisa Stefani, Matea Cutura and Christine Maddox are playing in the Sept. 18-20 Oracle/ITA Masters tournament.

The five Waves competitors are amongst 64 college tennis players who will be competing in Division I men’s and women’s singles and doubles tennis events. The players are all vying for the first national collegiate championship of the 2015-16 season. 

The Malibu Racquet Club will host the three days of over-the-net action. 

Junior Hadlich and freshman Sidney, both from Brazil, are participating in men’s doubles competition against eight of the nation’s top men’s teams, including pairs from Baylor, Georgia, Florida State, LSU and Virginia, and two duos from Notre Dame. 

Hadlich was an All-West Coast Conference (WCC) second team member in singles and doubles for Pepperdine last season. Sidney, a high-ranking junior player, was Brazil’s second-ranked player among U-16s and U-18s. He has won a bevy of doubles and individual titles, including the Asuncion Bowl G1 (doubles), Sudamericano Individual de la Paz G1 (doubles), ATV Chile G5 (singles and doubles), Chirimoya Boyle Chile G4 (singles), Londrina Juniors Cup G3 (singles) and Copa Guga Kuerten G4 (singles). 

Junior Maddox from Santa Monica and senior Cutura from Croatia are competing in women’s doubles play. Their competition of eight pairs hails from California, Kentucky, Miami, North Carolina, Texas A&M, USC and Vanderbilt. 

This will be Maddox and Cutura’s second year competing in doubles together. They posted a 7-0 record against WCC opponents last year. Both were members of the All-WCC doubles first team. Maddox also garnered WCC All-Tournament honors in singles and doubles, while Cutura was named an honorable mention All-WCC team member. 

Freshman Stefani is playing with 15 others in women’s singles. The 14th ranked player in ITF’s World Junior rankings has contended in the juniors’ tournament at all four Grand Slams, and most recently competed at Wimbledon and Nike Junior International Roehampton in both doubles and singles in Great Britain. The native of Brazil comes to Malibu from Saddlebrook Preparatory School in Florida. 

No Waves players will be competing in the men’s singles matches. That group of 16 players features six players who ended the 2014-15 season ranked in the top 15 of the Oracle/ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings, including the top two players — No. 1 ranked Axel Alvarez Llamas of Oklahoma and Virginia’s Ryan Shane, ranked second.