UK tennis player Ryotaro Matsumura wins Oracle ITA Masters

University of Kentucky sophomore Ryotaro Matsumura won the Oracle ITA Masters on Sunday after defeating No. 55 Shawn Hadavi from Columbia, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in Malibu, Calif.

Each NCAA Division I conference was invited to send one men’s and one women’s player to the Oracle ITA Masters, one of the most prestigious fall tournaments. NCAA Tournament-style selection was used.

“Ryo did a great job this week,” UK Coach Cedric Kauffmann said. “I thought Ryo was mentally tough. To bounce back and win the second-best fall tournament is huge. Every matchup was different and he handled the different opponents very well. Overall, it’s a great win for Ryo.”

Matsumura, a native of Fukui, Japan, beat four ITA nationally ranked opponents (No. 38, No. 55, No. 110 and No. 111) on the way to the title. He dropped just one set during the weekend, the first of the championship match.

“I’m very happy coming off the performance I had last week,” Matsumura said. “To be able to come back strong for me as a player is good. Tactically, I listened to my coach and followed our gameplan for each opponent.”

Matsumura breezed through the first round on Thursday with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Jacob Whalley of Fairleigh Dickinson. On Friday, he picked up two wins — 6-4, 6-1 over Valparaiso’s Jeffery Schorsch and 6-1, 6-2 over No. 38 Gage Brymer of UCLA — to advance to the semifinals. He defeated No. 110 Adam Moundir of Old Dominion 7-5, 7-6 (5) to reach Sunday’s championship match.

This story was originally published October 16, 2016 at 10:45 PM with the headline "UK tennis player Ryotaro Matsumura wins Oracle ITA Masters."