Tulsa’s Alex Okonkwo Wins The American Men’s Tennis Singles Title

Thursday, October 24

Houston, Texas

Tulsa

The American Individual Championships

Tulsa’s Alex Okonkwo Wins The American Men’s Tennis Singles Title

10/27/2024 3:54:00 PM | Men's Tennis

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HOUSTON, Texas — It's a great day for Tulsa tennis as Alex Okonkwo of the Golden Hurricane men's squad emerged victorious in the American Athletic Conference Singles Championship Sunday at Rice's George R. Brown Tennis Center in Houston. As an unseeded participant, Okonkwo made history as the conference's first-ever men's singles champion in the inaugural event.

Okonkwo's victory came after Mariana Manyoma Velasquez and Ana Naranjo Martinez of the TU women's team took home the women's doubles title Sunday morning.

Hailing from Maidenhead, England, Okonkwo dominated UTSA's Danijal Muminovic in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0. Okonkwo won the final 11 games of the match to win the championship, bolstering Tulsa's long history of conference championship success.

Okonkwo won five consecutive matches to take home the trophy, two of which were over seeded players and four of which were won in straight sets. On Thursday, he defeated UAB's Noah Malige (6-4, 6-4) and No. 6 Francisco Llanes of South Florida (6-1, 7-5) to advance to Friday's quarterfinals. From there, he earned a 6-3, 6-4 win over Temple's Martim Marujo and then escaped No. 10 Luka Petrovic of Tulane in three hard-fought sets, 1-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 during the semifinal round Saturday. Okonkwo's tiebreaker victory in the second set of that semifinal win saved his championship run.

As the singles champion, Okonkwo will represent The American at the ITA Conference Masters Championships Nov. 7-10 at the Rome Tennis Center in Rome, Ga., where he will compete for one of four tickets to the NCAA Individual Championships (Nov. 19-24 at Baylor).