2022 SEC Men's Tennis Awards Announced
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (April 29, 2022) - The Southeastern Conference announced the 2022 men's tennis postseason awards Friday.
Florida's Bryan Shelton was named SEC Coach of the Year for the fourth time. Shelton is in his 10th season as the head coach of the Gators. Florida is currently 23-2 overall and ended the conference season 12-0. The team won both the SEC title and SEC Tournament title this season and is looking to repeat as the National Champions.
Currently ranked as the No. 1 singles player in the country, Florida's Ben Shelton was named Player of the Year. Playing primarily at court 1 in singles and doubles, Shelton stands at 30-5 overall in singles going 19-4 in dual and 10-2 in SEC play. He has 20 ranked singles wins. In doubles this season, he is 19-9 with a 15-7 record in dual matches and 7-3 in conference action. He has nine ranked doubles wins. He was the first Gator to win the ITA All-American Tournament Singles title. A two-time SEC Player of the Week selection in 2022, he was also named as the SEC Tournament MVP.
Freshman of the Year was awarded to Alabama's Filip Planinsek. Currently the lone SEC freshman ranked in singles, Planinsek stands as the 25th ranked player nationally, and is one of just four conference freshmen ranked in doubles action coming in at No. 60 with Patrick Kaukovalta and No. 62 with German Samofalov. He holds a team-leading 21 singles wins this season, 14 while playing at UA's No. 1, and a team-leading 21 doubles wins, 15 at the No. 1 spot.
First-team and second-team All-SEC honorees, All-Freshman team, along with Player, Coach and Freshman of the Year were chosen by the league's 13 coaches. Coaches cannot vote for their own players and ties are not broken.
A complete list of the awards follows:
First Team All-SEC
Alexandre Reco, Arkansas
Tyler Stice, Auburn
Sam Riffice, Florida
Ben Shelton, Florida
Philip Henning, Georgia
Hamish Stewart, Georgia
Gabriel Diallo, Kentucky
Liam Draxl, Kentucky
Nikola Slavic, Ole Miss
Florian Broska, Mississippi State
Daniel Rodrigues, South Carolina
Toby Samuel, South Carolina
Johannus Monday, Tennessee
Adam Walton, Tennessee
Noah Schachter, Texas A&M
George Harwell, Vanderbilt
Second Team All-SEC
Filip Planinsek, Alabama
Andy Andrade, Florida
Duarte Vale, Florida
Tristan McCormick, Georgia
Millen Hurrion, Kentucky
Joshua Lapadat, Kentucky
Ronald Hohmann, LSU
Kent Hunter, LSU
Nemanja Malesevic, Mississippi State
Connor Thomson, South Carolina
Emile Hudd, Tennessee
Shunsuke Mitsui, Tennessee
All-Freshman
Enzo Aguiard, Alabama
Filip Planinsek, Alabama
Will Nolan, Auburn
Nate Bonetto, Florida
Shunsuke Mitsui, Tennessee
Luke Casper, Texas A&M
Giulio Perego, Texas A&M
Player of the Year: Ben Shelton, Florida
Freshmen of the Year: Filip Planinsek, Alabama
Coach of the Year: Bryan Shelton, Florida