FLUSHING, N.Y. – The Embry-Riddle men's tennis tandem of Deni Zmak and Jaime Sanchez-Canamares Rios will be back on the court after a three-week break when play begins at the 2014 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships on Thursday. Hosted by Columbia University, the four-day event has a 32-player singles draw and a 20-team doubles draw for both men and women, and features the champions from each of the 12 NCAA I Division I USTA/ITA Regional Championship held across the country in October, as well as winners of the USTA/ITA National Small College Super Bowl, singles quarterfinalists from the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships and consolation champions and doubles finalists from both All-American events. This is the fifth consecutive year the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships will be held at the USTA Billie Jean National King Tennis Center, home of the US Open.
 
Zmak and Sanchez-Canamares represent the only non-NCAA I competitors in the men's doubles draw. The duo qualified for the tournament by topping NCAA II Lynn's Daniel Riggs and Paolo Volpicelli in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, to win the ITA Super Bowl last month. They will take on Wichita State's Tomislav Gregurovic and Tin Ostojic at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday. Gregurovic and Ostojic won the USTA/ITA Central Region Championship to clinch an automatic bid to the tournament.
 
Zmak is making his second consecutive trip to the Indoor National Tournament. In 2013, he and Simon Felix created a stir when they upended the NCAA I third-ranked doubles team of Marcos Giron and Makenzie Macdonald from UCLA in the opening round of the tournament.
 
Live scoring and up-to-date brackets will be available, via the ITA's tournament central page.