GCU, UTRGV Advance On Day 1 Of 2023 WAC Men's Tennis Tournament
ARLINGTON, Texas – The Western Athletic Conference Men’s Tennis Tournament opened with a pair of first-round matches Thursday at the Arlington Tennis Center.
No. 3 Grand Canyon 4 – No. 6 New Mexico State 0
The third-seeded Grand Canyon Lopes cruised to a 4-0 win over the No. 6 New Mexico State Aggies to punch their ticket to the semifinals.
Grand Canyon’s No. 3 duo of Wyatt Anderson and Jonathan Da Silva picked up a swift 6-1 win. NM State tied the doubles session with a 6-3 win by Corey Clarke and Luca Fe D’Ostiani on the second court. Then, the Lopes secured the doubles point with a 6-4 win at No. 1 by William Alsterback and David Wekesa.
GCU rolled in the singles session to get the win. Paolo Rosati cruised to a 6-0, 6-2 win on the fifth court, and Silva picked up a good 6-1, 6-4 win at No. 1. Martim Marujo clinched the victory for the Lopes after a battle in the first set and dominating the second to win 7-5, 6-0.
New Mexico State’s Roko Stipetic and Patrick Lohmann earned first-set wins in their No. 3 and No. 6 matches, respectively, but they went unfinished with the team victory secured.
No. 5 UTRGV 4 – No. 4 Seattle U 2
The fifth-seeded UTRGV Vaqueros closed the first day of the WAC Tournament with a bang, coming from behind to defeat the No. 4 Seattle U Redhawks 4-2 to advance to the semifinals.
Seattle U took the early 1-0 lead with wins on the second and third doubles courts. UTRGV’s No. 1 duo of Emilien Burnel and Borna Devald won 6-3, then the Redhawks came rallying back. Yu-Han Hsieh and Filip Stipic won 6-4 on the third court, then Michael Frank and Julian Worn battled for a tough 7-6 (8:6) win at No. 2 to secure the point.
UTRGV responded well in singles, winning the first set in five of the six singles matches. Agustin Salazar cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 win at No. 4 and Sam Whitehead was victorious, 6-1, 6-4, on the fifth court to give the Vaqueros a 2-1 lead.
The Redhawks knotted up the match with a 7-5, 6-0 win by Hsieh at No. 6. UTRGV jumped right back on top with a 6-4, 6-4 win on the third court.
The No. 1 and No. 2 matches both went to a third set as the student-athletes competed with all they had. Burnel was solid in the third set on the first court, holding strong to clinch UTRGV’s victory with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 win.
Friday’s Semifinal Schedule
No. 1 UT Arlington vs. No. 5 UTRGV, 12 p.m.
No. 2 Abilene Christian vs. No. 3 Grand Canyon, 12 p.m.