Miami Wraps-up Day One in Texas
AUSTIN, Texas – The University of Miami men’s tennis team wrapped up the first of three competition days at the Longhorn Invitational.
Six Hurricanes took the Texas Tennis Center courts Friday morning, as a quartet of Hurricanes advanced to the semifinals of the Doubles Flight C Gold Draw.
Redshirt junior Dane Dunlap and junior Stephen Madonia kicked the day off besting tournament-host Texas’ Johnny Goodwin and LSU’s Ruy Teixeira, 8-6. On the opposite side of the bracket, freshmen Franco Aubone and Kaya Gore topped Liberty’s Ian Sturgill and Farid Juri, 8-3.
In the Flight B Gold Draw, sophomore Tatsuki Shimamoto and freshman Francisco Bastias came up short against Auburn’s Tad Maclean and Brandon Laubser, 4-8.
In singles action, Bastias cruised past TCU’s Bertus Kruger in the Flight A Gold Draw Round of 16, 6-3, 5-1, ret. In a quarterfinals matchup against Gabriel Decamps of UCF, the freshman fell, 2-6, 0-6.
Competing in the Flight B Gold Draw, Dunlap topped Marcus Walters of Tyler Junior College, 6-1, 6-4, before dropping a back-and-forth three-set thriller against Auburn’s Brandon Laubser. After claiming the opening set, 6-4, the redshirt junior dropped a pair of tiebreakers, 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 0-1 (6-10).
In the Flight C Gold Draw, Aubone picked up a first round victory over Liberty’s Chase Burton, 6-3, 6-2, before coming up short in the quarterfinals against Louisville’s Brandon Lancaster. After claiming the opening set, 7-6, (7-5), the freshman dropped the second set, 0-6, before falling in a 10-point tiebreaker, 0-1 (3-10).
Battling Tad Maclean, Madonia dropped his first round match, 1-6, 5-7. However, the junior rebounded in the Red Draw Consolation with a, 6-3, 6-1, victory over 2018 BIG EAST Player of the Year Alvaro Verdu, 6-3, 6-1.
Shimamoto dropped his opening match against Tyler Junior College’s Karl Mosterd, 6-2, 1-6, before defeating Louisville’s Juan Paredes, 6-1, 6-4, in the Flight D Red quarterfinals.
All six Canes will return to the courts tomorrow morning for semifinals doubles action at 10 a.m., before competing in their respective draws singles semifinals in the afternoon.
Miami will then wrap up the fall season on Sunday, with the finals of both doubles and singles action set to take place.
To keep up with the University of Miami tennis team on social media, follow @CanesMensTennis on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
