M. Tennis Opens Main Draw Competition at the Southeast Regional Championships
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The University of Miami men’s tennis team opened main draw singles and doubles play Friday at the ITA Southeast Regional Championships.
The Hurricanes’ eight competitors played a pair of doubles matches, while a quintet of Canes competed in the opening round of singles matches. As a whole Miami went 4-5 at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex, including 2-2 in doubles action.
Opening with doubles, junior Benjamin Hannestad and sophomore Franco Aubone bested South Florida’s Niels Van Noord and Ivan Yatsuk, 8-3. Then in the round of 32, the duo secured their spot in the round of 16 when they defeated Florida’s Johannes Ingildsen and Brian Berdusco, 8-4.
Following a pair of singles rounds on Saturday, the duo will be back out on the court to take on Georgia Tech’s Keshav Chopra and Andres Martin.
Meanwhile, after earning a first-round-bye, redshirt senior Dane Dunlap and junior Bojan Jankulovski teamed up against Georgia Southern’s Murphy McCullough and Pascal Wagemaker in the second round. The upperclassmen took care of business, 8-5, and will square off against Patrick Lazo and Diego Padilha of Georgia State.
Also competing in doubles, senior Stephen Madonia and junior William Grattan-Smith came up short against USF’s Rithvik Bollipalli and Jacob Wojcik, 6-8, while juniors Pablo Aycart Joya and Tatsuki Shimamoto fell against Georgia State’s Roberts Grinvalds and Andrei Duarte, 3-8.
Playing only one round of singles, Hannestad cruised to a straight-set victory over Florida State’s Juan Jalif, 6-3, 7-6 (6-2). Returning to the court Saturday at 8:30 a.m., he will battle 15-seed Marcus McDaniel of Georgia Tech in the round of 32.
Joining Hannestad in the second round, Dunlap rebounded from an opening set loss, to defeat USF’s Antonio Muniz, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. The redshirt senior will take on 14-seed Bogdan Pavel of UCF at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Facing FSU’s Loris Pourroy, Aubone fell, 5-7, 2-6, while Jankulovski dropped his match against FGCU’s Felipe Ramirez, 1-6, 2-6.
In a back-and-forth match, Grattan-Smith came up short in the opening set against North Florida’s Dominik Barton, 6-7 (4-7). However, the junior quickly rebounded and claimed the second, 6-3. But, despite forcing a third-set tiebreaker, the Atlanta, Ga., native lost a hard-fought match, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-7 (4-7).
In the final match of the day, Aycart Joya faced Stetson’s Linus Bergevi in a qualifying consolation match. After taking the opening set 6-4, the junior was unable to close it out losing a closely contested match, 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 0-1 (4-10).
Results for Saturday’s matches can be found HERE.
