Two M. Tennis Doubles Pairs Advance to Quarterfinals

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A pair of University of Miami doubles tandems continued to shine at the ITA Southeast Regional Championships on Saturday.
 
Following two rounds of singles action at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex, junior Benjamin Hannestad and sophomore Franco Aubone improved to 6-1 as a doubles tandem this fall, besting Georgia Tech’s Keshav Chopra and Andres Martin, 8-6, to advance to the quarterfinals.
 
Meanwhile, redshirt senior Dane Dunlap and junior Bojan Jankulovski cruised past Patrick Lazo and Diego Padilha of Georgia State, 8-4, to advance to quarterfinal action on Sunday.
 
Aubone and Hannestad will battle Georgia State’s Andrei Duarte and Roberts Grinvalds, while Dunlap and Jankulovski take on South Florida’s Rithvik Bollipalli and Jacob Wojcik. Both matches will open at 9 a.m.
 
Prior to doubles action, Hannestad faced off against 15-seed Marcus McDaniel of Georgia Tech in the singles main draw. The junior dropped a hard-fought battle, 3-6, 6-4, 3-6.
 
Also competing in the main draw, Dunlap fell against 14-seed Bogdan Pavel of UCF, 2-6, 4-6.
 
After dropping a heart-breaking three-set match, including a pair of tiebreakers, in the opening round of singles action, junior William Grattan-Smith bounced back with a pair of strong performances in the back draw.
 
The Atlanta native started the morning off on the right foot with a comeback victory over UCF’s Mikhail Sokolovskly, 2-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-6), before besting Florida’s Blaise Bicknell, 6-7 (4-7), 6-0, 1-0 (10-7) in the round of 16.
 
The junior will return to action on Sunday afternoon against the Yellow Jackets’ Pablo Schelcher.
 
Also competing in the singles consolation bracket on Saturday, Jankulovski fell against Florida State’s Ranaroop Singh Bhular, 1-6, 3-6, while Aubone dropped his match against Andres Martin of GT, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 0-1 (3-10).