Four Singles Players Advance ITA Regional Main Draw
10/20/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Lexington, Ky. ?? Four Alabama players advanced in singles on the first day of the 2006 Wilson/ITA Southeast at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex in Lexington, Ky.
Billy Mertz, Joseph Jung, Sammy Struyf and Javier Bes all won their opening matches to advance to the second round. Mertz took care of Greg Anderson from Kentucky with ease 6-0, 6-2. Jung, the seventh seed in the tournament also won in straight sets against Mauricio Engler of Birmingham Southern 6-5, 6-0. Struyf faced Kiril Tcherveniachki of Tennessee and moved on with a 6-4, 6-3 win. Bes battled back after losing the first set 6-3 to win the second in a tiebreaker 7-6 (3) and the third 6-4.
Taylor Striplin faced Shane Collins of the host school Kentucky in his qualifying match and won in three sets. Striplin edged out Collins in a first-set tiebreaker 7-6. Collins bounced back to take the second set 6-3. The third set went down to the wire but it was Striplin coming out on top with a 7-5 victory to take the match. Striplin went on to lose in three sets to Barnabas Carrega of Miami in the first round of the main draw 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Alabama had eight players in the main draw singles. Matt Thibaudeau and Saketh Myneni both lost in the opening round of singles. Thibaudeau lost in three sets to Amrit Narasimhan of Memphis. After losing the first set 6-3, Thibaudeau came back to win 7-6 (3) in a second-set tiebreaker. Narasimhan came back to win the third set 6-2 to advance to the second round. Myneni squared off against 13th-seeded Bruno Agostinelli of Kentucky. Agostinelli won a tiebreaker in the first set 7-6 (5) and finished off the sweep with a 6-3 win in the second set.
In the first round of doubles, three of the Crimson Tide's four teams advanced. Buikema and Thibaudeau won easily against Campbell and DeRoche of LSU, 8-2. Two of Alabama's doubles teams earned close 9-7 victories. Bes and Mertz defeated Kentucky's Bjork and Sundh while Myneni and Struyf won 9-7 against Farlow and Lim of Mississippi State. Jung and Striplin were the only Alabama doubles team to suffer a loss, falling to fifth-seeded Dufaux and Preston of Vanderbilt.
The tournament is taking place at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex and the Lexington Tennis Club. Saturday will feature the second round of both doubles and singles. The tournament will run through Monday with the champions earning automatic bids to the ITA National Indoor Championships.
