Oct. 7, 2016
THE FLATS — Georgia Tech men’s tennis concluded day one of the Georgia Tech Invitational at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex on Friday. The Yellow Jackets racked up eight wins on the day. Play will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning with doubles play and singles will start up at 10 a.m.
Singles Update: Andrew Li recorded the first win of the day for the Jackets with a 6-4, 6-2 decision over South Carolina’s Andrew Schafer. Elijah Melendez tallied his first win of the fall season in his 2016-17 debut over Miami’s Kevin Bondar. Gresk secured his spot in the quarterfinals by defeating Tennessee’s Sunay Bhat in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2 in his first showing at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex. Freshman Chris Yun made a statement in his Ken Byer’s debut, sweeping Tennessee’s Steven Karl, 6-0, 6-0. Cole Fiegel notched a win over Florida’s Stephen Madonia with a 6-3, 6-3 decision. Michael Kay moved over to the West bracket with a 7-5, 6-3 loss to Furman’s Adam Steryous. Daniel Yun finished out the day for the Jackets with a 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-1 rout of David Sarkissov (Florida).
Doubles Update: Phillip Gresk and Cole Fiegel matched up against Vanderbilt’s Tate Allwardt and Panu Virtanen, coming away with the 8-4 victory in their first showing as a doubles pair. Elijah Melendez teamed up with Georgia’s Alex Phillips to defeat another mixed pairing of Jake Bhangdia (Furman) and Sunay Bhat (Tennessee), 8-1. The pairing of Michael Kay and Daniel Yun moved over to the west bracket after losing to Georgia’s Robert Loeb and Jan Zielinski, 8-4. Andrew Li and Christopher Yun also moved over to the west bracket, falling to Steven Karl and Preston Touliatos (Tennessee), 8-7(3).
Head coach Kenny Thorne says: “Really pleased with our singles performance today. We started off well in each of the matches. Especially happy for Christopher Yun who won a match pretty handily today against a solid player who he’s lost to before in juniors. His brother Daniel Yun did a good job too, the Florida player [David Sarkissov] fought his way back in there in a very good second set and then in the third set Daniel had to step up and play a little more aggressive to beat him. A couple of the other guys had some good solid wins. We’re looking to get matches in, we’re going to have two singles matches each tomorrow and they’ll be different match ups and different challenges for some guys tomorrow. Doubles was not what we wanted, I think we’re better than that and we’ve got to get better. We’re making too many unforced errors so we’ve got to correct that and we get another chance in the morning to play.”
Georgia Tech Results
Division 1, Round of 16 — 10/7
Andrew Li (Georgia Tech) def. Andrew Schafer (University of South Carolina) 6-4, 6-2
Adam Steryous (Furman) def. Michael Kay (Georgia Tech), 7-5, 6-3
Division 2, Round of 16 — 10/7
Chris Yun (Georgia Tech) def. Steven Karl (Tennessee), 6-0, 6-0
Cole Fiegel (Georgia Tech) def. Stephen Madonia (Florida), 6-3, 6-3
Daniel Yun (Georgia Tech) def. David Sarkissov (Florida), 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-1
Division 3, Round of 16 — 10/7
Elijah Melendez (Georgia Tech) def. Kevin Bondar (Miami) 6-2, 7-5
Phillip Gresk (Georgia Tech) def. Sunay Bhat (Tennessee) 6-2, 6-2
Division 1 Doubles, Quarterfinals — 10/7
Robert Loeb/Jan Zielinski (Georgia) def. Michael Kay/Daniel Yun (Georgia Tech), 8-4
Division 2 Doubles, Quarterfinals — 10/7
Cole Fiegel/Phillip Gresk (Georgia Tech) def. Tate Allwardt/Panu Virtanen (Vanderbilt), 8-4
Steven Karl/Preston Touliatos (Tennessee) def. Andrew Li/Chris Yun (Georgia Tech), 8-7(3)
Division 3 Doubles, Quarterfinals — 10/7
Elijah Melendez (Georgia Tech)/Alex Phillips (Georgia) def. Bhangdia (Furman)/Bhat (Tennessee), 8-1
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