Oct. 17, 2008
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech sophomore Ryan Smith moved into the round of 64 with a win on the second day of play at the ITA Mideast Regional in Chapel Hill, N.C.
“Ryan played another great match today,” head coach Kenny Thorne said. “He dropped a tough first set but was able to come back and play strong for the win.”
Smith continued his tournament roll with a 2-6; 6-1; 6-2 win over Radford’s Mehdi Benhammou on Friday morning. The Marietta, Ga. native moves his record to 5-2 on the season and will play UNC’s Taylor Fogleman on Saturday.
He joins teammates Guillermo Gomez, Eliot Potvin and Kevin King in the round of 64 after the three received a bye in the first round.
After picking up two wins in the qualifying round Thursday, sophomore Doug Kenny was unable to advance to the next round as he fell to Omer Abramoivch of Charleston, 6-4, 6-3. Sophomore Miguel Muguruza also exited in the round of 128. Muguruza took the first set but surrendered the next two in a 6-1; 1-6; 6-3 loss to Presbyterian’s Matt Martin.
In doubles play, the Yellow Jackets sent two teams through to the round of 32 but neither could advance any further. Sophomore Eliot Potvin joined forces with freshman Dusan Miljevic as the two posted a 9-8 (1) win over Clemson’s Carlos Alvarez and Wes Moran. The two Yellow Jackets would then suffer an 8-4 loss to the Virginia duo of Dom Inglot and Michael Shabaz in the next round.
Playing in their third tournament as a pair, sophomore Guillermo Gomez and freshman Kevin King earned an 8-5 win against Virginia Tech’s Brandon Corace and Corrado Tocci to reach the round of 32, but would then fall to Elon’s Damon Gooch and Philip Nemec to end their doubles run.
“We had some good first matches in doubles play,” Thorne added. “But we didn’t execute the fundamentals in the later rounds which really hurt us in the end.”
Play continues on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center in Durham and the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center in Chapel Hill, N.C.
SinglesRound of 128Omer Abramoivch (Charleston) d. Doug Kenny (Georgia Tech) 6-4; 6-3Ryan Smith (Georgia Tech) d. Mehdi Benhammou (Radford) 2-6; 6-1; 6-2Matt Martin (Presbyterian) d. Miguel Muguruza (Georgia Tech) 6-1; 1-6; 6-3
Doubles Round of 64 Benhammou/Salec (Radford) d. Muguruza/Smith (Georgia Tech) 8-5 Gomez/King (Georgia Tech) d. Corace/Tocci (Virginia Tech) 8-5 Miljevic/Potvin (Georgia Tech) d. Alvarez/Moran (Clemson) 9-8 (1)
Round of 32 Gooch/Nemec (Elon) d. Gomez/King (Georgia Tech) 8-6 (9) Fanslow/Seleznev (Virginia) d. Miljevic/Potvin (Georgia Tech) 8-4
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