Oct. 23, 2009
ATHENS, Ga. – The Georgia Tech men’s tennis team had a solid showing on Friday afternoon at the Wilson/ITA Southeast Regional Tennis Championships, going 8-1 in singles play. The Yellow Jackets also had a doubles team advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
“As a team today, we successfully put ourselves in a position to excel tomorrow,” said men’s tennis head coach Kenny Thorne. “We competed very well and played some quality matches. I was very proud of our team today in singles. Tomorrow is an excellent opportunity to beat some quality opponents. We have one of the best regions in the nation so it will be a very competitive day.”
In doubles, the team of Dean O’Brien and Eliot Potvin won two matches on the day to advance to the round of eight. First, they knocked off Stetson’s Christopher Swantenson and Njal Stene 8-6, then controlled a match with Florida’s Billy Federhofer and Erik Corace, winning 8-2.
The team of O’Brien and Potvin now advance to the quarterfinals on Saturday morning where they will face Florida State’s Connor Smith and Vahid Mirzadeh at 9 a.m.
In singles play, Miguel Muguruza swept Florida’s Joey Burkhrdt 7-1, 7-6 to advance to the round of 32 tomorrow morning. Potvin was a 6-1, 6-4 winner over UCF’s Claudio Romano to earn his third win of the day, while O’Brien also earned his third victory of the afternoon with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) win over USF’s Yannick Yoshizawa.
Magin Ortiga swept UCF’s Brock Sakey 6-4, 6-4, while Dusan Miljevic knocked off Stetson’s Alexander Hackett by that same 6-4, 6-4 margin. Juan Spir was a 6-3, 7-6 (4) winner over Florida State’s Anderson Reed, Ryan Smith was a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Florida A&M’s Michael Moore. Second-seeded Guillermo Gomez rounded out the Yellow Jacket singles winners on the day with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Keith Embree of Florida State.
All eight Yellow Jackets begin the round of 32 at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
