Oct. 6, 2001
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech men’s tennis team bounced back from a break-even day on Friday and lost only one of six matches on Saturday in the pre-qualifying rounds of the ITA All-American Championships in Stone Mountain, Ga. The event is one of the three major collegiate tennis championships and is being held at the Lincoln Tennis Center.
Sophomore Joao Menano got the day going right for the Yellow Jackets on Saturday as he downed Tom Hanus of Northwestern by a 7-6 score in the third round of pre-qualifying. Menano advances to Sunday’s fourth round, and with a win would move on to the qualifying round for the main draw singles beginning on Monday morning.
Menano then continued a successful day when he teamed with junior Stephen Moros in doubles play and advanced to the third round of the pre-qualifying bracket with a pair of wins. The duo opened the tournament with a win over Racioppi and Wright of Pepperdine by a score of 8-6 and followed that with another 8-6 decision over Bjorkman and O’Connor of UC-Irvine. Joining Menano and Moros in the third round on Sunday will be the duo of sophomores West Nott and Scott Schnugg. The pair captured an 8-3 win over Perrin and Sahara of Northwestern in the first round and downed Kowalski and Scott of New Mexico in the second round by a 9-7 score. Menano and Moros are scheduled to face Ng and Warkentin of Ohio State in the third round, while Nott and Schnugg will face off against Hanchen and Johnson of Birmingham Southern.
The only Tech doubles team to lose in the doubles draw was sophomore Alex Navinkov and freshman Trevor Wilson, who fell to Foley and Heath of Illinois State by a 3-8 score.
Play will continue on Sunday morning with the fourth round of singles play and the third round of doubles competition. Full tournament results and draws are available at www.itatennis.com.
Georgia Tech Singles Result Joao Menano (GT) d. Tom Hanus (NW), 7-6
Georgia Tech Doubles Results Menano/Moros (GT) d. Racioppi/Wright (Pepperdine), 8-6 Menano/Moros (GT) d. Bjorkman/O’Connor (UC-Irvine), 8-6 Nott/Schnugg (GT) d. Perrin/Sahara (NW), 8-3 Nott/Schnugg (GT) d. Kowalski/Scott (NM), 9-7 Foley/Heath (Ill. St.) d. Navinkov/Wilson (GT), 8-3
