WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS – UT Tyler men's tennis wrapped up their weekend at the ITA South Central Regional Tournament on Saturday afternoon after a solid weekend.
THURSDAY
#3 seed
Carel Wessel would get things rolling for the Patriots as he earned two straight wins in straight sets by scores of 6-1, 6-4 and 6-3, 6-2 to put himself into the round of 16 on Friday.
He was quickly joined by #4 seed
Artiom Dorofeev, who followed with his own pair of straight set wins in scores of 6-3, 6-2, and 7-6 (7-4), 6-0 to book himself into the round of 16.
#10 seed
Martin Despodov would continue the Patriots strong day, ripping off wins of 6-4, 6-2 and 6-1, 6-4 in his first two matches. He was right in front of #11 seed
Malo Poulesquen, who made it four Patriots into the round of 16 after wins of 4-6, 7-5, 10-8, and 6-4, 6-4.
#15 seed
Samuel Antwi made it five Patriots in the round of 16, losing just eight games in his two matches on his way to wins of 6-2, 6-2 and 6-4, 6-0.
In doubles,
Daniil Felker and Wessel took the #1 seed and earned a first round bye. They followed up that bye with an 8-5 win in the round of 16, booking their spot in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Artiom Dorofeev and
Malo Poulesquen would earn the #2 seed, and they followed suit with their own bye in round one and then an 8-4 win to book their own spot in the quarterfinals.
In the consolation bracket,
Arthur Miquelard and
Manuel Lassacher would bounce back with an 8-6 win, advancing to Friday's quarterfinals.
FRIDAY
On Friday, the Patriots would find a tough battle in singles. Wessel, Despodov and Dorofeev would each fall in straight sets in their round of 16 matches, and Antwi would also fall, but not after a three set thriller.
That left just
Malo Poulesquen in singles, and he delivered a huge upset of the #5 seed in his first match in scores of 6-3, 7-5. That set him up into the quarterfinals, and he delivered a second straight huge upset, this time of the #2 seed as he took him down 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 6-3 to book his position into the semifinals on Saturday.
Over in doubles, the pair of Felker and Wessel would face off with the #6 seed, but came up just short in a marathon match that went all the way to a tiebreaker at 8-7 (7-5) to close out the match.
For Dorofeev and Poulesquen, they would also come up just short to the #8 seed at 8-4 to close out their tournament run.
Lassacher and Miquelard earned a walkover win due to injury in their quarterfinal round of the consolation bracket, and then took an 8-2 win in the semifinals to book their spot in the finals on Saturday.
SATURDAY
In Saturday's singles semifinals, #11 seed Poulesquen would come out firing with a 6-2 win, but the #16 seed Lukas Janousek responded with two straight set wins of 6-3 and 6-4 to pull off the comeback and end the run for Poulesquen.
In the doubles consolation bracket, Lassacher and Miquelard would come up just short in a score of 8-4 to close out their run and finish as runner-ups.
With the finish for
Malo Poulesquen in singles, and the doubles pairs of Poulesquen and Dorofeev and Wessel and Felker, they will all be under consideration for the ITA Cup taking place October 16-19
th in Rome, Georgia.
