Players from the NAIA No. 1-ranked Georgia Gwinnett College men's tennis team opened the 2023 spring season by collecting seven wins against NCAA Division I opponents Friday at the University of North Florida Invitational in Jacksonville, Florida.
Four doubles teams and eight singles players are competing in the season-opening event that features challenging competition from University of Buffalo (New York) and tournament host North Florida.
Friday's action had four doubles wins in the morning session, with each GGC team picking up one victory. Then, there were three singles triumphs while two additional matches going three sets before suffering setbacks.
The team of seniors
Jose Dugo and
Leonardo Sprovieri won a tiebreaker 8-6 to defeat North Florida's Matt Carroll and Bruno Vietri. Another tiebreak was the deciding factor as senior
Federico Bonacia and junior
Aleksa Ciric teamed to beat Buffalo's Greg Hastings and Daniils Snaiders.
The freshman tandem of
Paras Dahiya and
Dhakshineswar Suresh opened their spring season with a 6-3 victory against Buffalo's Yu-Shiang Huang and Cheng Tang. Finally, juniors
Alex Gurmendi and
Charly Zick picked up a strong 6-2 doubles win against Buffalo's Huang-Tang team in second-round play.
In singles, Dahiya was a straight-set victor against North Florida's Carroll, winning by a 6-3, 6-4 score. The NAIA's top-ranked singles player has a five-match winning streak for the 2022-23 season.
Other victories came from Gurmendi in a three-set match against Buffalo's Tang. The GGC player won the deciding set by a 6-3 score. Then, Dugo had a 6-4, 6-1 victory against Buffalo's Ryan Thompson.
"Today was full of high-quality singles and doubles matches and the guys had a good start, especially in doubles. It's great to see what we need to work on and we are motivated to continue to get better each day," said Head Coach
Hannah Keeling.
The UNF Invitational continues with two rounds of doubles matches and one singles match on Saturday, January 14, in Jacksonville, Florida. The season-opening competition concludes on Sunday, January 15.
