The Georgia Gwinnett College men's tennis program has remained perfect through two rounds of the singles and doubles draws in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Cup following Friday's quarterfinal action at the Rome Tennis Center in Rome, Georgia.
DRAWS
The Grizzlies have a singles player and doubles pairing advancing to the semifinal round on Saturday, October 17.
Sophomore
Kanan Gasimov, the No. 2 seed in the singles draw, picked up another straight-set 7-5, 6-4 victory against Tennessee Wesleyan University's Serafin Zund on Friday morning. The quarterfinal contest was a rematch of last month's ITA South Regional singles semifinal match, which Gasimov also won in straight sets.
Gasimov will now face No. 3 seed Ching Wah Wai of Holy Cross College (Indiana) in the 9 a.m. semifinal match. The winner will play for the NAIA individual championship on Sunday, October 18.
Later in the day, the unseeded doubles pairing of senior
Nicolas Philibert and sophomore
Mariano Hasenkopf rallied in the quarterfinal after dropping the opening set and saved match points to defeat a fellow unseeded team from Southeastern University (Florida) by 4-6, 6-4, 12-10.
The Philibert-Haskenkopf team broke its competitor's serve to win the second set. The Southeastern team then jumped out to a fast lead in the deciding third set tiebreaker, only to have Philibert and Hasenkopf regain momentum by winning key points at the net. Philibert fought off a match point and tied the match at 10-10 on his serve. Another service point by Philibert gave the GGC duo the lead and an unforced error by Southeastern helped decide the dramatic tiebreaker point.
The Philibert-Hasenkopf team will now seek to defeat its second seeded team of the tournament with a semifinal match against the No. 2-seeded team from Tennessee Wesleyan on Saturday, starting at 2 p.m.
Coach's Corner
"Our guys played with great maturity today to come through in some clutch situations. We are halfway to our goals for this tournament and just need to keep focused on the process," said Head Coach
Tom Rees.
Up Next
Singles and doubles action continues in the ITA Cup with semifinal-round matches on Saturday, October 17, in Rome, Georgia, starting at 9 a.m.
