Men's Tennis Advances With Strong Play at Rice
1/21/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Jan. 21, 2005
HOUSTON, Texas - The top-ranked men's tennis team participated in first-round action Friday at the 7th Annual Met/Rice Indoor Invitational at the Downtown Club at the Met in Houston.
In Bracket-A singles action, top seeded Benedikt Dorsch started the day strong defeating Adrain Szatmary of Nebraska 6-0; 6-3 in the round of 32. In his afternoon match, Dorsch handled Chris Klingeman of Ohio State 6-3; 6-1. Dorsch will face 8th-seeded Travis Helgeson of Texas in the quarterfinals tomorrow.
Senior Benjamin Becker played strong in his first action for Baylor since last spring. Becker, seeded second, defeated Big 12 foe Milan Mihailovic of Texas 6-1; 6-3 in first-round play. He then sent Ben Harknett of Rice to the back draw after defeating Harknett 7-6; 7-6 in the second round.
Greg Shearer also went 2-0 on the day in singles play after beating Marcus Lunt of Tyler JC 6-2; 6-1 and Andrey Kumantsov of Texas A&M-Corpus Christ 6-1; 7-6. Shearer and Becker face off in the quarterfinal round on Saturday.
Fifth-seeded Matija Zgaga struggled with an injury-plagued day Friday. Zgaga lost his first match to Gerhard Posch of Nebraska 7-6; 6-7; 7-6. Then, things continued to go south for Zgaga after having to pull out due to injury against Anthony Portois of UT-San Antonio.
Baylor's most recent transfer Vladimir Portnov stumbled in his first action as a Bear. Portnov lost a tough first-round match to Tony Haerle of Rice 6-4; 6-4. However, Portnov was able to turn things around in the first round of the consolation bracket defeating Ricardo Almeida of UT-San Antonio 6-1; 6-3.
In Bracket B, Jon Reckewey had trouble getting things going early and lost his first-round match to Kentucky's Carey Rubin 6-4; 6-2.
Dorsch and Zgaga teamed up to form the top-seeded duo at this weekend's tournament. The pair faced Raul Rivas and Oscar Roman of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the first round, but injury took its toll on the Bears and the tandem was forced to withdraw early.
Action continues tomorrow as the brackets move into the latter rounds of the tournament. Results will be updated all day at the link below.
http://tournaments.usta.com/tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=31660
Jan. 21, 2005 Results
Bracket A
R32 (1) Benedikt Dorsch d. Adrian Szatmary(Neb.) 6-0; 6-3
R32 Gerhard Posch (Neb.) d. (5) Matija Zgaga 7-6; 6-7; 7-6
R32 Greg Shearer d. Marcus Lunt (Tyler JC) 6-2; 6-1
R32 (2) Benjamin Becker d. Milan Mihailovic (Texas) 6-1; 6-3
R32 Tony Haerle (Rice) d. Vladimir Portnov 6-4; 6-4
R16 (1) Benedikt Dorsch d. Chris Klingeman (Ohio State) 6-3; 6-1
R16 Greg Shearer d. Andrey Kumantsov (TAMUCC) 6-1; 7-6
R16 (2) Benjamin Becker d. Ben Harknett (Rice) 7-6; 7-6
CR1 Anthony Portois (UTSA) d. (5) Matija Zgaga Wo (inj)
CR1 Vladimir Portnov d. Ricardo Almeida (UTSA) 6-1; 6-3
Doubles
R16 Rivas/Roman (TAMCC) d. (1) Dorsch/Zgaga Wo (inj)
Bracket B
R32 Carey Rubin (Kentucky) d. (8) Jon Reckewey 6-4; 6-2
Players Mentioned
