Oct. 23, 2010
Complete Results| TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Baylor men's tennis team was perfect on the first day of competition at the USTA/ITA Texas Regional winning six singles matches and two doubles contests to advance all five of its student-athletes on Saturday at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
"It was great," head coach Matt Knoll said. "We just moved through the draw and I thought everybody did a super job. Everybody won, everybody advanced. It was a great first day."
Freshman Robert Verzaal started off the Baylor run with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Tobias Flood of SMU in the singles round of 128. The other four Baylor players all received a first round bye. Verzaal would continue his winning ways with a hard-fought three-set win in the second round over Christopher Price of TCU, 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-2. Verzaal will now face the tournament's ninth seed, Rafael Garcia of Texas Tech, on Sunday.
"I thought the best result of the day was Woody's (Verzaal) win over Price," Knoll said "I thought he just did a good job of playing a good tiebreaker in the first and then he managed the situation to play well in the third. I am proud of him for getting to the finish line in that one."
The regional is one of 12 held around the country in the month of October with the singles and doubles champion from each site qualifying for the 2010 USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships. The national tournament is slated for Nov. 4-7, at the new indoor facilities at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, located in Flushing, New York.
The Bears' only ranked player in the event, senior John Peers, swept Rice's Oscar Podlewski, 6-2, 6-4. The 28th-ranked Peers is also seeded fifth in this tournament and will now play UT-Arlington's Yauheni Yakauleu in the third round.
Juniors Julian Bley and Kike Grangeiro followed the lead of Peers as they each won their round of 64 match. Bley, seeded No. 17, beat Ryan Ybarra of Texas Tech 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, while Grangeiro, seeded No. 13, downed Ramert Raguz of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 6-2, 6-1. Bley will take on 10th-seeded Alex Klegou of Texas A&M on Sunday, as Grangeiro faces Raphael Pfister of Texas Tech.
"Kike had the cleanest match of the day," Knoll said. "Every match had its struggles, but I thought Kike had the cleanest match. He concentrated and played a little better than most of the guys today."
Sophomore Roberto Maytin, seeded 11th, got past Mindaugas Celedinas of UT-Arlington, 7-5, 7-6(3). Maytin will play 17th-seeded Sudanwa Sitaram of Texas on Sunday.
Both of the Bears' doubles tandems earned first round byes and went to capture second round victories as well.
The ninth-seeded duo of Bley and Grangeiro squeaked past Jonathan Chang and Sam Garforth-Bles of Rice, 9-7, while the 57th-ranked and sixth-seeded team of Maytin and Peers rolled to an 8-3 win over Giacomo Sano and David Subirats.
Bley and Grangeiro will face fifth-seeded Niall Angus and Alexey Grigorov of Texas A&M on Sunday and Maytin and Peers will play Beau Bernstein and Ashwin Vijayragavan.
"Tomorrow is a new day," Knoll said. "We are playing different guys and we just need to be ready to come out fresh and ready to work from the first ball to the last. I think the guys will do that."
USTA/ITA Texas Regional
Oct 23, 2010 at College Station, Texas
(George P. Mitchell Tennis Center)
Singles
r128 Robert Verzaal (Baylor) def. Tobias Flood (SMU) 6-2, 6-3
r64 #28 John Peers (Baylor) def. Oscar Podlewski (Rice) 6-2, 6-4
r64 Julian Bley (Baylor) def. Ryan Ybarra (Texas Tech) 6-1, 4-6, 6-4
r64 Roberto Maytin (Baylor) def. Mindavgas Celedinas (University of Texas-Arlington) 7-5, 7-6 (7-3)
r64 Kike Grangeiro (Baylor) def. Robert Raguz (Texas A&M - Corpus Christi) 6-2, 6-1
r64 Robert Verzaal (Baylor) def. Christopher Price (Texas Christian University) 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-2
Doubles
r32 #57 Roberto Maytin/John Peers (Baylor) def. David Subirats/Giacomo Sano (University of Texas-Arlington) 8-3
r32 Julian Bley/Kike Grangeiro (Baylor) def. Sam Garfoth-Bles/Jonathon Chang (Rice) 9-7
