Oct. 24, 2009
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COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Five Texas A&M men's tennis players and four doubles teams advanced to the round of 32 after the completion of the first day of play at the 2009 Wilson/ITA Texas Regional Championships held Saturday afternoon at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
No. 30-ranked and fifth-seeded junior All-American Austin Krajicek (Brandon, Fla.) led the way for the Aggies by defeating Jonathan Chang of Rice, 6-3, 7-6 (6). He will face 17th-seeded Vasil Mladenov of Texas tomorrow at 10 a.m. (CT). Others advancing past the round of 64 with straight-set victories included junior Alexey Grigorov (Moscow, Russia), junior Jeff Dadamo (Tampa, Fla.) and junior Kayvon Karimi (Dallas, Texas).
Karimi will meet top-seeded and sixth-ranked Dimitar Kutrovsky of Texas tomorrow in the round of 32 at 9 a.m., Grigorov versus Dennis Polyakov of Rice at 9 a.m., and Dadamo against Ashwin Vijaragavan of UTPA at 10 a.m.
"Overall, our guys had a good day," Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton said. "I thought we competed well and did a good job of defending our home court. We had good efforts from Dadamo, Krajicek, Grigorov and Calon Alpar. Calon played well today against a ranked player in Kellen Damico of Texas and has been playing much better in practice. Kayvon fought hard and had a good win against another Texas player (Chris Camillone) today."
The highlight of the day came in the form of an early three-set State Farm Lone Star Showdown rivalry match between Texas A&M freshman Alberto Bautista (McAllen, Texas) and Texas freshman Ben Chen, who won two Texas Summer Grand Slam Championships at the Mitchell Tennis Center in juniors tournament play.
Bautista won the first-set tiebreaker, 7-4, but lost momentum, resulting in a 7-5 second-set decision to Chen. Down 6-4 in the third-set tiebreaker, Bautista rose to the occasion and won the match on serve, 9-7. He will take on ninth-seeded Rafeal Garcia of Texas Tech tomorrow at 10 a.m.
"That was a solid match for Alberto," Denton said. "It was one of those matches where you weren't sure which player wanted to win. He was up a set at 4-2 in the second and then up a break in the third. It was one of those seesaw battles and it's good for him to get a win like that against a tough player we are going to see later on in the season. It's great for his confidence."
In doubles action, the fifth-seeded Aggie combination of Dadamo and Krajicek dispatched Brett Bernstein and Ashwin Vijaragavan of UT Pan American, 8-3, for a spot in tomorrow's round of 32 as did the A&M tandems of Grigorov and senior Marcus Lunt (San Antonio, Texas), Karimi and junior Jack Seider (Austin, Texas) and Bautista and sophomore John Lewis (Birmingham, Ala.).
Play continues tomorrow morning with singles beginning at 8:30 a.m. (CT) followed by the round of 32 in doubles at approximately 3 p.m. (CT). The four-day event is open and free to the public. Live video streaming from the six Stadium Club courts at the Mitchell Tennis Center can be viewed online at: www.AggieAthletics.com.
WILSON/ITA TEXAS REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Oct. 24-27, 2009
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
at College Station, Texas
SINGLES
Round of 64
(30) Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M) def. Jonathan Chang (Rice), 6-3, 7-6 (6).
Alexey Grigorov (Texas A&M) def. Santiago Centeno (TCU), 6-1, 6-3.
Jeff Dadamo (Texas A&M) def. Martin Ayala (UTSA), 6-2, 6-1.
Alberto Bautista (Texas A&M) def. Ben Chen (Texas), 7-6 (4), 5-7, 7-6 (7).
Kayvon Karimi (Texas A&M) def. Chris Camillone (Texas), 6-4, 7-6 (5).
(47) Kellen Damico (Texas) def. Calon Alpar (Texas A&M), 7-6 (11), 6-3.
Oscar Podlewski (Rice) def. Marcus Lunt (Texas A&M), 6-3, 7-5.
Rafeal Garcia (Texas Tech) def. John Lewis (Texas A&M), 6-4, 6-4.
Round of 128
Marcus Lunt (Texas A&M) def. Adam Srkala (UTA), 6-1, 6-4.
Alberto Bautista (Texas A&M) def. James Langford (TAMUCC), 6-0, 6-2.
John Lewis (Texas A&M) def. Max Stratmann (UTSA), 6-4, 6-4.
Calon Alpar (Texas A&M) def. Andrew Maingot (TAMUCC), 6-2, 6-1.
Tyler Brown (UTSA) def. Jack Seider (Texas A&M), 1-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Brett Bernstein (UTPA) def. Patrick Dean (Texas A&M), 6-3, 6-1.
Abdelhamid Riani (UTPA) def. Beau Blackshear (Texas A&M), 6-2, 6-4.
Consolation
Jack Seider (Texas A&M) def. Devin Harley (Lamar), 6-1, 6-1.
Mindaugas Celedinas (UTA) def. Beau Blackshear (Texas A&M), 6-3, 6-0.
David Gonzalez (Texas Tech) def. Patrick Dean (Texas A&M), 6-1, 6-2.
DOUBLES
Round of 32
Jeff Dadamo-Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M) def. Brett Bernstein-Ashwin Vijaragavan (UTPA), 8-3.
Alexey Grigorov-Marcus Lunt (Texas A&M) def. Sam Garfoth-Bles-Oscar Podlewski (Rice), 8-6.
Kayvon Karimi-Jack Seider (Texas A&M) def. Marcus Dornauf-Abdelhamid Riani (UTPA), 8-4.
Alberto Bautista-John Lewis (Texas A&M) def. Jeff Bryan-Jared Hope (Texas Tech), 8-6.
Zach Nichols-Christopher Price (TCU) def. Calon Alpar-Patrick Dean (Texas A&M), 8-3.