June 23, 2010
ARLINGTON, Texas - Texas A&M men's tennis player Colin Hoover reached the quarterfinals of the singles draw at the U.S. Open Texas Sectional Qualifying Tournament held at the Arlington Tennis Center.
Hoover, a junior from Victoria, Texas, defeated Artem Baradach, the No. 1 singles player for SMU ranked No. 68 nationally in the final ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings, 6-4, 7-6 (4), in the round of 16. He will face Blake Davis tomorrow in the quarterfinals at 11:30 a.m. (CT).
In his first three opening-round matches, Hoover relinquished only four games with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Andrew Parks in the round of 128, a 6-0, 6-0 rout of Robert Rutledge, who played for rival Texas in the 80s, in the round of 64 and a pair of love games versus Amir Rahbar in the round of 32.
The sectional tournament continues through Saturday. The winner from each region will advance to the U.S. Open National Playoffs - Men's Championship to be held on July 22-25 at the Atlanta Athletic Club in Atlanta, Ga. A maximum of 16 players will compete in a single-elimination draw played to the best-of-three tiebreak sets. The top four players will be seeded using their international professional computer rankings (if any). The winner will receive a singles wild card entry to compete in the 2010 U.S. Open Qualifying Tournament in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. in August.