Oct. 5, 2010
TULSA, OK - The two Texas A&M men's tennis doubles teams had an outstanding day at the 2010 D'Novo/ITA All-American Tennis Championships being hosted by the University of Tulsa.
"We had a good day today," Aggie head coach Steve Denton said. "The guys knew we did not play very well in the regional tournament last week at Baylor, but they came out today against national tough competition and really stepped up. Both first matches were very close and we played much better in the second match of the day."
The doubles tandem of Alberto Bautista (McAllen, TX) and Colin Hoover (Victoria, TX) faced the New Mexico team of Phil Anderson and Jaydon Phillips. The Aggies took the match, 9-7, to advance to the second round against the Cal Poly tandem of Jordan Bridge and Brian McPhee. Bautista and Hoover won that match, 8-6, to advance to play the host team from Tulsa, Clifford Marsland and Ashley Watling at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
The other Aggie duo saw Niall Angus (London, England) and Alexey Grigorov (Moscow, Russia) take down the ETSU tandem of Jesus Bandres and Sander Gille, 9-8 (7). In the second round match, the Aggies faced a Mississippi State team of Louis Cant and Malte Stropp . Angus and Grigorov won that match, 8-4, to advance to face Oklahoma State at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
"The Oklahoma State team beat the #1 doubles team from Texas in the opening round and followed with a win against Baylor's top team," Denton explained. "We'll need to play very solid and the key to the match is to hold serve."
"Bautista and Hoover will have a tough match facing the host team with a good crowd behind them and Tulsa is a very good doubles team," Denton said. "I am very encouraged that our guys would fight back from a tough opening weekend in doubles to come out and win four matches today."