Oct. 26, 2009

(Berkeley) - The USF men's tennis had a good showing last weekend at the ITA Northwest Men's Regional, hosted by Cal in Berkeley. For the weekend, the Dons had three advance to the round of 32 in the main singles draw, two advance to the quarterfinals in the singles consolation bracket, while senior Asaf Cohen will play Monday in the semifinals of the singles consolation draw.

Thai Tu, Rainer Nachbauer, and William Schumacher each advanced to the round of 32 in the singles main draw.

Tu posted straight set victories over Evan Schleining (6-3, 6-1) of Portland and Vegerd Veskimgai (6-2, 6-2) of Pacific before falling in three sets to Greg Hirshman (2-6, 7-6(5), 6-3).

Nachbauer opened with straight victories over Conor Fenney (6-3, 6-1) of Gonzaga and Sherif Hamdy (6-3, 6-4) of Saint Mary's before dropping a 6-1, 6-2 decision to Pedro Zerbini of Cal.

Schumacher advanced to the round of 32 in the main draw with a 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Eastern Washington's Stefan Simikic in the first round before sweeping Washington's Nick Tchernikov (7-6(5), 6-0) in the second round. Schumacher was unable to advanced past the round of 32, falling 6-1, 6-1 to Stanford's Bradley Klahn.

After dropping a 6-4, 6-4 decision to Fresno State's Siddartha Alapati in the first round of the main singles draw, Ola Blakke rolled through the consolation bracket into the quarterfinals. The newcomer posted straight set victories over Geoff Hernandez (6-1, 6-1) of Portland, Nick Buckley (6-0, 6-2) of Santa Clara and Jimmy Roberts (6-2, 6-3) of Sacramento State. Blakke eventually fell in the quarterfinals to Matt Stith of Washington 6-1, 6-3.

Einar Hart also advanced to the quarterfinals of the consolation draw after falling in the opening round of the main draw to Torsten Keil-Long (3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5)) of UC Davis. After earning byes in the first two rounds, Hart defeated Mike Pigou (7-5, 6-1) of Portland and Toki Sherbakov (6-3, 6-2) of UC Davis before dropping a 7-5, 6-4 decision to Sky Lovill of Cal.

Asaf Cohen fell into the consolation bracket after a 7-6(6), 6-1 loss to Bryan Thorp of Portland in the main draw. In the consolation bracket, the senior posted a 7-6(3), 6-4 win over Nick Lopez of Davis, a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Saint Mary's Mike Luke, a 6-4 6-0 victory over Eastern Washington's Stefan Simikic and a 6-0, 6-4 win over EWU's Nico Riego DeDios. Monday, Cohen will compete in the semifinals against Matt Stith of Washington.