USF Men's Tennis Enjoys Strong Showing at the 2004 Wilson/ITA Regionals

Oct. 27, 2004

(Berkeley) - Senior Pablo Pires de Almeida won another singles match and advanced to the Monday semifinals in the 2004 Wilson/ITA Regional Championships, hosted by Cal. Pires de Almeida dispatched Sacramento State's Junaid Hossain in a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 marathon to advance to the semifinals and made history in the process as he became the first Don and the first player from a West Coast Conference school to advance to the semifinal round of the Regional in the tournament history.

Pires de Almeida battled Matt Loucks of Portland in the semifinals in an All-WCC match and dropped a 7-5, 6-2 decision. Earlier Pires de Almeida teamed with Phillip Riise-Hansen as they advanced to the quarterfinal round in the doubles competition. The Dons fell to a tough Cal team of Conor Niland (the number one singles seed, who Pires de Almeida defeated in the round of 32) and Patrick Briaud, 8-5.

USF head coach Peter Bartlett was pleased with the performance of his team during the challenging event.

"This was a good tournament for us. I think we learned some things and opened some eyes to the quality of tennis we are playing here. It was a great showing for the conference to have teams from the West Coast Conference making their mark among Pac-10 programs. This is something we can build off this season," Barltett said.

Wilson / ITA Men's  Singles -- Quarterfinals
  Pires de Ameida USF Pablo[9], Unv of San Francisco d. Hossain SAC Junaid, Sacramento State  4-6;6-2;6-2
  Loucks UP Matt, Univ. of Portland d. Sigurdsson UOP Arnar[9], Univ. of Pacific  6-4;6-3
  Maack CAL Lennart[5], CAL d. Corkery STAN K. C.[3], Stanford  6-1;6-0
  Swinnen UO Sven[2], Univ. of Oregon d. Sebescen CAL Daniel, CAL  6-3;6-0
  Wilson / ITA Men's  Singles -- Semifinals
  Loucks UP Matt, Univ. of Portland d. Pires de Ameida USF Pablo[9], Unv of San Francisco  7-5;6-2
  Swinnen UO Sven[2], Univ. of Oregon d. Maack CAL Lennart[5], CAL  6-4;6-2
Wilson / ITA Men's Doubles -- Quarterfinals
  STAN Corkery K - STAN Warburg S [1] d. CAL Dean W - CAL Lennart M  8-5
  CAL Brown T - CAL Sebescen D [4] d. UO Kost M - UO Swinnen S [3]  8-5
  UO Bieri T - UO Schiller M [5] d. STAN Eric M - STAN Jon W  8-3
  CAL Briaud P - CAL Niland C [2] d. USF Pablo P - USF Philip R  8-5