Box Score HOUSTON, Texas – The UT Arlington men's tennis team wrapped up play at the Rice Invitational on Sunday where
Alan Sau took home the main draw championship and came away with the main double's championship with partner
Alejandro Hayen.
Solano Caffarena and
Angel Diaz also came away with the secondary double's championship.
"It was very good to see all the guys play that well," said head coach
Diego Benitez. "Alan played very aggressive throughout the entire tournament and elevated his game when it needed to happen."
In singles play,
Alan Sau scorched through the main singles draw winning his first two matches in straight sets. In his first match, he defeated Ryuya Ata (Texas A&M – Corpus Christi) 6-3, 7-5. He moved on to defeat Karol Paluch (Rice) 7-6(3), 7-6(5) to advance to the championship. Sau matched up against Stefan Storch (Texas A&M) and defeated the Aggie 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 to win the main draw championship.
After losing his opening match,
Angel Diaz bounced back to win the Draw B consolation championship. He defeated Pranav Kumar (Texas A&M) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals before beating Joao Alcantara (UTSA) 6-3, 6-2 to win the championship.
In Draw C,
Alejandro Hayen took third place. After winning his first match by walkover, Hayen fell to Austin Abbrat (Texas A&M) 6-2, 5-7, 6-2. Hayen bounced back in the third-place match, defeating Eric Rutledge (Rice).
The Mavericks swept the doubles draws, winning both championships while defeating tandems from Texas A&M and Rice.
"Beating good schools like Texas A&M and Rice in doubles shows that we're heading in the right direction and is exactly what we needed as we head into the ITA Regionals," said Benitez.
In the main draw, Hayen and Sau took down Texas Tech's Jackson Cobb and Reed Collier 8-4 in the first round before beating two Texas A&M teams in back-to-back rounds to win the championship. They won their semifinal match 8-5 before gutting out a 9-7 win to claim the title.
After taking down UTSA's Kaito Nishihara and Patrick Poestinger 8-4 in their opening match, Caffarena and Diaz defeated Luka Stojanovic and Oliver Valentinsson (Incarnate Word) 8-5 to advance to the championship. Matched up against Rice's Dennis Boisseau and Marwin Kralemann, UTA's tandem came out victorious in a clean 8-0 victory to claim the Draw B doubles championship.
The Mavericks will be back in action beginning next Friday (Oct. 25) when they travel to Waco to play in the ITA Texas Regional Championships hosted by Baylor. The tournament will run from Friday through Monday (Oct. 28).
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