Men’s Tennis Has Successful Day One at ITA Regionals
PROVO, Utah – The Utah men's tennis team opened up its ITA Mountain Regionals on Tuesday. The Utes had three doubles teams advance to the round of 32 and had six singles players advance to the round of 32.
The regional doubles champion and the regional singles champion and finalists qualify for the ITA National Fall Championships, from November 4-7 in San Diego, California. To view the updated singles and doubles draw, click here.
Opening up the day with doubles, the duo of Rian Ta and Jayson Blando came away with an 8-3 win over the New Mexico State team of Louis Menard and Martin Simecek. They were one of two Utah doubles teams to play as second seed Franco Capalbo and Geronimo Busleiman and the fourth seed Bruno Caula and Francisco Bastias, had byes into the second round.
Fifteenth seed Mathias Gavelin and Bruno Krenn matched up with Francisco Gay and Mario Duron from Idaho. The Utes duo was defeated 8-2.
Utah had great success in singles action on day one as they had eight of their nine players reach the second round, and six advanced to the round of 32. Five of the six players who moved to the round of 32 for the Utes are seeded players.
Opening up singles play for the Utes was Mathias Gavelin, Jayson Blando, Rian Ta, and Michael Blando. Gavelin came away with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Justin Waldman of Air Force. The win moved Gavelin to the second round. Jayson Blando matched up with Jamieson Nathan of Montana State in the first round. J. Blando won 7-5, 7-5. Ta faced Wikus Robbertse of Idaho State in the first round and came away with a 6-2, 6-2 victory. In round one, the only loss in singles action was M. Blando, who lost to Roko Savin, 6-3, 6-2.
Gavelin continued his successful day in singles in the second round. He was matching up against the tenth seeded Mattia Ros of Denver in the second round. Ros was the top singles player last year when the Pioneers played the Utes. Gavelin came away with a 6-4, 7-5 victory knocking the 10th seed out of the main draw.
Utah, who entered the tournament with five seeded singles players, all had a bye in the first round and came out and advanced to the round of 32. Eight Seed Francisco Bastias defeated Idaho State's Andreas Kramer, 6-3, 7-5. Bruno Caula, the sixth seed in the draw, beat BYU's Otto Schreiner 6-3, 6-3. The winning ways continued when third seed Geronimo Busleiman faced off against Montana's Ed Pudney. Busleiman defeated Pudney, 6-4, 6-4.
The last two seeded players to take to the court for the Utes were 15th seed Bruno Krenn and second seed Franco Capalbo. Krenn dropped the first set 6-2 to Corey Clark of New Mexico State before winning the following two sets, 6-4, 6-1, to advance. Capalbo faced off against Jordan Azuma of Air Force in the second round, and Capalbo won 6-3, 6-2.
The ITA Regional Tournament will continue tomorrow with the round of 32 singles, the round of 32 doubles, and the start of the consolation brackets for both doubles and singles. Live updates for the tournament can be found on the ITA website.
ITA Regional Championships – Day 1 Results
Singles – Round of 128
Roko Savin (USU) def. Michael Blando (UU), 6-3, 6-2
Mathias Gavelin (UU) def. Justin Waldman (AFA), 6-3, 6-3
Jayson Blando (UU) def. Jamieson Nathan (MSU), 7-5, 7-5
Rian Ta (UU) def. Wikus Robbertse (ISU), 6-2, 6-2
Singles – Round of 64
Mathias Gavelin (UU) def. 10th-Seeded Mattia Ros (DU), 6-4, 7-5
8th-Seeded Francisco Bastias (UU) def. Andreas Kramer (ISU), 6-3, 7-5
6th-Seeded Bruno Caula (UU) def. Otto Schreiner (BYU), 6-3, 6-3
23rd-Seeded David Cierny (USU) def. Jayson Blando (UU), 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
3rd- Seeded Geronimo Busleiman (UU) def. Ed PUdney (MONT), 6-4, 6-4
15th-Seeded Bruno Krenn (UU) def. Corey Clark (NMSU), 2-6, 6-, 6-1
28th-Seeded Sebastian Buxman (WSU) def. Rian Ta (UU), 6-1, 6-4
2nd-Seeded Franco Capalbo (UU) def. Jordan Azuma (AFA), 6-3, 6-2
Doubles – Round of 64
Rian Ta/Jayson Blando (UU) def. Louis Menard/Martin Simecek (NMSU), 8-3
Mario Duron/Francisco Gay (UOI) def. 15th-Seeded Mathias Gavelin/Bruno Krenn (UU), 8-2