University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Perform Well at ITA All-American Qualifying
10/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Tobias Wernet fell one match short of reaching the main singles draw of the International Tennis Association All-American championships in qualifying on Wednesday in Tulsa, Okla.
Dino Bilankov and Sebastian Gallego also were one match away from making the main doubles draw after posting a pair of victories in the first two rounds.
Wernet won his first two matches, but lost to 26th-seeded Houston Barrick of Virginia 6-3, 6-2 in the final match to reach the main draw. Wernet won his opening matches over Igricio Taboada of Miami 7-6, 7-5 and 16th-seeded Sinisa Markovic of Texas Tech 7-6, 6-3.
Bilankov and Gallego won their first two matches over Joe Koebele and Carlo Pangilinan 8-5 and Cassidy Mears and Thomas Shubert of Brigham Young 8-3. They were ousted in the third round by Emanuel Brighiu and Adrian Simon of TCU 8-4.
Gallego also took part in the singles qualifying and won his first match over Corey Smith of Montana State 7-5, 7-6, but lost to Johnny Parkes of New Mexico 6-3, 6-3 in the second round.
Gallego lost in the pre-qualifying round, but was a “lucky loser” to earn a spot in the qualifying. After a first-round bye, he swept Carlos Salazar of Oral Roberts 6-0, 6-0 and beat Johnny Hamui of Florida 7-5, 6-3 before falling to Jorge Vazquez of Memphis 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.
Bilankov won his first two pre-qualifying singles matches with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Blake Boswell of Oklahoma and a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Stefan McKinney of New Mexico State. He was knocked out with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 setback to Matt Brewer of Tennessee.
