University of Minnesota Athletics
Bilankov, Gallego to Meet in Big Ten Semifinals
11/3/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Minnesota will have a finalist in the Big Ten men’s tennis singles championship as Sebastian Gallego and Dino Bilankov both won quarterfinal matches and will meet in a semifinal match on Monday in Madison, Wis.
Gallego, seeded fifth in the tournament, defeated 10th-seeded John Allare of Michigan State 6-1, 6-4, while the 11th-seeded Bilankov rallied to beat second-seeded Lachian Ferguson of Indiana 5-7, 7-6, 6-4. The Gopher teammates, who are also doubles partners, will play Monday at 9 a.m. and the winner will face either Slavko Bijelica of Purdue or Christian Bierich of Iowa in the title match later in the day. The finals will be televised by the Big Ten Network and shown tape delayed on Sun., Nov. 9 at 4 p.m.
Bilankov will be playing a Minnesota teammate for the second straight day after outlasting Philip Arndt 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in his third-round match on Sunday. Gallego advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Ruan Roelofse of Illinois.
Minnesota’s Tobias Wernet was the tournament’s top seed and won his third round match over Alex Forger of Michigan State 7-6, 6-0, but lost to sixth-seeded Bijelica 7-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.
In addition, Julian Dehn will be playing for the consolation title on Monday after winning his fourth consecutive straight-set match. Dehn beat Jason Lee of Penn State 6-3, 6-2 in the consolation semifinals and will face George Navas of Michigan in the finals. Jake Annear reached the third round of consolation and lost to Tobias Reitz of Northwestern 7-5, 7-5 on Sunday.
Players Mentioned
