University of Minnesota Athletics
Three Gophers Move Past ITA First Round
10/24/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Three Minnesota men's tennis players won their opening match on the first day of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Central Regional in Tulsa, Okla.
Sebastian Gallego pulled out the biggest win of the day, cruising past 12th-seeded Marc Bruche of Iowa 6-0, 6-3. Tobias Wernet is seeded ninth in the field and won his first match over Nikita Zotov of Iowa 6-1, 6-4. Dino Bilankov added a three-set win over Adrian Chermaci of Wichita State 6-2, 0-6, 7-5. Michael Sicora suffered the Gophers' lone first-round setback with a 6-3, 7-5 loss to seventh-seeded Ashley Watling of Tulsa.
In doubles, Wernet and Sicora opened with an 8-6 win over Orhan Spahic and Jordan Snyder of Southern Illinois, but they were knocked out in the second round by the tournament's top-seeded team of Aleksey Bessonov and Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State 8-2.
Bilankov and Gallego were defeated in their opening match by Anton Bobytskyi and Eric West of Oklahoma State 8-3.
The tournament continues on Saturday and the finals are set for Monday. The winners in singles and doubles each advance to the ITA National Indoor Championships Nov. 5-8 in New Haven, Conn.
Players Mentioned
