Rauch Advances to Round of 32 at ITA All-American Pre-Qualifier

Sunday, October 4

Tulsa, Okla.

All Day

University of Memphis

ITA Pre-Qualifier

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Rauch Advances to Round of 32 at ITA All-American Pre-Qualifier

Oct 04, 2015 | Men's Tennis

Freshman to play for qualifying spot Monday morning.

By: Tammy DeGroff

TULSA – Freshman Felix Rauch won a pair of matches Sunday to advance to the Round of 32 in the ITA Pre-Qualifier. He now faces Green Bay's Leopold Gomez-Inslinger for a qualifier spot in the ITA All-American Qualifying Draw, Monday morning.

Rauch started the day with a comeback win, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, over UCLA's Ryoto Tachi in the Round of 128. In the Round of 64, Rauch won a pair of tiebreak thrillers, 7-6, 7-6, to earn the right to fight to advance to the next draw.

Rauch is trying to make it from the prequalifying draw to the qualifying draw, where a trio of Tiger teammates is already in between the singles and doubles draws.

Ryan Peniston will start his run in the qualifying side at 11:30 a.m. Monday against No. 9 seed Arjun Kadhe of Oklahoma State, while sophomore Andrew Watson is the draw's No. 2 seed and will start against Minnesota's Felix Corwin at 10:30 a.m., Monday.

In the doubles draw, Watson and sophomore Kai Lemke will start in the qualifying round on Monday.

Round of 128
Felix Rauch (Memphis) def. Ryoto Tachi (UCLA), 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
Diego Nunez (East Tennessee State) def. Kai Lemke (Memphis), 6-4, 6-4

Round of 64
Felix Rauch (Memphis) def. Chris Barrus (UCF), 7-6, 7-6

Qualifying/Round of 32
8 a.m. – Felix Rauch (Memphis) vs. Leopold Gomez Inslinger (Green Bay)

Consolation Matches
Louis Asser (Memphis) def. Mackenzie Stearns (Marquette), 7-5, 7-6
Shakeel Manji (Memphis) def. Corey Pang (Cal Poly), 6-1, 6-4