Men’s Tennis Advances Two Doubles Teams to Round of 16

Friday, October 20

Knoxville, Tenn.

All Day

University of Memphis

ITA Ohio Valley Regional

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Men’s Tennis Advances Two Doubles Teams to Round of 16

Oct 20, 2017 | Men's Tennis

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – The University of Memphis men's tennis team advanced two doubles entries to the Round of 16 at the ITA Ohio Valley Regional at the University of Tennessee, Friday. Memphis also grabbed four wins in morning singles, but did not advance a singles entry to Saturday play following the second singles sessions in the afternoon.

                To start the morning, the number three seeded team of Kai Lemke and Matt Story defeated the Northern Kentucky team of Jorge Agudo and Anthony Bosch, 8-1. The win pushes Lemke and Story to an 8:30 Saturday morning match against the team of Sam Sullivan and Mason Dragos.

                That win was followed by another Memphis doubles victory when the team of Jan Pallares and Felix Rauch grabbed an 8-4 win over the team of Gonzala Garcia and Edu Mena of Tennessee Tech, 8-4. That earned the Memphis tandem an 8:30 match against the team of Daniel Valent and Panu Virtanen of Vanderbilt, Saturday.

                Doubles play was followed by two rounds of championship-side singles. Memphis went four-for-four in pushing singles entries to the next round, starting with Lemke's come-from-behind 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over Vanderbilt's Virtanen. But the three-setter was costly in the afternoon, as Lemke dropped a 6-3, 7-6 (6) decision in a tiebreak to No. 21 seeded Nicholas Rouanet of Louisville.

                In that same quarter of the singles bracket, Felix Rauch started his morning with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Middle Tennessee's Chris Edge. Rauch won his opening set of his afternoon match against Christopher Morin-Kougout of Louisville, but dropped the second set 6-3, and lost the third set tiebreaker, 7-6 (5).

                In the second quarter of the draw, Chris Patzanovsky split his first two sets against Jake Stefanik of Kentucky, taking out the seeded foe in the third set 6-3. But another seeded player would eliminate Patzanovsky from the championship draw, as No. 13 seeded Raheel Manji of Indiana grabbed a 7-5, 6-0 win to advance to the Saturday singles.

                Memphis' final championship singles participant was sophomore Jan Pallares. Pallares split his first two sets against Indiana's Bennett Crane, but powered back with a 6-4 third set win to advance to a match-up with No. 5 seeded Ryotaro Matsumura. Matsumura, from Kentucky, moved on with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Pallares to close out the Tigers in the championship singles draw.

                Memphis does still have one singles entry alive though, as Matt Story grabbed a 7-5, 6-3 win over Kentucky's Cesar Bourgois in the consolation singles draw to advance to a 9:30 a.m. match on Saturday against Chattanooga's Jacob Marshall.

                Teammate Turner Voges was close to joining Story in the consolation singles on Saturday, but after splitting sets with Eastern Kentucky's Guillem Sanchiz, 3-6, 6-4, Voges fell in a 10-point tiebreak, 10-7.

DOUBLES
Friday Results
No. 3 Lemke/Story (Memphis) def. Agudo/Bosch (NKU), 8-1
No. 7 Pallares/Rauch (Memphis) def. Garcia/Mena (Tennessee Tech), 8-4
Saturday Schedule
Lemke/Story (Memphis) vs. Sullivan/Dragos (Butler), 8:30 am
Pallares/Rauch (Memphis) vs. Valent/Virtanen (Vanderbilt), 8:30 am

SINGLES
Championship Side
Lemke (Memphis) def. Virtanen (Vanderbilt), 3-6, 7-5, 6-3
Rouanet (Louisville) def. Lemke (Memphis), 6-3, 7-6 (6)
Rauch (Memphis) def. Edge (Middle Tennessee), 7-5, 6-3
Morin-Kougout (Louisville) def. Rauch, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5)
Patzanovsky (Memphis) def. Stefanik (Kentucky), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
Manji (Indiana) def. Patzanovsky (Memphis), 7-5, 6-0
Pallares (Memphis) def. Crane (Indiana), 6-4, 1-6, 6-4
Matsumura (Kentucky) def. Pallares (Memphis), 6-3, 6-4

Consolation Side
Matt Story (Memphis) def. Cesar Bourgois (Kentucky), 7-5, 6-3
Saturday – Story vs. Jacob Marshall (Chattanooga), 9:30 am
Guillem Sanchis (EKU) def. Turner Voges (Memphis), 3-6, 6-4, 10-7