Tigers Advance in Singles and Doubles at ITA Regional

Friday, October 16

Knoxville, Tenn.

All Day

University of Memphis

ITA Ohio Valley Regional

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Tigers Advance in Singles and Doubles at ITA Regional

Oct 16, 2015 | Men's Tennis

Watson and Peniston advance in singles; Peniston and Rauch to doubles quarters

By: Tammy DeGroff

KNOXVILLE – The University of Memphis picked up wins in both the singles and doubles side on Friday to advance to Saturday play at the ITA Ohio Valley Regional. Ryan Peniston and Felix Rauch advanced to the doubles quarterfinals with a pair of Friday wins, while Peniston and defending regional singles champ, Andrew Watson, advanced to the Round of 16 in the singles draw.

Memphis started the day with two entries in the doubles draw. Peniston and Rauch blanked the Tennessee duo of Sunay Bhat and Jess Jones, 8-0, in the second round match, then lost just one game in an 8-1 win over the No. 3 seeded team of Alex Arovin and Alberto Esteban of Tennessee Tech to earn a quarterfinal spot. They will start Saturday morning off with an 8 a.m. match (ET) against Kentucky's Beck Pennington and William Bushamuka.

The Tigers' other doubles team also grabbed a win to start the morning, as Watson and Shakeel Manji downed the Xavier pairing of Schneider and Stefani, 8-3. But the tournament's No. 2 seed stood in the way of a second Tiger squad in the quarterfinal draw, as Louisville's Alex Gornet and Jeffrey Brown prevailed 8-2.

In singles play, Memphis advanced two of three players on the championship side.

Watson still has not dropped a set following a 6-3, 6-4 win over Antonio Cembellin of Indiana in the Round of 32 match. He will face No. 14 seeded Rogerio Ribeiro of East Tennessee State at 9 a.m., Friday.

The winner of the Watson/Ribeiro match could run in to another Tiger. Ryan Peniston came back from a 7-5 first set loss to outlast No. 17 seeded Baker Newman of Vanderbilt, 6-4, 6-0 to advance to the Round of 16. With the win, he earns a 9 a.m. match against No. 15 seeded Sam Monette of Indiana with the winner of his match facing the winner of the Watson match at noon Saturday.

Memphis' other championship-side match saw Kai Lemke fall to Indiana's Elliott Yee, 6-3, 7-6. Yee took out top seeded Pennington from Kentucky in the second round yesterday and kept his momentum up against Lemke to eliminate the Tiger from the top half of the draw.

Memphis played two matches on the consolation side, Friday. Freshman Chris Patzanovsky bounced back from his first round loss with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Belmont's Bruno Russo, and will now face Morehead's Nick Mercer at 9 a.m., Saturday.

Louis Asser also played a consolation match on Friday, falling to Purdue's Arthur Dobradin, 6-1, 6-1 to wrap up his regional schedule.
Results
Doubles
Round of 32
No. 9 seed Ryan Peniston/Felix Rauch (Memphis) def. Sunay Bhat/Jess Jones (Tennessee), 8-0
Andrew Watson/Shakeel Manji (Memphis) def. ? Schneider/?Stefani (Xavier), 8-3
Round of 16
No. 9 seed Ryan Peniston/Felix Rauch (Memphis) def. No. 3 seed Alex Arovin/Alberto Esteban (TTU), 8-1
No. 2 seed Alex Gornet/Jeffrey Brown (Louisville) def. Andrew Watson/Shakeel Manji (Memphis), 8-2

Championship Side Singles
Round of 32
Elliott Yee (Indiana) def. No. 17 seed Kai Lemke (Memphis), 6-3, 7-6
Ryan Peniston (Memphis) def. No. 17 seed B. Newman (Vanderbilt), 5-7, 6-4, 6-0
Andrew Watson (Memphis) def. No. 17 seed Antonio Cembellin (Indiana), 6-3, 6-4

A Consolation
Chris Patzanovsky (Memphis) def. Russo (Belmont), 6-0, 6-4

B Consolation
Dobradin (Purdue) def. Louis Asser (Memphis), 6-1, 6-1

Schedule
Doubles
8 a.m. - Quarterfinals – Peniston/Rauch (Memphis) vs. Pennington/Bushamuka (Kentucky)

Championship Singles
Round of 16
9 a.m. – Peniston (Memphis) vs. Monette (Indiana)
9 a.m. – Watson (Memphis) vs. Ribeiro (East Tennessee State)

A Consolation
9:00 a.m. – Patzanovsky (Memphis) vs. Mercer (Morehead State)