Peniston Picks Up ATP Singles Point Wednesday

Wednesday, November 4

Birmingham, Ala.

TBA

University of Memphis

USA F31 Futures Tournament

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Nov 04, 2015 | Men's Tennis

Sophomore won his way through four rounds of qualifying to get to main draw.

By: Tammy DeGroff

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Sophomore men's tennis player Ryan Peniston made the most of his opportunity at the Players Choice Open, the USA Futures event hosted in Birmingham, Wednesday. After waiting out days of rain delays to work through four rounds of the qualifying draw, Peniston won twice on Tuesday to move in to the main draw in singles play. On Wednesday, he made the wait pay up, picking up an ATP singles point with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Cameron Silverman (ATP 961) in a one hour and 15-minute match.

For his effort, Peniston will now advance to the second round, where he will face No. 2 seeded Evan King (ATP 458). The two lefties will face off Thursday for the right to advance to the quarterfinals. King graduated from Michigan in 2013 and was the program's career leader in singles and doubles wins. The four-time, All Big 10 honoree last appeared in the main draw of a Futures event in September in France, where he fell to Alexis Gautler (ATP 1256) in three sets. He was a singles semifinalist at the France F19 event and won the futures event in Edwardsville, Illinois, back in July. He has since played in qualifiers in a pair of Challengers before this week's Futures event in Alabama.

Back in May, Peniston won his first ATP singles point, defeating Noah Makarome in straight sets before falling to No. 377 ranked Tennys Sandgren at the USA F16 event in Tampa. He then returned home to Great Britain for the summer following his freshman campaign, and appeared in the main singles draw in two Futures events back in Great Britain, including a July date in Felixstowe where he faced former Tiger Joe Salisbury in the main draw Round of 32.

Peniston is putting the wraps on a solid fall campaign. After posting a mark of 23-8 as a freshman, including a 5-2 mark at No. 2 singles, Peniston teamed with freshman Felix Rauch to advance to the semifinals of the ITA Ohio Valley Regional last month in doubles play. The duo fell to the eventual tournament champs in that draw, 6-3, 6-2, while Peniston also advanced to the Round of 16 in singles play before falling to the eventual singles champ in that draw as well.

Teammate Kai Lemke also won his way through the four rounds of qualifying to make it to Wednesday's main draw. He fell to No. 4 seeded Claudio Fortuna, 6-2, 6-2 to end his long stay in Birmingham. He was looking for his first career ATP point after joining the Tiger roster in January of 2015.

Peniston's match time for Thursday has not yet been assigned. An updated draw and Order of Play will be posted at http://bit.ly/MEMMTennisUSAF31.