Men’s Tennis Captures Three Titles Sunday

Saturday, October 15

Malibu, Calif.

University of Memphis

Oracle ITA Masters

Voges and Manji Louisville doubles title

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Oct 16, 2016 | Men's Tennis

Watson and the doubles team of Manji and Voges grab titles Sunday.

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – The University of Memphis men's tennis team captured three titles on Sunday at two different events. At the Louisville Fall Invitational, the doubles team of Turner Voges and Shakeel Manji won the B doubles title with their third 8-7 decision of the event. On the consolation side at that same event, teammates Matt Story and Felix Rauch won the consolation A doubles title. Meanwhile, in California, teammate Andrew Watson won the Oracle ITA Master's consolation singles title in straight sets.

Voges and Manji, who won their semifinal match, 8-7 (5) over the Michigan tandem of Gabe Tishman and Davis Crocker on Saturday, found themselves in another tiebreak in the championship final on Sunday. For the third time in as many matches, the Tiger duo prevailed, grabbing the 8-7 (4) win over the Austin Peay team of Almantas Ozelis and Aleh Drobysh for the tournament title.

In B doubles, the Tiger team Story and Rauch had a little easier time en route the consolation title. They downed the Xavier team of Matt Bishop and Gabriel Araujo, 8-4, to win the title there.

In singles, Memphis had advanced three players to the semifinals of the championship side of their respective draws. All three entries suffered losses on Sunday. In A singles, Story lost to Louisville's Brandon Lancaster, 6-3, 7-5. Lancaster went on to win the draw in straight sets. Teammate Felix Rauch was playing in the consolation semifinal on the other side of the draw and won his match against Illinois State's Urh Krajnc Domiter, 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 to advance to the finals there. Rauch fell in the final of the consolation draw, 6-1, 6-3, to Michigan's Davis Crocker.

In C singles, Voges took his opponent from Illinois State to three sets, splitting the first two sets,6-3, 4-6, but it was State's Christoffer Greve that prevailed, 6-4 in the third to advance out of the semifinal.

At the Oracle ITA Master's event in California, Andrew Watson had also won his way to a consolation final. Grabbing a 6-4, 6-3 win over Pepperdine's Lautaro Pane, Watson moved in to the Sunday final, where he faced St. John's Robert Livi. The Memphis junior grabbed the win in straight sets from there, 6-4, 7-6 (3).

The team will be next be in action starting Thursday at the ITA Ohio Valley Regionals, hosted this year at the University of Tennessee. The Tigers will send six players to the regional, which runs Thursday through Sunday. The singles and doubles champions at the event qualify for the ITA National Indoor Championships, Nov. 3-6.