Midland, Texas — Dominic West advanced to the main draw finals, and Stepan Holis won his way into the Backdraw finals to highlight the opening tournament of the season for the Lobo men’s tennis team, as four Lobos competed at the Midland Invitational.
Overall, UNM went 10-6 in singles and 0-2 in doubles. The highlight was West, who opened the 32-person draw with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Juri Reckow of UTSA. That third set win was the first of seven straight sets taken by West, who beat Calros Tamarit of SMU in the Round of 16 7-6, 7-3. From there, he took a quarterfinal win over Mauricio Del Rio of UTA (Texas-Arlington) 6-2, 6-3 before dispatching Josh Sheehy of Abilene Christian 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals. That set up a title match with Utah State’s Isaac Arevalo, and the magic ran out at that point for West, who dropped a 6-2, 6-3 decision to end his tournament at 4-1.
The other title match was earned by Holis, who was the only Lobo to lose in the opening round, falling 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 to Alexander Parker of Tyler Junior College. Holis however bounced back brilliantly. In the backdraw, he won three straight matches. First in the round of 16, he knocked out Sansidh Kammajaru from UTA in a barnburner 7-5, 6-7, 10-7. In the quarterfinals, he faced off with Texas A&M’s Austin Abbrat and won 6-3, 6-4, setting up a backdraw semifinal match with Tyler’s Luke Simkiss, which he won 6-4, 6-4. That advanced him to the final where he played Jon Sheehy of Abilene Christian. Jon, whose brother Josh lost to West in the main draw semifinals, got a little bit of family revenge against UNM with a weird 6-0, 0-6, 10-7 win over Holis.
UNM’s other two competitors in singles were Ricky Hernandez-Tong and Karlo Divkovic. Hernandez-Tong and Divkovic both won opening round matches before getting knocked out in the round of 16. Overall, Hernandez-Tong went 2-1 in the tournament and Divkovic went 1-2 in his first collegiate matches.
Round of 32
Ricky Hernandez-Tong d. Kevin Lam (Texas A&M) 6-2, 4-6, 6-3
Dominic West d. Juri Reckow (UTSA) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
Karlo Divkovic d. Jon Sheehy (ACU) 7-5, 6-3
Alexander Parker (TJC) d. Stepan Holis 7-5, 4-6, 6-4
Round of 16
Kai Breitbach (UTSA) d. Ricky Hernandez-Tong 7-6, 6-3
Dominic West d. Carlos Tamarit (SMU) 7-6, 6-3
Duro Opacic (USU) d. Karlo Divkovic 6-2, 6-2
Quarterfinals
Dominic West d. Mauricio Del Rio (UTA) 6-2, 6-3
Semifinals
Dominic West d. Joshua Sheehy (ACU) 6-3, 6-4
Championship
Isaac Arevalo (USU) d. Dominic West 6-2, 6-3
Backdraw round of 16
Stepan Holis d. Sansidh Kammajaru (UTA) 7-5, 6-7, 10-7
Backdraw Quarterfinals
Stepan Holis d. Austin Abbrat (Texas A&M) 6-3, 6-4
Backdraw Semifinals
Stepan Holis d. Luke Simkiss (TJC) 6-4, 6-4
Backdraw Championship
Jon Sheehy (ACU) d. Stepan Holis 6-0, 0-6, 10-7
Consolation Draw matches
Ricky Hernandez Tong d. Jack Pulliam (Texas A&M) 6-4, 6-2
Austin Abbrat (Texas A&M) d. Karlo Divkovic 6-3, 6-3
Doubles
UTA d. Hernandez-Tong/West 8-6
ACU d. Holis/Divkovic 9-8