TUCSON, Ariz. — Facundo Bermejo led a quartet of Lobos on Friday in singles at the Wildcat Invitational, winning both of his matches to advance to the semifinals of the French Open bracket as UNM’s four players went 5-3 in singles and 1-1 in doubles.
The Wildcat Invitational has two singles tournament draws of 16 players from Arizona, Grand Canyon, New Mexico State, Northern Colorado, San Diego State, BYU, Northern Arizona and New Mexico. The two 16-player draws are named the Australian Open Draw and the French Open Draw.
Bermejo advanced into the semifinals of the French Open draw with a pair of wins. In his opening round match, he dropped his opening set to home-standing Stewart Block of Arizona before rolling in the final two sets, winning 3-6, 6-2, 6-1. That pushed him to the quarterfinals where he toppled Jakob Novak of Grand Canyon 6-3, 6-3. He will face off with a Nicolas Buitrago of New Mexico State in the semifinals on Saturday.
in the same bracket, teammate Alex Maggs won his opening match Julian Mueller of Grand Canyon, also coming from one-set down 4-6, 7-6, 6-3. Maggs lost in his quarterfinal match, falling 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 to BYU’s David Ball.
in the Australian Open bracket, UNM’s Raul Dobai did what his other teammates did … win his opening round match after dropping the first set, winning 6-7 (7-9), 6-2, 6-0. He then lost in straight sets to Valentin Lang of Grand Canyon 6-3, 6-4. UNM’s other singles player, Jake Trondson, lost his opening match 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 to Northern Colorado’s Kyle Pease, falling into the backdraw. He then won over Fabian Roesdorf of San Diego State 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 12-10.
In doubles, Trondson and Maggs won 6-3 in the round of 16 over Arizona’s Carlos Hassey and Hiroki Sakagawa. Dobai and Bermejo fell 6-4 to NMSU’s Martin Simecek and Luis Flores.
The Wildcat Invitational continues starting at 8 am with the doubles quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, and the singles semis, plus the reciprocal backdraw flights.