ROLLING HILLS, Calif. — Newcomers Jake Trondson and Raul Dobai turned out to be a formidable duo at the Jack Kramer Classic in Rolling Hills, California, advancing all the way to the championship match in doubles, going 4-1 and leading the way in a terrific concluding tournament for UNM’s fall season. The Lobos are now done for the season and will next participate in the dual season in the spring.
Overall, UNM’s team went 10-5 in singles and 4-2 in doubles, with five of those six doubles matches from the duo of Trondson and Dobai. The pair opened their tournament in the round of 32 with an 8-4 win over Marymount University’s Adil Khan and Kevin Orellana. That moved them into the round of 16 where they again won 8-4, beating UC Santa Barbara’s Victor Krustev and Joseph Rotherdam. In the quarterfinals, the pair had a meeting with Pac-12 pair Hiroki Sakagawa and Carlos Hassey of Arizona. That match was a back-and-forth affair with UNM toppling Arizona 8-6, and that led to a semifinal pairing with San Diego’s August Holmgren and Nico Borter. Holmgren was the top-seed in singles, and he was tough in doubles, but Trondson and Dobai were just that much better, winning 8-7.
In the title match, against UC Davis’ David Goulak and Ivan Thamma, Trondson and Dobai finally lost a match, falling 8-6. UNM’s other doubles team of Stepan Holis and Facundo Bermejo lost 8-6 to Jared Horwood and Nick Lagaev of Arizona.
In singles, both Dobai and Holis advanced to the semifinals, winning three matches each. Holis had straight set wins over Vinicius Nogueira of BYU, Luka Vukmanovic of UC Santa Barbara and Matro Vereau of BYU along with a walkover to advance into the semifinals. There, he took the opening set against BYU’s Sean Hill, but he couldn’t finish him off, eventually losing 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. For Dobai, he also had three straight set wins, over Victor Krustev of UC Santa Barbara, Jack Barnett of BYU and Connor Hance of UCLA. Those wins pushed him into the semis as well, where he ran into top-seeded Holmgren of USD, and fell 6-2, 6-2.
Facundo Bermejo went 2-2 in singles, and Trondson went 1-1.
Singles competition
R64 HOLIS, Stepan (New Mexico) def. NOGUEIRA, Vinicius (BYU) 6-1, 6-2
R64 TRONDSON, Jake (New Mexico) def. JALALI, Dariush (UCD) 6-4, 6-4
R64 BERMEJO, Facundo (New Mexico) def. TENGBUMROONG (UCSD) 6-0, 6-3
R32 DOBAI, Raul (New Mexico) def. KRUSTEV, Victor (UCSB) 6-4, 6-2
R32 HOLIS, Stepan (New Mexico) def. VUKMANOVIC, Luka (UCSB) 6-1, 6-2
R32 HASSEY, Carlos (UCLA) def. TRONDSON, Jake (New Mexico) 6-1, 6-3
R32 ZAHRAJ, Patrick (UCLA) def. BERMEJO, Facundo (New Mexico) 3-6, 6-0, 6-1
R16 DOBAI, Raul (New Mexico) def. BARNETT, Jack (BYU) 6-3, 6-2
R16 HOLIS, Stepan (New Mexico) def. ZAHRAJ, Patrick (UCLA) w/o inj.
QF DOBAI, Raul (New Mexico) def. HANCE, Connor (UCLA) 6-3, 6-4
QF HOLIS, Stepan (New Mexico) def. VEREAU, Mateo (BYU) 6-3, 6-4
SF HOLMGREN, August (USD) def. DOBAI, Raul (New Mexico) 6-2, 6-2
SF HILL, Sean (BYU) def. HOLIS, Stepan (New Mexico) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
Extra BERMEJO, Facundo (New Mexico) def. WILLIAMS, Joshua (UCSB) 7-6, 6-2
Extra OLSON, Connor (Arizona) def. BERMEJO, Facundo (New Mexico) 6-4, 6-3
Doubles competition
r32 TRONDSON, Jake/DOBAI, Raul (New Mexico) def. KHAN, Adil/ORELLANA, Kevin (MARY) 8-4
r32 HORWOOD, Jared/LAGAEV, Nick (ARIZ) def. HOLIS, Stepan/BERMEJO, Facundo (New Mexico) 8-6
r16 TRONDSON, Jake/DOBAI, Raul (New Mexico) def. KRUSTEV, Victor/ROTHERDAM, Joseph (UCSB) 8-4
qf TRONDSON, Jake/DOBAI, Raul (New Mexico) def. SAKAGAWA, Hiroki/HASSEY, Carlos (ARIZ) 8-6
sf TRONDSON, Jake/DOBAI, Raul (New Mexico) def. HOLMGREN, August/BORTER, Nico (USD) 8-7
ch GOULAK, David/THAMMA, Ivan (UCD) def. TRONDSON, Jake/DOBAI, Raul (New Mexico) 8-6