Four Advance to ITA Main Draw Round of 32
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Four Lobos, including Georgio Samaha, advanced to the round of 32 in the ITA Main Draw at the ITA Mountain Region Championships, hosted by UNM at both the Lobo Tennis Club and McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium.
Doubles play begins Friday morning in both the Main Draw ITA Bracket and the Flight B Draw Lobo Bracket.
In the main draw, UNM had no seeded players in the 64-man field, but came out with three wins. Aram Noroozian got the day started with a wild match in which he fought off at least five match points, including three in a pivotal 12th game. Down 40-30, he forced a tiebreaker with Idaho State’s Victor Sklenka, and he went on to register UNM’s first win of the day with a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) win.
That win pushes him into the Round of 32, where he will face off with 15th-seeded Anish Sriniketh of Denver, who won 7-6 (7-Lobo 2), 6-1 over Air Force’s Arjun Kersten.
Lobo newcomer Ryoma Matsushita nearly pulled off an upset of No. 8 Patrik Trhac of Utah, losing in three sets 5-7, 6-3, 6-3. From there, UNM cruised in the main draw. Rafael Abdulsalam picked up a 6-2, 6-2 victory over New Mexico State’s Roko Stipetic. He will face the 16-seed in Francisco Gay of Idaho. Matsushita will play BYU’s Zach Fuchs in a backdraw Round of 32 match.
Jan Pucalka came from behind early against Utah State’s Stijn Paardekooper, winning 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 to advance to the next round, where he will battle with the No. 3 seed Nicolas Herrera Cuesta of Denver.
The fourth Lobo to win and advance was Georgio Samaha, who raced past Guillermo Martin of Montana with ease 6-2, 6-1. That gives Samaha a second-round matchup with the No. 10 seed in Sebastian Buxman of Weber State.
In the Lobo Draw, played at the Lobo Tennis Center, Daniil Kakhniuk picked up two wins to move into the quarterfinals. First, he took care of Hiroki Fujita of Idaho State 6-2, 6-1 to move to the Round of 16. There, he faced off with Air Force’s Kyle Garner, winning 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. He will face Northern Arizona’s Zoimber Maciej, the 2-seed, in the last of the four quarterfinals of the Lobo Draw. Those matches will be played at McKinnon.
Alex Maggs, who had a bye into the Round of 16, lost his opening match to Air Force’s Phillip Deaton 6-2, 5-7, 6-2. Maggs will play New Mexico State’s Henrik Lynum in a Round of 16 backdraw match.
In doubles on Friday, Pucalka and Maggs are the 4-seed in the main draw and will play at 9:15 am at McKinnon against Denver’s Sriniketh and Mitchell Johnson. Abdulsalam and Samaha will also play at 9:15 am against Montana State’s Jacob Huppin and Maximillian Relic. Kakhniuk and Noroozian will face off with Northern Arizona’s Dominic Buzonics and Alexander Groves.
UNM has no team in the Flight B doubles draw.