Azkara Advances to Corley Quarters

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico’s Arda Azkara, who was the Mountain West Player of the Year in 2023 as well as the Lobo Club Student-Athlete of the Year, won 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) in a wild Rouind of 16 match to advance to the quarterfinals of the Corley M15 Tournament, hosted at McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium.

Azkara will face American William Grant, who was a 7-5, 6-1 straight set winner over Ryan Dickerson.  The winner of Friday’s 9 am semifinal will take on either No. 3 seed Andres Andrade or No. 5 seed J Angele.  Azkara got to the quarters by taking out the No. 7 seed Alex Martinez in the opening round.  The tournament opened with qualifying matches to fill out the final eight slots in the 32-person main draw.  Azkara was a wild card into the main draw.  UNM’s Georgia Samaha, Alex Maggs and Rafael Abdulsalam all won their way in through the qualifying draw.

Friday’s four singles matches will start at 9 am at McKinnon in two waves, with Azkara opening at 9 am.  The doubles semifinals will take place some time after noon.