Oct. 23, 2017
AUBURN, Ala. - The Auburn men's tennis team had a good showing this weekend at the 2017 ITA Southern Regionals at the LSU Tennis Complex in Baton Rouge, La.
Sophomore Carles Sarrio advanced to the quarterfinals in singles and three Auburn doubles teams reached the Round of 16.
"I was happy with how our guys competed this weekend," Auburn coach Bobby Reynolds said. "We are in a very strong region and to have a player make the quarterfinals is a step in the right direction for our program.
"I believe our doubles are off to a great start this fall, but what excited me is that we still have a lot of room to grow individually and within those teams.
"We will take what we've learned through the match play this weekend back to the practice courts and then looks to finish the fall off in strong fashion in two weekends at the Georgia Tech and Dick Vitale tournaments."
In doubles, Sarrio and Diego Chavarria advanced to the Round of 16 with an 8-1 win over Elio Lago and Pierce Gilheany (La-Lafayette). Michael Durham and Alex Mascioli used an 8-7 (6) win over Southern Miss' Daniel Merker and Ronit Bisht to join the Round of 16, while Alex Rushin and Brandon Laubser advanced via an 8-6 win over Tim Dollman and Stefan Gonzalez of UAB.
Edward Nguyen and Olle Thestrup were winners in the Round of 64, with an 8-4 victory over Samford's Justin Ghavami and Max Rebol.
Sarrio won three singles matches to reach the quarterfinals, defeating Tulane's Tim Ruetzel (6-3, 6-1), Alabama's Alexey Nesterov (7-5, 6-4), and Southern Miss' Ronit Bisht (6-3, 6-2). Sarrio was defeated in the quarterfinals on Sunday by eventual finalist Strahinja Rakic of Mississippi State 6-0, 6-4.
Other Tigers posting singles wins were Viboosh Chandrasekar (2), Durham, Laubser, Mascioli, Nguyen and Rushin (2).
Auburn returns to action in two weeks, sending participants to the Dick Vitale Invitational in Lakeland, Fla., and the Georgia Tech Invitational in Atlanta November 3-5.