ATHENS, Ga. — The LSU men’s tennis team opened with a very successful first day of play at the Southern Collegiate Championships on Friday, winning seven of eight singles matches and advancing five of six players to the Round of 16 to be played Saturday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
In Division I singles, 57th-ranked Ajay Ramaswami continued his momentum from last week’s consolation title at the T. Rowe Price National Clay Court Championships. After receiving at first-round bye, the tournament’s sixth-seeded player defeated Duke’s York Allen, 6-3, 6-4, to move into the Round of 16.
Ramaswami will face Georgia’s Brandon Wagner in Saturday morning.
LSU’s Jesse Smatt won back-to-back matches over Charleston Southern’s Tomas Miho, 5-6 (5), 6-2, 6-1, and South Alabama’s 58th-ranked Christian Thall, 6-5 (3), 6-1. The experimental tie-breaker at the Southern Collegiate Championships occurs when the score is 5-5 in sets, rather than the usual 6-6.
After the second-round upset, Smatt squares off against No. 9-16 seed and 81st-ranked Daniel Klemetz in the Round of 16.
Dan Kiernan became the third Tiger in Division I singles to advance after receiving a first-round bye and then defeating Alabama-Birmingham’s Andre V.D. Merwe, 6-5, 6-4. The tie-breaker score was not reported. Kiernan will face the fifth-seed, 33rd-ranked Lesley Joseph of Georgia, on Saturday.
In Division II singles, Tiger freshman Sebastian Rutka received a first-round bye before beating South Alabama’s Kosta Zinchen, 6-5 (2), 6-1. He will face Raitis Tukans of Auburn in the Round of 16.
Elsewhere, Anthony Mateljan fell to Michael Chamberlain of Memphis, 6-4, 6-2, after receiving at first-round.
in Division III singles, LSU freshman Bryan Fisher won consecutive matches over Lenin Mongerie of Florida A&M, 6-5 (3), 3-6, 6-2, and Wes Nott of Florida, 6-1, 6-3, to advance. He will face Florida State’s Jeff Scarella in the Round of 16.
LAFAYETTE, La. — Four members of the LSU men’s tennis team participated in the BellSouth Mobility Collegiate Tennis Classic at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette’s Cajun Courts on Friday.
After winning his first round match over the University of Denver’s Boris Turkic, 6-2, 6-4, LSU’s Brandon Nicholson was also eliminated, 6-4, 6-2, by Arkansas’s Aleksey Bubis in the second round of Flight “A.”
LSU’s John Sruk lost back-to-back matches to ULL’s Bruno Puzzi, 6-1, 6-2, and Rice’s Coby Jackson, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, to be eliminated from the tournament.
John Gray Pou also won his first-round match, defeating UL-Monroe’s Bartosz Dobrowski, 6-3, 6-3, in the first round before being eliminated by the tournament’s second seed, Mikka Kangas of Southern Miss, 6-1, 6-1.
In Flight “B” singles, LSU’s Jonathan Hurd fell to Lamar’s Thatcher Cribbs, 6-4, 6-2, in the first round. After a bye in the consolation bracket, he will face Jamie Pombo of UL-Monroe on Saturday.