TULSA, Okla. – LSU men’s tennis players, Simon Freund and Gabor Csonka, competed Sunday in the second day of the ITA All-American tournament in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
In the round of 128 Simon Freund competed against Illinois’s Julian Childers. Freund was able to pick up seven games against Childers but eventually fell 3-6, 4-6.
In his first match of the day, Csonka defeated Joshua Wardell of Florida 6-3, 6-2. In the round of 64, Csonka just came short of victory over Matt Mendez of Ohio State. After taking the first set 7-5 Csonka lost the second set in a tiebreaker 6-7(4) to eventually fall in the third set 6-4.
“Gabor, after a physical morning match, had another one two hours later and could not quite finish his opponent off,” Coach Brown said.
Monday the Tigers will begin play in the qualifying round of the tournament with three fresh competitors.
LSU’s No. 91 Justin Butch looks to continue the momentum of last weekend’s Cajun Tennis Classic where he advanced to the semifinals and beat two ranked opponents. Butch will take on Alex Gornet of Louisville in singles Monday and also in doubles with partner Tam Trinh.
“I’m trying to go in there and qualify for the main draw in singles,” Butch said. “Hopefully Tam and I will get into the qualifiers in doubles as well. I’m excited to play with him and I think we will be a good team. ”
Trinh will also compete in singles during the qualifying round. Trinh is scheduled to take on Buffalo’s Pablo Alvarez. Trinh is ranked No. 85 in the ITA preseason polls.
Boris Arias also joins Butsch and Trinh in Tulsa for singles qualifying. The senior will face off against Karue Sell of UCLA. Arias will also be a top five ranked doubles pair with partner Jordan Daigle.