Pac-10 Tennis Update
The No. 43 Arizona men’s tennis team completed its first day of competition at the Pacific 10 Conference Tournament yesterday in Ojai, Calif., with mixed results.
In the main draw, Arizona senior Jeff Groslimond carried the torch for the Wildcats, defeating ASU junior Nick Hegarty, 6-3, 6-4, in the first round before taking down Washington senior Jean-Noel Insausti, 6-2, 6-0, in the second round.
Wildcats sophomore Bruno Alcala was defeated in straight sets by Stanford’s No. 17-ranked freshman Matt Bruch in the second round of the main draw, 6-3, 7-6 (5), but not before he took down Southern California redshirt sophomore Adam Loucks, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, in the first round.
Besides the initial success of Groslimond and Alcala, no other Wildcats advanced past the first round in the top draw.
Also in the top draw, Roger Matalonga, Arizona’s No. 1 player and ranked No. 52 nationally, lost in an upset to No. 102 UCLA sophomore Mathieu Dehaine, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3.
In the same bracket, sophomore Claudio Christen was defeated by Daniel Chu, a Washington junior, in a close match, 7-6, 6-4.
In the invitational singles draw, Arizona redshirt freshman Peter Zimmer was defeated as well in the second round after a first-round bye. Zimmer fell in his match against UCLA sophomore Jeremy Drean, 6-3, 6-3.
Sophomore Wildcat Francois VanderMerwe lost a 6-4, 7-5, decision to Washington junior Mike Ricks.
Arizona junior Nate Cochrane won a match and lost one in that draw, beating California junior John Pettit in the round of 32, 0-6, 6-3, 6-1, before losing to Stanford sophomore Phil Kao, 6-4, 6-4 in the round of 16.
While only Groslimond will continue to the quarterfinals of singles play tomorrow, where he will face No. 22-ranked Stanford senior KC Corkery, the rest of the squad will focus on the doubles competitions.
In the main draw, Groslimond and Christen, ranked No. 46, will take on Cal seniors Lennart Maack and Dean Wallace, while Alcala and Zimmer will battle Stanford’s No. 15-ranked duo of Corkery and junior James Pade.
After getting a first-round bye, VanderMerwe and Cochrane will take on Washington’s freshmen duo of David Chu and Andy Gerst, who also have a bye into the second round of the invitational draw.
Information taken from a press release at www.arizonaathletics.com.