Texas Tech Athletics
ITA Regionals
Five Red Raiders Advance at ITA Regionals
October 24, 2009 | Men's Tennis
Oct. 24, 2009
LUBBOCK, Texas - The 2009 ITA Texas Regional Championships got underway today at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas, and the Texas Tech men's tennis team had five players move on in the singles draw and one doubles tandem advanced as well.
The first one to advance for the Red Raiders in singles was No. 9 seed Gonzalo Escobar, as he had a bye in the round of 128 and then defeated Paul Chappell (TCU), 6-1, 6-2, in the round of 64.
Winning his opening-round match was Raphael Pfister as he beat Alex Pavlov (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi), 6-4, 6-0. Pfister then went on to win his round of 64 match against Airron Williams (Prairie View A&M), 6-1, 6-1.
Also advancing were No. 3 seed and 25th-ranked Raony Carvalho, No. 9 seed Rafael Garcia and No. 17 seed Andre Stabile. All three had a bye in the round of 128 and won their respective round of 64 match. Carvalho was victorious over Bryan Griffin (SMU), 6-5, 6-4, while Garcia defeated John Lewis (Texas A&M), 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-4. Stabile won his match against Andy Wang (Rice), 6-0, 4-6, 7-5.
In doubles action, only one of the four teams advanced in the main draw with the No. 3 seed and 28th-ranked tandem of Carvalho and Garcia beating Martin Ayala and Daniel Moreiras (UTSA), 8-5, in the round of 32. Just one of Tech's doubles teams had a round of 64 match. David Gonzalez and Pfister beat Wang and Isamu Tachibana (Rice), 8-2, but then lost in the next round to Alex Hilliard and Daniel Whitehead (Texas), 8-3. Also losing in the round of 32 was the sixth-seeded duo of Escobar and Stabile as they fell to Julian Bley and Attila Bucko (Baylor) 9-8 (1), and Jared Hope and Jeff Bryan lost to Alberto Baustista and Lewis (Texas A&M), 8-6
"It was a good day for our team overall," said head coach Tim Siegel. "For Rafael (Garcia) and Andre (Stabile) to battle through tough matches was a good sign for us. Tomorrow will be a challenging day."
On Sunday, Carvalho and Pfister will face each other in the round of 32, while Garcia plays Baustista (Texas A&M). Escobar takes on Sam Garfoth-Bles (Rice) and Stabile plays No. 6 seed and 47th-ranked Kellen Damico (Texas).
Players Mentioned
