FORT WORTH, Texas – The Texas A&M – Corpus Christi Men's Tennis team produced a very successful Saturday on the opening day of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Texas Regional Championships being held at the TCU campus.
The Islanders beat players from Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU and SMU on the first day of ITA Regionals to reach the third round of singles and second round of doubles. The team still has three singles players and two doubles teams in the main draw heading into the second day of the tournament.
Peter Nagy, the No. 15 seed in the tournament, overcame a strong challenge, but the story of the day was freshman Odon Barta, who had an upset over seeded player Francisco Zambon, a starting player on Texas Tech's Top 20 team last year.
In the first round of the tournament, Barta beat Yosua Adiyasa of UTPA by a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 final before knocking off the seeded Zambon of Texas Tech by a 6-1, 6-7, 6-1 score to move into the third round.
"Odon is learning a lot and really maturing, "said Director of Tennis Steve Moore. "He's learning to make the right adjustments that you have to make to beat top guys on the college level. He has always been incredibly hard working and highly competitive, but he is learning now the most important lesson, and that is to win with his mind.
"He played a very tough, smart match to beat a very good player today."
Barta is one of three players to make it to the third round as No. 15-seeded Nagy knocked off Max Stevens of TCU to advance while Guillaume Rauseo picked up a 6-2, 6-1 tally against Ross Peets of SMU to move on to the second day of play.
"I thought Guillaume also played very tough today," said Moore. "He's improved a lot in the last month, and is really learning how to play like a true lefty."
Pietro Jordao won 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 over Jeff Bryan of Texas Tech before falling 6-1, 6-3 against the No. 4-seeded Nick Chappell of TCU. Matt Westmoreland came up short by a 6-3, 6-4 final against No. 16-seeded JT Sundling of TCU, while No. 14-seeded Julian Lenz of Baylor downed Javier Pujol by a 6-1, 6-3 final in the second round.
In doubles action, Jordao and Andrew Maingot won 8-5 over a team of players from Texas A&M, while Barta and Nagy picked up an 8-6 final over a team from UTPA to advance. Rauseo and Westmoreland lost 8-5 against a team from Texas Tech.
"Pietro Jordao and Andrew Maingot played very good doubles," said Moore. "They seem to play very well together, and they competed with a lot of spirit and energy today."
Nagy, Rauseo and Barta will all see singles action on Sunday at the tournament, while the teams of Nagy/Barta and Jordao/Maingot will also compete in the doubles bracket.
"I thought we competed very hard today as a group," said Moore. "Tomorrow is another day against very tough opponents, so we better be extremely focused and ready to grind and chop wood hard tomorrow."
Play will start back up again at 9 a.m. Sunday morning on the TCU campus at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
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