Troy University Athletics
Trojans Fall to Denver, Upset Memphis in Shootout
4/3/2009 5:00:00 AM | Tennis
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. ? The Troy University men's tennis team hit the courts today for two matches in the Sun Belt Shootout hosted by Middle Tennessee State. The shootout is an eight team, double elimination style tournament and is being played on Friday and Saturday. The Trojans are the seventh seed for the tournament.
The Trojans played two matches on Friday. The Trojans lost to Denver, the second seed, to start the tournament. However, Troy bounced back to upset Memphis, the third seed, in the semifinals.
MATCH 1
The Trojans got things started this morning with a match against second seeded Denver at 9 a.m. Unfortunately, the early start didn't help the Trojans as they fell to the 74th ranked Pioneers by a score of 4-0.
The match started with Denver sweeping the doubles point. At number one, Martin Zimmermann and David Simson defeated Mario Silva and Branko Weber, 8-0. Zimmermann and Simson are ranked 78 in the ITA doubles rankings.
At number three, the Pioneers' Benny Althaus and Ravjot Dhatt defeated Benjamin Chomette and Bastian Maucher, 8-4, to clinch the point. The Trojans also fell at number two as the duo of Aurelien Tave and Xavier Masson lost to Andrew Landwerlen and Yannick Weihs, 8-4.
As the match moved to singles play, the Trojans looked to reverse their fortune, but were unable to do so as the Pioneers won matches at numbers two, five and one, in that order, to clinch the match.
At number two, Troy's Weber fell to Simson, 6-3, 6-1. Next, Denver's Landwerlen defeated Silva at number five, 6-1, 6-3.
The match was finished when Zimmermann defeated Tave, 7-5, 6-0, at number one. Zimmermann is ranked 112th in the ITA singles rankings.
MATCH 2
After a disappointing morning, the Trojans took the courts on Friday afternoon looking to bounce back. Because South Alabama, the six seed, defeated Memphis in the first round, the Trojans took on Memphis on Friday afternoon.
This time the match went the Trojans (5-10) way as they upset Memphis 4-2.
The match didn't start the way the Trojans had hoped as they dropped the doubles point, losing both matches that were completed. At number one, the Tigers' Michael Hayes and Spencer Heflin defeated the Trojan duo of Branko Weber and Mario Silva, 8-5. Then, at number three, Troy's Aurelien Tave and Xavier Masson lost to Jordan Smith and Benedikt Fischer, 8-5.
However, the Trojans fought back and won four of the first five singles matches to take the 4-2 victory.
Troy freshman Tave got the ball rolling when he defeated Jorge Vazquez at number one, 6-2, 6-1. Tave played his second ranked opponent of the day as Vazquez was ranked the 86th best singles player in the country by the ITA.
Next, Troy took a 2-1 lead when Masson beat Charlie Ramsay at number four, 6-1, 6-0.
Memphis (12-10) tied the match up at 2-2 when Michael Gaerthoeffne defeated Guilherme Sahadi at number five, 6-2, 6-4.
Troy took the next two matches to complete the upset, 4-2. First, Benjamin Chomette defeated Nasemann at number three, 6-4, 6-2. Then, Bastian Maucher defeated Hayes at number, 6-3, 7-5. Maucher's win clinched the match for Troy.
The Trojans will take on the winner of Western Kentucky and Florida Atlantic on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the 5th place game. Check back with TroyTrojans.com for results.
