Troy Sends Five to ITA Southern Regional Qualifying Semifinals

Thursday, October 14

Auburn, Ala.

All Day

Troy University

ITA Southern Regional

Troy Sends Five to ITA Southern Regional Qualifying Semifinals

10/14/2021 8:15:00 PM | Tennis (M)

By: Troy Athletics Communications

AUBURN, Ala. – The Troy men's tennis team picked up seven victories in Tuesday's opening day of the ITA Southern Regionals hosted by Auburn. Among the seven wins, five pushed a Trojan into the semifinals of their qualifying draw, which will conclude Friday.

Christopher Tasker, Pelayo Antuna, Vito Llinares, Noah Martens and Nicolas Simkin all advanced on Thursday. Martens picked up a pair of wins, while the other four only needed one victory after a first round bye.

Tasker advanced with a commanding 6-0, 6-3 victory over Auburn's Spencer Gray, who entered the draw seeded No. 28. He will now take on Olmjon Nabiev from Southern Miss, who is seeded 11^th, in the qualifying draw semifinals on Friday.

Martens advanced with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over UAB's Martin Vasquez in the opening round of the draw and followed with a 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 26 seed Maj Tomac from Jacksonville State. Simkin recorded the biggest upset of the opening round for the Trojans as he defeated Tulane's Luka Petrovic 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 after the Green Wave player entered as the No. 12 seed in the qualifier.

Pelayo cruised past Samford's Mohammed Bellalouna, 6-3, 6-3, to set up a Sun Belt showdown against Louisiana's Vasil Dimitrov in the semifinals. The winner of that matchup will most likely face the No. 3 seed in the qualifier in LSU's Gabriel Diaz Freire.

Nicolas Rodriguez won his first round matchup with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Jacksonville State's Alexander Vishnevskiy but fell to fifth-seeded Joao Graca from LSU in the second round (7-6, 6-1).

In addition to the five Trojans looking to advance out of the qualifying draw, four will have consolation singles matches on Friday and three doubles' teams will open play.

Full Schedule
Friday: Final round qualifying singles (AM), 1st round of doubles (PM)
Saturday: Doubles round of 32 and round of 16 (AM), 1 round main draw singles (PM)
Sunday: Doubles quarterfinals, singles quarterfinals
Monday: Doubles semifinals, singles semifinals
Tuesday: Singles and doubles finals

Thursday's Results
Singles
Noah Martens (Troy) def. Martin Vasquez (UAB) 6-1, 6-2
Noah Martens (Troy) def. Maj Tomac (Jacksonville State) 6-4, 6-4
Christopher Tasker (Troy) def. Spencer Gray (Auburn) 6-0, 6-3
Nicolas Simkin (Troy) def. Luka Petrovic (Tulane) 6-2, 2-6, 6-3
Vito Llinares (Troy) def. Thomas Norwood (Jacksonville State) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2
Pelayo Antuna (Troy) def. Mohammed Bellalouna (Samford) 6-1, 6-3
Nicolas Rodriguez (Troy) def. Alexander Vishnevskiy (Jacksonville State) 6-2, 6-3
Charles Berry (Tulane) def. Maxime Hillhouse (Troy) 6-1, 6-2
Nikola Puric (UAB) def. Francisco Erramuspe (Troy) 6-1, 6-2
Joao Graca (LSU) def. Nicolas Rodriguez (Troy) 7-6 (4), 6-1
Pawin Jirapoomdaje (Southern Miss) def. Manuel Bernard (Troy) 6-3, 2-6, 6-1

Saturday's Draws
Singles - Qualifier
Christopher Tasker (Troy) vs. Olmjon Nabiev (Southern Miss)
Pelayo Antuna (Troy) vs. Vasil Dimitrov (Louisiana)
Nicolas Simkin (Troy) vs. Karo Kajin (Louisiana)
Noah Martens (Troy) vs. Luc Hoejimans (Tulane)
Vito Llinares (Troy) vs. Jakob Cadonau (Ole Miss)

Singles – Consolation
Maxime Hillhouse (Troy) vs. John Rabb (Auburn)
Francisco Erramuspe (Troy) vs. Mohammed Bellalouna (Samford)
Manuel Bernard (Troy) vs. Alexander Vishnevskiy (Jacksonville State)
Nicolas Rodriguez (Troy) vs. Oriol Fillat Gimenez (Louisiana)

Doubles – Main Draw
Christopher Tasker/Nicolas Simkin (Troy) vs. Benjamin Koch/Joao Graca (LSU)
Noah Martens/Vito Llinares (Troy) vs. Jackson Ross/Spencer Gray (Auburn)
Pelayo Antuna/Carles Anton (Troy) vs. Thomas Norwood/Alexander Vishnevsky (Jacksonville State)