Each of the top seven seeds picked up wins on a hot, humid, and windy day in Tulsa with straight set matches the norm. 25 of 32 first round matches finished in straight sets though several of those were tightly contested.
The top seeded Mikael Torpegaard cruised to a 6-2 first set against Virginia senior J.C. Aragone but the hard hitting Cavalier fought back in the second set. Aragone broke Torpegaard on a disputed line call on the no-ad point to take a 4-2 lead but a fired up Torpegaard broke back from 15/40 and then held for 4-4 after Aragone netted a forehand on the no-ad point. Torpegaard broke for 6-5 when Aragone netted another forehand on the no-ad point and then the Buckeye junior held from 40/30 to close it out 6-2, 7-5.
Top-seeded Mikael Torpegaard (@OhioState_MTEN) advances at #TulsaITA with a 6-2, 7-5 win over JC Aragone (Virginia) pic.twitter.com/iyxwFVi9O3— ITA Tennis (@ITA_Tennis) October 6, 2016
The defending champion and No. 2 seed Thai-Son Kwiatkowski rolled past Penn sophomore Kyle Mautner 6-2, 6-4. Kwiatkowski extended his All-American winning streak to 13 with his singles win over Mautner and his doubles win with Luca Corinteli over Mississippi State.
The highest seed to fall on Thursday was North Carolina senior and No. 8 seed Ronnie Schneider who fell to Florida senior Elliott Orkin 6-3, 7-6(8). There were four of the 9-16 seeds that lost with Georgia junior Wayne Montgomery suffering the toughest defeat after having leads in both the second and third sets against Tulsa’s Or Ram-Harel. Montgomery took the first set 6-2 and had a 4-1 lead in the second set tiebreak but Ram-Harel fought off a set point down 7-6 and ended up taking the tiebreak 9-7. Montgomery led 4-2 in the third set and had a pair of break points to go up 5-2 but Ram-Harel managed to get the hold with the key point coming at 30/40 when he hit a reflex volley at the net on a point that Montgomery seemingly had in the bag. Montgomery served for the match up 5-4 but a pair of unforced forehand errors from 30-all gave Ram-Harel the break and literally broke Montgomery in the process. Montgomery took a medical timeout for cramps in Ram-Harel’s 5-5 service game and after a good five-minute break he never recovered and went down 2-6, 7-6(7), 7-5.
Princeton’s Alex Day and Luke Gamble upset the top doubles seeds, Oklahoma State’s Julian Cash and Arjun Kadhe, 1-6, 6-3, 1-0 (11).
Congrats to @PtonMensTennis‘ Alex Day and Luke Gamble on defeating the @ITA_Tennis No. 1-ranked doubles team today! https://t.co/UU8oRytl9wpic.twitter.com/E8agMhBI8U— Princeton Tigers (@PUTIGERS) October 6, 2016
Seeded Upsets
Logan Smith (USC 13.52) def. [9-16] Nicolas Alvarez (Duke 14.09) 7-6(7), 6-2
Or Ram Harel (Tulsa 14.11) def. [9-16] Wayne Montgomery (Georgia 14.10) 2-6, 7-6(7), 7-5
[PQ] Christian Sigsgaard (Texas 14.13) def. [9-16] Konrad Zieba (Northwestern 14.33) 6-1, 6-4
Elliott Orkin (Florida 14.15) def. [8] Ronnie Schneider (North Carolina 13.83) 6-3, 7-6(8)
Day/Gamble (Princeton) def. [1] Cash/Kadhe (Oklahoma St) 1-6, 6-3, 1-0 (11)
[Q] Covalschi/Hagar (Notre Dame) def. [5-8] Bennett/Warren (Rice) 6-4, 6-4
Two of the three pre-qualifiers won their opening round matches with South Florida junior Peter Bertran needing less than an hour to close out Richmond’s Jacob Dunbar 6-0, 6-1 while Texas freshman Christian Sigsgaard defeated last year’s All-American quarterfinalist Northwestern senior Konrad Zieba 6-4, 6-1. Columbia freshman Alex Keyser nearly gave the pre-q’s a sweep of the day but Cal senior Filip Bergevi came back from 4-2 down in the third to take it 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
The remaining 13 qualifiers went 7-6 which included Cal junior Billy Griffith defeating Columbia sophomore Victor Pham in an all-qualifier showdown.
The four freshman competitors went 2-2 with Keyser and USC’s Brandon Holt falling while the Texas twosome of Sigsgaard and Yuya Ito each won.
Schools with Multiple Players Remaining
3- California (Bergevi, Griffith, Lakat)
3- Ohio State (Di Feo, Pollanen, Torpegaard)
3- Wake Forest (Chrysochos, Mansouri, Seraphim)
2- Arkansas (Redlicki, Salazar)
2- Florida (Orkin, Perez)
2- Texas (Ito, Sigsgaard)
2- UCLA (Brymer, Redlicki)
Remaining Players by Conference
8 – Pac-12
7 – SEC
5 – ACC
5 – Big Ten
4 – Big 12
2 – American
1 – Southern
[1] Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio State 15.22) def. JC Aragone (Virginia 14.10) 6-2, 7-5
Aron Hiltzik (Illinois 14.01) def. Luis Valero (Tennessee 13.40) 6-3, 6-3
[9-16] Gustav Hansson (Ole Miss 14.20) def. Shawn Hadavi (Columbia 13.74) 6-2, 1-6, 6-4
[Q] Lukas Finzelberg (Oklahoma State 13.91) def. Nick Crystal (USC 14.26) 6-1, 4-6, 6-0
[6] Petros Chrysochos (Wake Forest 14.59) def. Mate Cutura (Mississippi State 13.55) 6-4, 6-4
Gage Brymer (UCLA 14.22) def. Diogo Rocha (Denver 13.64) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
Jose Salazar (Arkansas 14.12) def. [9-16] Andre Goransson (California 14.24) 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-1
[PQ] Peter Bertran (South Florida 13.83) def. [Q] Jacob Dunbar (Richmond 13.26) 6-1, 6-0
[3] Christopher Eubanks (Georgia Tech 14.27) def. Jordan Daigle (LSU 13.57) 7-5, 7-6(6)
[Q] Billy Griffith (California 14.08) def. [Q] Victor Pham (Columbia 13.59) 6-4, 7-6(4)
[9-16] William Bushamuka (Kentucky 14.06) def. [WC] Majed Kilani (Tulsa 13.54) 6-3, 6-3
[Q] Christian Seraphim (Wake F 14.06) def. [WC] Antonio Cembellin (Indiana 13.58) 6-3, 7-6(2)
[7] Arthur Rinderknech (Texas A&M 14.43) def. Strong Kirchheimer (Northwestern 14.28) 6-4, 7-5
Alfredo Perez (Florida 14.43) def. Daniel Valent (Vanderbilt 14.06) 6-3, 7-5
Logan Smith (USC 13.52) def. [9-16] Nicolas Alvarez (Duke 14.09) 7-6(7), 6-2
[Q] Yuya Ito (Texas 14.70) def. Alexandru Ghilea (Oklahoma 14.25) 6-2, 7-6(5)
Hugo Di Feo (Ohio State 13.95) def. Jakob Amilon (UNLV 13.46) 7-5, 6-2
Or Ram Harel (Tulsa 14.11) def. [9-16] Wayne Montgomery (Georgia 14.10) 2-6, 7-6(7), 7-5
[Q] Thomas Laurent (Oregon 13.97) def. Piotr Lomacki (Miami FL 14.10) 7-5, 6-0
[5] Skander Mansouri (Wake Forest 14.26) def. Nuno Borges (Mississippi State 14.53) 6-3, 6-4
Gergely Madarasz (Purdue 14.05) def. [Q] Brandon Holt (USC 14.22) 3-6, 7-5, 6-3
[9-16] Michael Redlicki (Arkansas 14.36) def. Nick Horton (North Carolina State 13.62) 6-3, 6-3
[Q] Filip Bergevi (California 14.43) def. [PQ] Alex Keyser (Columbia 13.71) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
[4] Tom Fawcett (Stanford 14.48) def. Julian Cash (Oklahoma State 14.02) 7-5, 6-4
[Q] Herkko Pollanen (Ohio State 13.94) def. Ryotaro Matsumura (Kentucky 14.46) 6-2, 7-5
[PQ] Christian Sigsgaard (Texas 14.13) def. [9-16] Konrad Zieba (Northwestern 14.33) 6-1, 6-4
Max Tchoutakian (Baylor 13.87) def. Gabriel Friedrich (South Carolina 13.83) 6-3, 6-2
Elliott Orkin (Florida 14.15) def. [8] Ronnie Schneider (North Carolina 13.83) 6-3, 7-6(8)
David Biosca (East Tennessee St 14.29) def. [Q] Mitch Stewart (Washington 14.01) 6-2, 6-0
[9-16] Florian Lakat (California 14.17) def. [Q] Josh Hagar (Notre Dame 13.82) 6-4, 6-2
Martin Redlicki (UCLA 14.22) def. [Q] Julius Tverijonas (George Washington 13.08) 6-2, 6-2
[2] Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia 15.09) def. Kyle Mautner (Penn 13.60) 6-2, 6-4
[9-16] Gustav Hansson (Ole Miss 14.20) vs. [Q] Lukas Finzelberg (Oklahoma State 13.91)
[6] Petros Chrysochos (Wake Forest 14.59) vs. Gage Brymer (UCLA 14.22)
Jose Salazar (Arkansas 14.12) vs. [PQ] Peter Bertran (South Florida 13.83)
[3] Christopher Eubanks (Georgia Tech 14.27) vs. [Q] Billy Griffith (California 14.08)
[9-16] William Bushamuka (Kentucky 14.06) vs. [Q] Christian Seraphim (Wake Forest 14.06)
[7] Arthur Rinderknech (Texas A&M 14.43) vs. Alfredo Perez (Florida 14.43)
Logan Smith (USC 13.52) vs. [Q] Yuya Ito (Texas 14.70)
Hugo Di Feo (Ohio State 13.95) vs. Or Ram Harel (Tulsa 14.11)
[5] Skander Mansouri (Wake Forest 14.26) vs. [Q] Thomas Laurent (Oregon 13.97)
[9-16] Michael Redlicki (Arkansas 14.36) vs. Gergely Madarasz (Purdue 14.05)
[4] Tom Fawcett (Stanford 14.48) vs. [Q] Filip Bergevi (California 14.43)
[PQ] Christian Sigsgaard (Texas 14.13) vs. [Q] Herkko Pollanen (Ohio State 13.94)
Elliott Orkin (Florida 14.15) vs. Max Tchoutakian (Baylor 13.87)
[9-16] Florian Lakat (California 14.17) vs. David Biosca (East Tennessee St 14.29)
[2] Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia 15.09) vs. Martin Redlicki (UCLA 14.22)
Men’s Doubles – First Round
FloTennis made it’s College Grand Slam debut on Thursday and there was a little bit of confusion as play kicked off at 9 a.m central. Most people were expecting to see a stream of all 12 courts, which is what everyone got for free in the qualifying rounds, but were surprised when a stream was only available for the four main stadium courts. FloTennis made a decision to only set up its cameras on the four main courts and as the streaming rights holder they also turned off Tulsa’s free stream of the other courts which left a few paying customers less than pleased. The ITA’s event release did mention the number of courts that would be streamed by FloTennis however it would have been prudent for FloTennis to do the same. I know of few people that paid the $19.95 and/or $149.95 year and were expecting to see a particular match but were shaking their heads after finding out the limited court offering through FloTennis.
Several of the comments made their way to FloTennis and by late morning the free stream through Tulsa was turned back on for courts 5 through 12.
I watched the FloTennis feed via my Safari browser because my Chrome browser kept freezing – I thought it was my internet connection but I saw a mention on Twitter about someone else having an issues with Chrome so it must not have been isolated to me.
The above part was the negatives but there were several positives from the FloTennis feed. The picture quality on FloTennis’s four streaming courts was a good bit better than the non-Flo courts plus they had sound which is something Tulsa’s outdoor feed does not offer. In my opinion being able to hear the action is almost as important as being able to see it. FloTennis offers a split-screen view (pic below-click to enlarge) with the ability to choose which two courts you want to view which I thought was a very nice touch. The on-screen scoreboard in the lower left corner is a nice feature although there were a few times it seemed to freeze for a few games – fortunately the on-court scoreboard was visible.
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