Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Wrap Up Play at ITA All-American Championships
October 04, 2021 | Cowboy Tennis
Tulsa, Okla. - Six members of the Oklahoma State men's tennis team wrapped up play at the ITA All-American Championships this week at the Michael Case Tennis Center.
The six members of head coach Dustin Taylor's squad competed in the pre-qualifying rounds with senior Luke Hammond, junior Maxim Verboven, as well as sophomore Leighton Allen and freshmen Nic Pesoli, Francisco Pini and Sammr Raina all taking part in the event.
On Saturday, OSU kicked off the pre-qualifying rounds inside the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater. Pini started strong for the Pokes, zipping to a 6-4, 6-4 straight-set victory against Charles Morkel. Pesoli followed shortly thereafter, defeating Maxime Mareschai-Ha 6-4, 6-2. Due to a withdrawal from his opponent, Hammond automatically advanced to the second round.
In singles play, the remaining Cowboys were eliminated from the main draw in hard-fought battles.
Through a back-and-forth match, Verboven dropped his match to Nam Pham, 6-4, 6-1. Allen cruised to a first-set victory, but lost in the tiebreaker to Evzen Hollis, 6-2, 4-6, 4-10. Raina fell to Dhruv Sunish, 6-1, 6-2.
Pini kicked off the second round for OSU, claiming victory against Damian Rodriguez 4-6, 6-2 [10-8].
In his second-round match, Hammond squared off with Svistoslav Gulin. Hammond dropped his first set 2-6, but fought back to gain the second 7-6(2) before a hard-fought tie-break went to Gulin.
On Sunday, Pini advanced to the qualifying round where he would fall in straight sets to Thoms Brown, 6-2, 6-3.
Pini would take on Cleeve Harper in consolation action, where he fell in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2.
In the second round, the duo would face-off with Ivalio Keremedchiev and Jesper Klov-Nilsson. After a back-and-forth battle, Zink and Hammond fell 6-2, 7-6(1).
Zink will start singles Main Draw play on Wednesday, Oct. 6.
