Dos Santos, Jurkovic Lead Charge at ITA Regionals

EDMOND, Okla. – Southeastern men's tennis piled up 20 wins on the weekend, highlighted by a finals appearance in doubles play by Guilherme Dos Santos and Marin Jurkovic at the ITA Central Region Championships in Edmond, Okla.
 
Dos Santos and Jurkovic entered the doubles draw seeded sixth and opened play with an 8-3 win.
 
The duo would follow by pushing pas the fourth seeded pair and reaching the finals to face the third-seeded duo of Kearney and Oliveira from Ouachita Baptist, falling in three sets.
 
The finals appearance by the pair leaves them open to a possible at large bid to the ITA Small College Championship set to be played in Rome, Ga.
 
Another Savage Storm duo found success in the doubles consolation bracket as Marcus Del Rosario and Diego Orduz used a 6-4 win over Blanchar and Parzajuk to reach the semifinals of the consolation bracket.
 
Once there they would face teammates Filip Smid and Gen Naraya who picked up a first round 6-0 win and followed with a 6-2 win over Shafer and Plachy to reach the semis.
 
Del Rosario and Orduz would come out of that matchup with a 7-5 victory to reach the finals, but would fall in that final match 6-2.
 
In singles play, Dos Santos put together the team's best run through the draw.
 
He entered play as the fifth seed and blew past Cade Damgaard 6-0, 6-1 and followed with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Tobias Dreher.
 
He then tacked on a win over a seeded opponent in Alex Blanchar, downing him 6-3, 7-5, before dropping a tight 7-6, 6-4 match in the quarterfinals to another seeded player in Marko Nikoliuk who would win the draw.
 
Thabo Ncube, Del Rosario, and Vinicious Outor all picked up first round wins in the 64-player draw, but each would suffer losses in the second round to end their runs.
 
After suffering a first round upset, Manuel Pilotto would pick up a win in the consolation bracket and reaching the round of 16 before ending his run.
 
Naraya would do much the same, opening the consolation round with a three-set win before falling in the round of 16.