Saturday, February 22, 2003

Bristol, Tenn. (Feb. 22, 2003) - East Tennessee State's men's tennis team lost its fourth straight match of the early 2003 season to a ranked team Saturday afternoon at the Bristol Racquet and Fitness Club. ETSU (2-4) began the day by dropping three doubles matches to the 68th-ranked Blazers, who improve their overall record to 5-3. UAB's Kristijan Mitrovski and Bastian Gruendler defeated the No. 1 doubles team of Alejandro Salazar (Arequipa, Peru) and Marcos Pavlovich (Otamendi, Argentina), 8-4. Andre Maier and Dino Mancarella then knocked off the Buccaneer duo of Diego Iglesias (Mar del Plata, Argentina) and Fernando Fiuri (Villa Maria, Argentina), 8-5, before Moises Serrano (Bucaramanga, Colombia) and Federico Ochoa (Manizales, Colombia) lost 8-6 to the Blazer's Patrick Suhrbier and Sansaruz Zaman. Salazar picked up ETSU's only win of the day with a 6-2, 6-0 decision over Ivan Andreev at No. 2 singles. At the No. 1 slot, Pavlovich suffered a 7-6, 6-3 loss to UAB's Gruendler. In No. 3 singles action, Iglesias fell 7-6, 6-1 to Andre Maier. Mitrovski then defeated Buccaneer senior Francisco Diaz (Weston, Fla.) at No. 4 singles, 6-2, 6-3. Suhrbier beat ETSU's lone newcomer Fernando Fiuri, 7-6, 6-3 in the fifth slot, and at No. 6 Serrano lost to UAB's Dino Mancarella, 6-4, 6-2. "UAB is a very solid team and they are well balanced," said ETSU head coach Yaser Zaatini. "I think we are not close to where we need to be right now. We are dealing with a tough start and are struggling to get in sync. We just need to play with more heart." ETSU returns to the court Monday, Feb. 24, to take on No. 75 Old Dominion beginning at 9 a.m. at the Bristol Racquet and Fitness Club. Old Dominion will be in town Sunday to face UAB at the same venue starting promptly at 9:30 a.m. No. 68 UAB 6, East Tennessee State 1 Singles 1.) Bastian Gruendler (UAB) def. Marcos Pavlovich (ETSU), 7-6, 6-3 2.) Alejandro Salazar (ETSU) def. Ivan Andreev (UAB) 6-2, 6-0 3.) Andre Maier (UAB) def. Diego Iglesias (ETSU), 7-6, 6-1 4.) Kristijan Mitrovski (UAB) def. Francisco Diaz (ETSU), 6-2, 6-3 5.) Patrick Suhrbier (UAB) def. Fernando Fiuri (ETSU), 7-6, 6-3 6) Dino Mancarella (UAB) def. Moises Serrano (ETSU), 6-4, 6-2 Doubles 1.) Mitrovski/Gruendler (UAB) def. Salazar/Pavlovich (ETSU), 8-4 2.) Maier/Mancarella (UAB) def. Iglesias/Fiuri (ETSU), 8-5 3.) Suhrbier/Zaman (UAB) def. Serrano/Ochoa (ETSU), 8-6