Saturday, September 23, 2006

Murfreesboro, Tenn. (Sept. 23, 2006) - Mother Nature played a factor in day two of the Middle Tennessee Fall Invitational as rain forced tournament officials to delay the start of play by an hour-and-a-half Saturday morning. All rounds in all three flights of doubles were played at the Racquet Club of Murfreesboro Saturday. The rain however, did not prove to be a factor for the Colombian combination of Daniel Isaza (Medellin, Colombia) and Sebastian Serrano (Cartagena, Columbia) as they won the Flight B1 doubles final.

In the Flight B1 doubles match up, Isaza and Serrano appreciated a first round bye, before taking on Tezar Putra and Vinicius Craveiro of Memphis in the second round. The second round match up looked to be the toughest for the ETSU partners as they defeated the Memphis team, 8-6. Isaza and Serrano cruised into the finals by knocking out Cristian Easton and Kevin Sijmons of Armstrong Atlantic, 8-1 in the semifinals. The finals placed Isaza and Serrano against Marc Boiron and Joao Paoliello of host school Middle Tennessee, and Isaza/Serrano proved to be too much for the hometown duo winning the Flight B1, 8-4.

Travis Sandlant (Werribee, Australia) and Lisandro Picardo (Mar Del Plata, Argentina) won their first round match in Flight A1 over William Sousa and Ales Svigelj of South Florida, 8-1, but ended up being defeated by the Memphis doubles team of Amrit Narasimhan and Benedikt Fischer, 8-4 in the second round.

In Flight A2 of doubles play, Alex Ahlgren (Tyreso, Sweden) and Enrique Olivares (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela) posted two early victories against Eric Lim and Josh Irey of Mississippi State, 8-3, and Cody Loup and Spencer Heflin of Memphis, 8-4 in the second round. In the semifinals, Ahlgren and Olivares were faced with a rematch between Kiril Tcherveniachki and Davey Sandgren from the University of Tennessee. These four met two weeks ago in the Southern Collegiate semifinals in Athens, Ga., with the ETSU combo taking the match, 8-6. A repeat was not in the books for Ahlgren and Olivares as they dropped the match, 8-6.

"So far we have had a couple of good weeks in doubles action and we are still trying to find the right combinations," said head coach Yaser Zaatini. "Doubles is a learning experience so we have to try everyone out and see how they react under the circumstances."

The ETSU men's tennis team will close out singles action at the Middle Tennessee Fall Invitational on Sunday . The Bucs will next compete at the UNC Invitational in Chapel Hill, N.C. on Sept. 29.