Men’s tennis records seven singles wins, two doubles wins at ITA Midwest Regional

By Adam Debrowski
Western Herald

The Western Michigan men’s tennis team traveled to Ann Arbor last weekend to face some of the region’s highest-ranked tennis players.

The Broncos picked up seven singles wins and two doubles wins, but withdrew from the ITA Midwest Regional after their final doubles team was ousted from the main draw.

Juniors Michael Calderone and Kazuya Komada advanced to the second round of the main doubles draw, where they narrowly defeated Eastern Illinois University’s Jamie Firth and Jeff Sutherford ((9-8), (7-1)). Calderone and Komada then fell 8-4 to the University of Michigan’s No. 27 Jason Jung-George Navas duo to end the weekend for the Brown and Gold.

The Broncos’ remaining doubles win came from Casey Cullen and Zeyad Montasser, when they defeated the University of Detroit-Mercy’s Christopher Cheung and Nick Tolomei (9-7).

Montasser also added a successful singles outing, advancing to the main draw after two hard-fought, three-set qualifying matches. After advancing to the second round on a by, he came back from a set down to beat Northern Illinois University’s Javier Bernabe (4-6, 6-2, 6-2). Montasser then advanced with a win over Michigan State University’s John Stratton, but fell in the opening round of main draw play.

Thomas Calderone and Michael Basha also survived tight qualifying matches in the opening round of the draw. Calderone defeated Joe Vallee of Michigan State (6-2, 2-6, 7-5) but lost to Illinois State University’s Matej Zlatkovic (6-2, 6-2) in the second round. Basha recovered from a one set deficit to beat Detroit-Mercy’s Alex Latokinsky (3-6, 6-4, 6-4), but lost the following match in straight sets.

In the main singles draw, Michael Calderone and Komada each advanced to the second round after defeating their respective opponents, both from Illinois State. Calderone grabbed a 6-4, 6-2 win over Micah LeMoine, while Komada pulled off a three-set, double tiebreak win over Alexander Pelaez. Calderone and Komada were each eliminated the following round.

The team will close out 2009 at home, hosting the WMU Vredevelt Invitational from Oct. 30-Nov. 1 in Kalamazoo.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Oct 19 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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