BYU players cruise on first day of tournament

The first day of the Utah Fall Tennis Classic ended with four players from the BYU men's tennis team advancing to the quarterfinals of singles action and four doubles teams with BYU players moving on to the quarterfinals. 

 

"This tournament has a good variety of college players, junior players, professionals and former professionals,” BYU Coach Brad Pearce said. “It’s a good opportunity to see how incoming players perform."

 

In singles action, all eight participating Cougars advanced to the second round. Junior Francis Sargeant, the No. 1 singles seed who advanced with a first-round bye, cruised past Ben Spencer to advance to the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-0 victory. 

 

Sophomore Andrey Goryachkov also advanced with a dominating victory over Daniel Tueller, 6-0, 6-1.  Goryachkov will face BYU teammate, Nikki Rae in the quarterfinals of the tournament.  Rae, the BYU sophomore, advanced with a 6-3, 6-1 win over incoming freshman Juan Canales. In the opening round, Canales played a close first set against Kevin Rose and pulled out the win 7-5, 6-0.

 

Senior Travis Fillmore also moved on to the quarterfinals of the tournament, pulling out a 6-1, 6-4 win over Todd Fought.

 

In other singles action, the incoming freshmen each advanced past the first round before falling in the second. Sterling Galli beat his first opponent 6-1, 6-2, and Jeremy Bourgeois lost a hard-fought match to Matthew Cowley, 7-5, 6-4 after advancing to the second round because of an opponent injury. Freshman Jake Sullivan beat his opponent 6-1, 6-3 to advance to the second round before losing 6-3, 6-2 to Cameron Lee. 

 

The doubles teams with BYU players rolled through the first round. The duo of Canales and Goryachkov cruised to an 8-1 win, and the Bourgeois and Rae team sailed to a 8-2 victory. The Galli and Sargeant team advanced with a first-round bye, as did the Sullivan and Pearce team.

 

The tournament marks the beginning of BYU’s road back to the NCAA tournament. The Cougars have made the tournament in three of the past four years.  As a preseason tournament, coaches are not allowed to coach, but only to observe.

 

“There is good potential for this season,” Pearce said. “It was good to get a feel of what we need to do as coaches.”

 

Competition resumes tomorrow with singles starting at 10:00 a.m. MT and doubles beginning at 3:30 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.

 

Tournament results can be seen here.