Monmouth University’s Men’s Tennis team traveled to Philadelphia to compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast Regional Tournament this weekend, which featured some of the best players from across the country.
The day began with singles, in which six Hawks competed solo against their opponents. The first matchup began when Alex Martinez Sanz was defeated by Gryffin Minor of Fairleigh Dickinson University after two sets. Minor won the first set 6-4 and the second set 6-2. Monmouth’s Christof Zeiler won his opening match after three sets against Gurustat Sin Makkar of Niagara University. Zeiler opened the match off strong, winning the first set 6-4. The second set was won by Sin Makkar, 6-4, forcing a third set.
The last set was close and ended 7-6, forcing a tiebreaker. Zeiler ended up winning the tiebreaker 7-3 and leading Monmouth to their first singles victory of the day. Francisco Erramuspe was defeated by Luka Stojanovic of Le Moyne College after three sets. The first set was won by Stojanovic 6-3. Erramuspe fought back in set two, winning it 6-4. In the end, Stojanovic won the final set 6-2.
Gabriel Busato, who competed in the fourth singles match of the day, was defeated by Daniils Snaiders of the University of Buffalo after two sets. Snaiders took the first and second sets home 7-5 and 6-4. Junior Mateo Bivol was defeated by Egor Kirakosov of Drexel University after two sets. Kirakosov won both sets 7-5 and 6-3. In the last match in the singles competition, Christof Zeiler was defeated in his second match by Henry Ruger of the University of Colorado after two sets. Ruger won both sets 6-4 and 6-2.
Monmouth then went on to go head-to-head in the doubles matches for the tournament. Erramuspe and Martinez Sanz opened the doubles competition by winning their doubles match against Danila Ishchanka and Mathieu Vinet of Long Island University. They won the match in the only set, 8-5.
Erramuspe and Martinez Sanz played another match of doubles and were defeated in the match against Kian Vakili and Aaron Sandler of the University of Pennsylvania. The Hawks fought hard and forced a tiebreaker but unfortunately were not able to break it.
Mateo Bivol and Yoav Weinberg were defeated by Luka Stojanovic and Peter Hatton of Le Moyne College. The match was close, with the whole set forcing a tiebreaker, but the Hawks ended up losing the tiebreaker 7-5. Gabriel Busato and Diego Laporta were defeated by Alessandro DAnna and Philip Hilble of Long Island University. The duo forced a tiebreaker after a hard-fought set and lost the tiebreaker 7-5.
The Hawks make their way to Binghamton, New York, on Oct. 27 for the Binghamton Invitational.
