Tori, Rodriguez Advance To Second Day Of D'Novo ITA All-American Championships
10/3/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Oct. 3, 2009
TULSA, Okla. - Senior Javier Tori won both his singles matches on Saturday to become the first player in the USC Upstate men's tennis program's history to reach 60 career wins as he also won the school's first match at the prestigious D'Novo/ITA All-American Championships on Saturday and added another win to move on to the second and final day of the pre-qualifying singles play on Sunday at the University of Tulsa's Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
Tori posted a 6-4, 6-0 win over Tulsa's Albert Jou in the first round in the morning for the school's first win at the ITA's earliest of three national tournaments. Facing Hawai'i's Dmytro Kovalyov in the second round, Tori played well to post a 6-2, 6-2 win for his 60th career victory. On Saturday, Tori will need to continue his strong play as he starts out by playing Texas A&M's John Lewis at 11:30 a.m. The winner of their match will face the winner of a match between Southern Methodist's David Costa and No. 14 seed Javier Pulgar of Louisiana at Lafayette for the right to advance to the qualifying rounds.
Sophomore Edgar Rodriguez, seeded eighth in the pre-qualifier and awarded a first-round bye, posted a convincing 6-3, 6-2 win over Matt Tansil of Oral Roberts. Rodriguez will move on to face Sacramento State's Jimmy Roberts in the third round of singles play at 9 a.m. on Sunday. Rodriguez, like Tori, needs to win two matches to reach the qualifiers, which start Monday.
Senior Jack Roux lost a tough match to No. 13 seed Elliot Potvin of Georgia Tech, falling 7-5, 1-6 (10-8). Roux fell in a tough super-set tiebreaker to Potvin, who also beat Rodriguez, 6-4, 6-3, at the Southern Intercollegiate Championships on Sept. 20.
Upstate will stay in action at the D'Novo/ITA All-American Championships on Sunday with Rodriguez starting play at 9 a.m. with his match against Roberts.
