Upstate Advances to Five Championship Matches at Rain-Shortened Elon Fall Invitational
9/26/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Elon, N.C. – The USC Upstate men's tennis team advanced to the championship match in five brackets last weekend during the rain-shortened Elon Fall Invitational from the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center.
The three-day tournament was held on Friday and Saturday before rain halted the final day of competition on Sunday. Upstate moved on to the championship round in five different brackets including two in singles play and three in doubles competition.
The Spartans saw Felix Ewers and Fernando Bernardes move to the championship matches as Ewers played in the A1 Singles consolation draw and Bernardes the B2 Singles main bracket.
Bernardes swept his way to the final match after winning three times with two coming in straight sets. The freshman began tournament play on Friday with a 7-5, 6-2 win over James Massie of UNCA and followed with a 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Old Dominion's Scotty Hunter. Bernardes earned a spot in the championship round after defeating Ian Melnik of UNC Greensboro 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Ewers saw his tournament begin on Friday with a 2-6, 6-7 (2) defeat to UNC Asheville's Henry Patten. The junior responded by winning his next two matches to advance to the consolation draw championship match. Ewers began by winning 6-1, 2-6, 10-6 over Franci Pare of Charlotte and then picked up a 7-6 (4), 6-4 triumph against UNC Greensboro's Marcus Vidgren.
In doubles play, Upstate was set to compete in the championship match of the A2 Doubles, B1 Doubles and C1 Doubles brackets.
The combination of Ankush Arora and Francisco Neto took home two wins in the A2 Doubles main draw and were scheduled to play in the championship match on Sunday. Arora and Neto opened play with an 8-5 win versus Sid Donarski and Andres Torres of UNC Wilmington, and followed that performance with a close 8-7 (6) victory against Blasco and Arthur Bardellotto of Longwood.
Bernardes and Lenhard Haupt also swept their way to the main draw championship of the C1 Doubles bracket. The duo received a bye to begin play and then squared off against James Madison's Alex Berdnikoff and August Simonsen, winning by a score of 8-3. Haupt and Bernardes finished up their play on Saturday by defeating Aditya Gokhale and Joshua Ryan of Winthrop 8-3 to move on to the championship round.
In the B1 Doubles bracket, Ewers and Ignacio Garrido fell into the consolation draw with an 8-2 loss against Sebastian Schneider and Zak Talic of Coastal Carolina. The duo responded by winning 8-2 versus Old Dominion's Jose Nunez Navarro and Samuel Perelman, earning them a spot in the consolation championship match.
The Spartans are back in action this weekend, Oct. 1-2, at the Davidson Invitational in Davidson, N.C.
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