The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
South Carolina Fall Invitational
Three Blazers Advance In Singles At South Carolina Fall Invitational
10/12/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Oct. 12, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. ----- A trio of UAB men's tennis players won first round singles matches here Friday to highlight the Blazers' first day of play at the South Carolina Fall Invitational.
Senior Adrian Tollstam, sophomore Alex Emery and freshman Tyrone Ewels advanced to Saturday's round of 16 with opening round wins. Tollstam was a 6-3, 6-4 straight set winner over Grant Van Rensburg of Gardner-Webb in the B-2 singles division.
Meanwhile, Ewels and Emery won matches in the A/B singles division with Ewels taking a 6-2, 6-2 victory over John Percival of USC-Aiken. Emery had to battle back from a slow start but rallied past Martin Redelinghuys of UNC-Greensboro, 1-6, 7-6, 6-4.
Three other UAB players didn't fare as well in their first round matches. Senior Hans Spangenberg lost a tight 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 decision to Arkansas' Dmitry Lebedev in the A-1 division.. In A-2 play, Blazer sophomore Thomas Petrich, the No. 5 seed, was narrowly defeated by Chris Peek of Charleston Southern, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5.
Miquel Artero was handled by USC-Upstate's Renzo Airaldi, 6-0, 6-1, at B-2 singles.
In doubles play, UAB's Spangenberg and Tollstam won their first round match, 8-4, over Patrick Fediuk and Andrew Lee of Presbyterian in A-1 division doubles, but then fell in quarterfinal action 8-2 to No. 2 seed Kenneth Nordheim and David Simon.
Artero and Petrich experienced similar results in B-2 doubles with a first round win over Alex Antunes and Michael Pereira of UNC-Wilmington, 8-6. But the UAB duo then lost to Coastal Carolina's Omar El Bouzkouri and Joseph Withers, 8-2, in the quarterfinals.
In B-1 doubles, the Blazers' tandem of Emery and Ewels fell in their first round match, 8-2, to Peek and Gui Rebolo of Charleston Southern.
More than 200 players representing 36 schools are playing in the three-day event hosted by the University of South Carolina at four different Columbia tennis venues.
Play continues Saturday morning.
