Oct. 19, 2006
MALIBU, Calif. - The SDSU men's tennis team was back in action for day two at the Wilson/ITA West Regionals, claiming six singles victories. Among the victorious for the Aztecs were seniors Christian Groh (Crailsheim, Germany) and Markus Dickhardt (Marburg, Germany). Senior Anthony Gomez (Palm Desert, Calif.) and freshman Achim Ceban were also victorious in their opening round matches, but later lost in the round of 32.
Groh, a No. 4 seed in the tournament, took care of his first round opponent, Bruno Alcala of Arizona, in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2. In the round of 32, Groh would defeat UC Irvine's Victor Lamm in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1, to move on to the round of 16. He will face host Pepperdine's Omar Altmann at 11 a.m. on Friday.
Dickhardt, the tournaments No. 7 seed, also won his first round match, defeating Mustafa Ulukan of UC Irvine, 7-6, 6-2 to move on to the round of 32. The Aztec senior drew UCLA's Jeremy Drean and defeated him in straight sets, 7-5, 6-1. Pepperdine's Richard Johnson will be Dickhardt's third round opponent.
Gomez, who won his opening round singles match with Arizona State's Will Grist in straight sets, lost to No. 6 seed Haythem Abid of UCLA in his round of 32 match. After Gomez took the first set 7-6, Abid came back to take the last two, 6-2 and 6-4.
Ceban, who took home first place in the singles "A" flight at the UNM Balloon Fiesta Classic, had an opening round victory over Jack Marsh of Arizona State. Like Gomez, Ceban ran into a member from the UCLA squad and fell in the second round. No. 5 seed Mathieu Dehaine defeated Ceban in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.
Junior Robert Sabo (Rancho Mirage, Calif.) lost his opening round match to No. 1 seed Ben Kohlloeffel of UCLA while sophomore Billy Timu (Quebec, Canada) was defeated by Arizona's Claudio Christen, 6-4, 6-2, in the first round.
The Aztecs had one of their two doubles teams score a victory in the round of 32. Gomez and Timu defeated cross-town rival USD's Thomas Liversage and Charl Wolmarans, 8-5. USC's Dejan Cvetkovic and Jason McNaughton defeated Ceban and Sabo, 8-3, in SDSU's only other doubles match.