Oct. 20, 2006
MALIBU, Calif. - San Diego State seniors Markus Dickhardt (Marburg, Germany) and Christian Groh (Crailsheim, Germany) advanced to the quarterfinals of the singles main draw at the Wilson/ITA West Regionals. The Aztec doubles duo of senior Anthony Gomez (Palm Desert, Calif.) and sophomore Billy Timu (Quebec, Canada) won their round of 16 doubles match, but lost in the quarterfinals.
Groh, who is ranked at No. 67 in the preseason ITA singles rankings, defeated Pepperdine's Omar Altmann in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, to advance to Saturday's quarterfinals round. The Aztec senior will face Reyniere Roxas of Loyola Marymount, who upset No. 6 seed Haythem Abid of UCLA in the round of 16, in the quarterfinals
Dickhardt, who is ranked at No. 99, rebounded to win the final two sets after dropping the first to Pepperdine's Richard Johnson, 6-3. He took the second set in convincing fashion, 6-1, and then won the decisive third set, 6-4. Dickhardt, who is the tournament's No. 7 seed, will play No. 2 seed Chris Surapol of UCLA in the quarterfinals. Surapol knocked Aztec redshirt freshman Michael Beron (San Diego, Calif.) out of the singles main draw in the round of 64 on Thursday.
In the consolation singles bracket, junior Robert Sabo (Rancho Mirage, Calif.) won his first match of the day to advance to the quarterfinals. After dropping the first set of his quarterfinals match to Ryo Sekiguchi of USD, 6-1, Sabo battled back to take the second set, 6-3. The third set went into a tiebreaker, with Sekiguchi emerging as the victor, 10-8. Timu also had a consolation singles round match, but lost to, 6-1, 6-2, to UCLA's Andrew Eklov in the round of 32.
In doubles action, Gomez and Timu won their round of 16 match when Matt Phillips and Nico Terrien of LMU were forced to withdraw due to injury. Unfortunately, the duo would then face the tournament's No. 1 seed from Pepperdine, Omar Altmann and Andre Begemann, in the quarterfinals. Altmann and Begemann, who are ranked at No. 15 in the preseason doubles rankings, defeated Gomez and Timu, 8-5.
The Wilson/ITA West Regionals continue tomorrow with main draw singles matches beginning at 11:30 a.m. PT from the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center in Malibu.