Oct. 18, 2014
MALIBU, Calif. - San Diego State men's tennis senior Thorsten Bertsch (Mannheim, Germany) and sophomore Marko Goles-Babic (Zagreb, Croatia) advanced to the singles main draw Round of 16 by earning victories on the second day of the USTA/ITA Southwest Regional Championships on Saturday at Pepperdine University's Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center.
Bertsch, currently ranked No. 122 in the nation and the No. 8-seed in this weekend's tournament, moved on to Sunday's Round of 16 by defeating Pepperdine's Tom Hill in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1. Bertsch will face No. 9-seed Martin Redlicki of UCLA in Sunday's Round of 16 beginning at 10:30 a.m. PT.
Goles-Babic advanced after knocking off Nil Schuhmann of Hawai'i, 6-2, 6-4. The sophomore will take on No. 4-seed Max De Vroome of USC in Sunday's Round of 16, also starting at 10:30 a.m.
In other Round of 32 action on Saturday, SDSU sophomore Jonas Meinzer (Buggingen, Germany) lost a hard-fought, three-set decision to Pepperdine's Rakshay Thakkar, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), while sophomore Hendrik Jebens (Stuttgart, Germany) fell short against UC Irvine's Tyler Pham, 6-4, 6-4. In addition, Aztec sophomore Milen Ianakiev (Elz, Germany) dropped his decision to No. 9-seed Ben Donovan of Cal Poly, 7-6, 6-0.
San Diego State junior Freddy Gelbrich (Isernhagen, Germany) came up short in his first-round match of the singles consolation bracket against the University of San Diego's Ciaran Fitzgerald, 6-1, 6-1, while freshman Santiago Cevallos (Querétaro, Mexico) dropped his second-round consolation match to Carter Lam of Hawai'i, 6-3, 6-1. Tournament play also came to a close for Aztec sophomore Maxi Boewer-Stelter (Berlin, Germany), as his lost his second-round consolation bracket decision to UC Santa Barbara's Ziad Sultan, 6-4, 6-4.
In doubles play to begin the day, SDSU's doubles team of Bertsch and Goles-Babic suffered a close defeat in its Round-of-16 match to USC's Eric Johnson and Johnny Wang, 8-7, while the Aztecs' duo of Gelbrich and Jebens lost to USD's Fitzgerald and Uros Petronijevic, 8-4.