Oct. 7, 2015
TULSA, Okla. - San Diego State men's tennis junior Hendrik Jebens has advanced to the main draw of the 2015 Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Florida State's Michael Rinaldi in the third round of qualifying men's singles on Wednesday.
Jebens is the first Aztec since 2008 to advance to the tournament's main draw, which features 64 student-athletes, and is the Mountain West's only representative remaining at the tournament.
The Stuttgart, Germany native opened the qualifying draw on Monday with a 6-5, 7-6 victory over Stanford's Sameer Kumar. He then came from behind to top Diego Pedraza from Dartmouth, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday before his third round victory today.
Also competing in the qualifying draw was Aztec redshirt senior Freddy Gelbrich. The Isernhagen, Germany native strung up 7-6, 6-4 wins over Skander Mansouri of Wake Forest in the first round, but suffered 7-6, 6-1 losses to Cal Poly's Ben Donovan in the second round.
Competing as a doubles pairing, Jebens and Gelbrich fell in the qualifying doubles round of 64 on Tuesday to Terrance and Terrell Whitehurst from Florida State, 7-6, 6-4.
San Diego State junior Milen Ianakiev also earned an invitation to the Championships, competing in the pre-qualifying singles bracket. He opened the championships on Saturday with a win, coming back after a 5-7 opening set to top Temple's Nicolas Paulus with 7-5, 6-1 victories. He eventually dropped the round of 128 match to Mississippi's Gustav Hansson, 6-2, 6-2.
The tournament's main draw begins tomorrow, Oct. 8, with the championship match occurring on Mon., Oct. 12. For complete coverage of the tournament, visit: http://www.itatennis.com/Events/ITANationalChampionships/MensAllAmerican.htm.