March 3, 2018
LA JOLLA, Calif. -- The San Diego State men's tennis program was unable to extend its weekend at the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships as two Aztec tandems were eliminated in their respective brackets Saturday at La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club.
After posting a 3-0 record on Friday, the sophomore duo of Joel Popov and Arnaud Restifo had their run in the main draw stymied, suffering a 6-1, 6-4 defeat at the hands of Uros Petronijevic and Zachary Svajda in the round 16.
Meanwhile, sophomore David Hough and freshman Ignacio Martinez made waves with three victories of their own in the consolation bracket on Friday. The Aztec pairing opened with an 8-6 triumph over Pomona-Pitzer's Quinn Hirsohn and Jacob Schoenherr on Friday, followed by an 8-4 conquest of Villanova's Dylan Flanagan and Danny Nomura. Later, the SDSU teammates vanquished the combo of UCLA associate head coach Grant Chen and unattached Noah Eisenberg by a decisive 8-1 tally to punch their ticket to the quarterfinal.
However, Hough and Martinez were unable to duplicate their success on Saturday, falling to UCLA's Maxime Cressy and Bryce Pereira, 6-4, 6-3.
Considered the second-oldest tennis event in the United States, the Pacific Coast Men's Doubles Championships features tandems from numerous college teams, including nationally ranked squads in No. 2 Stanford, No. 4 UCLA, No. 11 USC, No. 15 Oklahoma State and No. 36 San Diego.
In addition to the Aztecs, the field also includes players from such schools as Boise State, Boston College, California, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Pepperdine, Pomona-Pitzer, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC San Diego and Villanova.
San Diego State returns to dual-match competition March 15-17 at the annual San Diego Spring Break Tournament.