April 10, 2018
SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men's tennis team wraps up its regular-season schedule this weekend when it travels to Nevada and Fresno State for a pair of Mountain West dual matches. The Aztecs will battle the Wolf Pack on Friday, April 13, starting at 11 a.m. PT, before locking horns with the Bulldogs on Sunday, April 15, beginning at noon.
SDSU (4-18, 2-3 MW) split two home dates against league foes last week, dropping a 4-3 heartbreaker to New Mexico on April 6, before rebounding with a 4-0 shutout of Air Force two days later, which snapped a three-match losing streak.
The Aztecs have received a boost of late from junior Raul de la Torre, who is 4-0 at No. 6 singles since earning a spot in the starting lineup and has won two straight at No. 2 doubles teaming up with freshman Jan Kirchhoff.
Sophomore Rafael Gonzalez Almazan leads the Scarlet and Black with 16 victories on the season, including nine at four different positions in dual-match competition, while freshman Ignacio Martinez has pocketed 12 wins this year, highlighted by his first triumph in the No. 1 spot vs. Air Force on Sunday.
Nevada (13-5, 2-2 MW) registered a 4-3 triumph at Boise State in its last outing on April 8, as junior Augustin Delahodde and senior Robert Margitfalvi collected wins in the No. 5 and No. 3 slots, respectively, helping the Wolf Pack overcome a 3-2 deficit.
Delahodde shares the team lead with 10 victories this spring, joining sophomore Julien Evrard and freshman Jeremy Merville, while Margitfalvi has nine wins to his credit. Evrard has played primarily in the No. 1 position, while Merville has seen action mainly in the fourth slot.
Merville and Margitfalvi have comprised the Wolf Pack's most successful doubles tandem in dual matches, logging a 12-3 record at all three spots, while Evrard and sophomore Kostya Nesterenko have amassed a 10-4 mark predominately in the No. 1 position.
SDSU is 8-3 against Nevada dating back to 1989, but has dropped two of three, including a tough 4-3 setback at Aztec Tennis Center last year. The Wolf Pack captured the early doubles point, before San Diego State rallied for three wins in the singles round. However, Delahodde emerged with a three-set triumph over Gonzalez Almazan in the No. 5 spot to hand the Aztecs a disappointing loss.
Nevada and SDSU have faced one common opponent during their respective non-conference schedules, with each side falling to Cal Poly by a 5-2 count in February.
The Aztecs went 3-3 in six singles matches vs. the Wolf Pack during tournament play at the LMU Fall Invitational last November. Gonzalez Almazan registered a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Delahodde, sophomore David Hough came through with a 6-3, 6-2 conquest of Jonathan Aremon, while fellow classmate Joel Popov dispatched Peter O'Donovan, 6-3, 6-1.
On the other hand, Fresno State (14-11, 3-1 MW) had its two-match winning streak snapped in a 4-2 loss at then-No. 50 Utah State last Sunday. The Bulldogs managed two victories in singles play, with freshman Cem Erturk recording a straight-set triumph in the No. 4 position, while sophomore Zdenek Derkas emerged victorious in three sets at No. 3. Prior to Sunday's showdown with the Aztecs, the Bulldogs will play host to UNLV at Spalding G. Wathen Tennis Center on Thursday, April 12.
Individually, Fresno State boasts six players with double-digit win totals this spring, including Erturk, who is 17-4 in four different slots on the team's ladder, while sophomore Cagatay Soke is 13-6, highlighted by a 7-2 mark in the fifth position. Not to be outdone. Derkas and fellow classmate Henrique Osorio have pocketed 11 victories apiece, while senior Xander Veys and junior Jeremy Moser have racked up 10 wins each.
Soke and Veys represent the Bulldogs' most productive doubles pairing with a 9-7 record playing primarily in the second and third spots, whike Erturk and junior Mantas Bugailiskis are 5-4 in the No. 1 position.
The Aztecs are 10-12 against Fresno State since 1989, suffering a 4-0 defeat on Montezuma Mesa a year ago. SDSU claimed a narrow 4-3 decision in its last visit to the Central Valley in 2016, with de la Torre posting a straight-set triumph over Moser at No. 6 to help lift the Scarlet and Black to victory.
The Bulldogs and Aztecs have played five common opponents during their respective non-conference slates. Fresno State dropped two matches to Arizona, including a 4-3 setback at the Blue Gray Tennis Classic in Montgomery, Ala. In addition, the Bulldogs split two encounters vs. Cal Poly, while falling short to UC Santa Barbara, LMU and San Diego.
Conversely, the Aztecs' lone victory from that group was a 4-3 upset of USD on Feb. 23.
UP NEXT
Following Sunday's clash, San Diego State will play host to the 2018 Mountain West Championship, April 26-28, at Aztec Tennis Center.