Men's Tennis Opens with Three Wins at UCSB Fall Classic

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The San Diego State men's tennis team picked up two singles wins and a doubles victory during the opening rounds of competition Friday at the UCSB Fall Classic.

In Flight B singles action, senior David Hough (Traralgon, Australia) emerged triumphant over Loyola Marymount's Max Kaiser by a 6-2, 6-4 count, setting up a quarterfinal matchup with Stanford's Sam Turchetta on Saturday. Earlier, Turchetta opened with a 6-1, 6-1 decision over UCLA's Max Wild.

Rafael Gonzalez Almazan (Madrid, Spain) also advanced in Flight C, prevailing over Oregon's Giorgio Soemarno in straight sets, 6-1, 7-5. With his result, the Aztec senior will square off against UC Santa Barbara's Luka Vukmanovic on Saturday after his upcoming Gaucho opponent received a first-round bye.

Appearing in his first tournament of the fall, Ignacio Martinez (Weston, Fla.) was not as fortunate, however, suffering a 6-4, 6-3 defeat at the hands of UCSB's Alex Dominguez in Flight B. Consequently, the SDSU senior will now face Stanford's Tomas Kopczynski in the consolation side of the bracket on Saturday. Kopczynski fell victim to Cal Poly's Gary Vardanyan in his first encounter of the tournament, 6-2, 6-1.

Meanwhile, Aaro Pollanen (Helsinki, Finland) battled UCSB's Victor Krustev through three sets in his first Flight A match, but came out on the wrong side of a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 score. With the setback, the Aztec junior will square off against Luke Vandecasteele of Oregon in a consolation clash on Saturday.  Vandecasteele also lost in three sets on Friday to Stanford's Neel Rajesh, 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4.

In Flight B doubles play, Hough and Gonzalez Almazan joined forces to vanquish the Stanford tandem of Rajesh and Dean Stratakos, 8-5, advancing to face the Cal duo of Tomas Wright and Mert Zincirl in the quarterfinals on Saturday. Earlier, the Golden Bear pairing routed UCLA's Eric Hahn and Mathew Tsolakyan, 8-1.

Over in Flight A, Pollanen and Martinez were edged by Oregon's Vandecasteele and Brandon Lam in a tiebreaker, 8-7(5), and will next play Cal Poly's Vardanyan and Antoine Noel in the consolation round on Saturday. Vardanyan and Noel lost to Stanford's Sam Turchetta and Timothy Sah on Friday, 8-6.

UCSB Fall Classic
Santa Barbara, Calif.
Day One Results (SDSU only)
 
Flight A Singles
First Round
Victor Krustev (UCSB) def. Aaro Pollanen (SDSU), 6-1, 3-6, 6-3
 
Flight B Singles
First Round
David Hough (SDSU) def. Max Kaiser (LMU), 6-2, 6-4
Alex Dominguez (UCSB) def. Ignacio Martinez (SDSU), 6-4, 6-3
 
Flight C Singles
First Round
Rafael Gonzalez Almazan (SDSU) def. Giorgio Soemarno (ORE), 6-1, 7-5
 
Doubles Flight A
Luke Vandecasteele/Brandon Lam (ORE) def. Aaro Pollanen/Ignacio Martinez (SDSU), 8-7(5)
 
Doubles Flight B
David Hough/Rafael Gonzalez Almazan (SDSU) def. Neel Rajesh/Dean Stratakos (STAN), 8-5