SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men's tennis team puts the finishing touches on its fall schedule this weekend with a split roster competing at the Jack Kramer Collegiate Invitational in Rolling Hills Estates, California, as well as the San Diego Veterans Tennis Classic on the campus of USD. Both events are slated to run three days from Nov. 5-7.
Making the trek north to the Jack Kramer Club on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County is the Aztec trio of Victor Castro, Johannes Seeman and Joe Tyler, while the contingent of Jules Auffray, Judson Blair, Roni Rikkonen and Alex Scemanenco will represent the Scarlet and Black on the courts of USD's Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center.
The Jack Kramer Collegiate Invitational gets underway with two rounds of singles competition on Friday at 8:30 a.m., when Tyler battles UC Santa Barbara's Stefano Tsorotiotis. In other first-round action, Seeman will face USC's Paul Barretto at 11:30 a.m., while Castro squares off against Pepperdine's Linus Carlsson Halldin at the same time.
Doubles action commences later in the afternoon, as Castro and Tyler are set to lock horns with UCLA's Max Wild and Jeffrey Fradkin, starting at 5:30 p.m. Bracket play continues through the weekend in a tournament that features select men's players from host Loyola Marymount, Arizona, Cal Poly, USD and Oregon.
Castro and Tyler, who boast a 6-1 record in doubles play this fall, are coming off a strong showing at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships two weeks ago in Malibu, where they advanced to the main draw quarterfinals before falling to eventual champions Stefan Dostanic and Samuel Rubell of USC.
Along the way, Castro and Tyler defeated a pair of seeded tandems in the late October event, upending Pepperdine's 10th-seeded combo of Carlsson Halldin and Daniel De Jonge in the round of 32, 8-5, before punching their ticket to the quarterfinals with an 8-6 shaving of Arizona's seventh-seeded Carlos Hassey and Colton Smith.
Tyler, Castro and Blair have each collected five singles victories this fall. In early October, Tyler recorded a pair of wins in the pre-qualifying rounds of the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma, while Blair emerged triumphant on three occasions in September at the season-opening Larry Easley Memorial Classic in Las Vegas.
Seeman, meanwhile, has three victories to his credit so far this year, including a straight-set decision over LMU's Austin Di Guilio in the round of 32 at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships after receiving a first-round bye. In addition, Scemanenco has prevailed on three occasions this fall, recording back-to-back wins in Flight Two at the Easley Memorial Classic before retiring with an injury in the semifinals.
Following this weekend's action, San Diego State will remain idle for two months before opening its dual-match schedule on Jan. 15, 2022, with a home doubleheader against UC San Diego and a team to be determined.