Indiana men’s tennis had a deep run at the ITA Ohio Valley Regional Tournament in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Oct. 12-16.
Indiana sent seniors Jagger Saylor and Nishanth Basavarredy along with junior Ilya Tiraspolsky and sophomores Sam Landau, Luc Boulier and Deacon Thomas to their second and final ITA sponsored event.
After finishing with a less than impressive 4-16 record at their last tournament in South Bend, Indiana from Oct. 6-8, the Hoosiers turned it around in Chattanooga. In the singles portion of the tournament, five Hoosiers played in the 128-player field as Landau sat out.
Most of the Indiana players lost in the first round, as Basavarredy lost to the University of Memphis’ Moritz Kudernatsch (1-6, 2-6), Saylor to the University of Kentucky’s Christophe Clement (2-6, 5-7), Boulier to Belmont University’s Ian Cruz (7-6, 5-7, 4-6) and Ilya Tiraspolsky to Kentucky’s Matthew Rankin (6-7, 3-6). Thomas did make it out of the first round, beating Butler University’s Nicolas Arts (7-5, 7-6). In the second round, Thomas was outmatched and fell to Vanderbilt University’s Joubert Klopper (1-6, 1-6).
Then came the doubles portion, where three teams of Hoosiers competed in a first to eight games format. The team of Basavarredy and Thomas fell in the first round to Tennessee Tech University’s Paolo Guillermo Ramos Martin and Davids Sparks (6-8).
However, the two other Indiana teams made serious runs across the field. Boulier and Saylor got revenge against Kentucky’s Rankin and Clement, winning a close tiebreaker (8-7). In the next round, they won more comfortably, defeating Middle Tennessee State University’s Igor Mandou Berranger and Karim Al-Amim (8-5), before falling in the round of 32 against East Tennessee State University’s Peter Kalocsai and Adam Nagoudi in a competitive match (6-8).
The final Indiana team of Tiraspolsky and Landau, who elected to just play in the doubles portion, started their run with a comfortable win over Tennessee State University’s Taj Hibbert and Jonasz Dziopak (8-4), followed by a dominant win over Xavier University’s Marco Pennelli and Charlie Temming (8-2).
In the round of 16, Tiraspolsky and Landau made quick work of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis’ Steven Paz and Noah Viste (8-3), before falling to Vanderbilt’s Nathan Cox and Jeremie Casabon (4-8). Once again, Landau showed why he is a force to be reckoned with in the Big Ten as he made another deep run at a national tournament.
Indiana closes out its fall season next month at the Big Ten Individual Championships in Madison, Wisconsin, Nov. 2-5.
