Indiana men’s tennis continued its fall season at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Ohio Valley Regional Championships from Oct. 8-13 at the Farm & Forge Club in College Grove, Tennessee.
Ten Hoosiers competed in the tournament, achieving 16 singles and eight doubles victories. Redshirt senior Sam Landau led Indiana in singles play, reaching the tournament’s quarterfinals, while sophomore Aryan Badlani and junior Ariel Zauber advanced to the doubles quarterfinals.
Landau opened the singles competition with two consecutive straight-set victories, defeating Middle Tennessee State University sophomore Asier Ayllon Prado and Belmont University junior Cagan Efe Tufekci by identical scores of 6-0, 6-2.
Landau continued his success in the round of 16, defeating University of Tennessee junior Jose Garcia 7-6 (5), 6-3. The victory advanced him to the quarterfinals to face Purdue freshman Lorenzo Balducci.
After dropping the opening set 6-2, Landau battled back to win the second set 6-1. However, Balducci took the deciding set 6-1, ending Landau’s singles run with a loss.
Redshirt sophomore Aidan Atwood and redshirt senior Sam Scherer also performed strongly in singles competition, each winning their first two matches to advance to the round of 16.
Atwood opened with a three-set victory over East Tennessee State University sophomore Dmitry Kopilevich, winning 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. He followed with a straight-sets victory over Lipscomb University graduate student Henrique Ushizima before falling to Middle Tennessee senior Aryan Saleh 6-2, 7-5.
Scherer began the tournament with consecutive straight-set victories over the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga junior Julian Franzmann and the University of Louisville sophomore Jerald Carroll. His singles run ended in the round of 16 with a 6-4, 6-3 loss to the University of Kentucky junior Jack Loutit.
Indiana also found success in doubles competition, led by Badlani and Zauber’s three victories.
The pair started with an 8-2 victory over East Tennessee State seniors Arenui Luethi and Kai Cowcher before defeating Middle Tennessee junior Eric Crivei and senior Aryan Saleh 8-1 in the round of 32.
Badlani and Zauber continued their run with an 8-4 victory over Purdue senior Henrik Villanger and junior Maj Premzl in the round of 16, advancing to the quarterfinals. Their tournament ended with an 8-4 loss to Louisville senior Hamza El Amine and freshman Lucas Bazin.
Two other Indiana doubles pairings also advanced to the round of 16.
Landau and junior Braeden Gelletich opened with two 8-2 victories, the firstover the University of Southern Indiana senior Aaron Dawson and junior Jy Hibbert and the second against Louisville juniors Matei Cristian Onofrei and Maksim Hristov. The pair then fell to Kentucky junior Rafael Ymer and freshman Johan Oscar Lien 8-1.
Junior Matteo Antonescu and Scherer also earned two doubles victories, defeating the University of Dayton junior Dylan Jaen and sophomore Rishi Dore 8-7 (4) and Tennessee Tech University’s Jacques-Kai Inoue and sophomore Ricard Garavi Yepez 8-3. Their run ended with a 8-6 loss to East Tennessee State junior Juan Listo and senior Jakub Prachar.
Badlani and Zauber also competed in singles qualifying, each winning two matches to advance to the main draw.
Badlani continued his singles success with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Kentucky’s Tom Sickenberger in the round of 64. He then fell to Onofrei in a close three-set match, losing the first and third sets 7-6(4) and , 7-6 (2 . He won the second set 6-4.
Senior Ben Pomeranets also earned a singles victory, coming back after dropping the opening set against Bazin. Pomeranets won the final two sets to secure a 16-1, 6-4, 7-6 (5) victory before falling in the round of 32.
The Hoosiers will return to action starting Oct. 29 at the Big Ten Individual Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
