Scott Watkins
Staff Writer
The Troy men’s tennis team competed in the ITA/USTA Southern Regional competition in Auburn over the weekend, but only advanced to the second day of play in the four-day tournament.
Troy opened its competition in singles play with Andy Laer’s first-round match against Auburn’s Richie Sivalls on Friday morning. Laer won the match 6-1, 6-2.
At the same time, Andre Baldo defeated Sasha Prodgursky of Nicholls State 6-1, 6-1.
Ameer Bedwan won his noon match against Louisiana’s Silvio Cocito-Monoc 6-3, 6-1.
In total, Troy had six players advance to the second round including the man in the No. 1 spot, senior Hassah Ndayishiriye, who appeared in only 13 matches last year. A car accident left him unable to play then, but he advanced Friday after defeating Southern Mississippi’s Rakshit Rishi.
Out of the No. 9 spot, Austin Racine was the only Trojan to not advance to the second round after falling to Chase Schupp of Tulane 6-2, 6-0.
The second, third, and fourth rounds were played on Saturday. It proved to be a tough day for the Trojans, as they did not have a player advance to the fifth round.
Ndayishiriye fell in the second round to Ole Miss’ Fabian Fallert 6-4, 6-4.
Pablo Moreno, who had a first-round bye, and Andy Laer each advanced to the third round after winning matches against Louisiana’s top two players. Moreno won in a three-set match against Louisiana’s No. 1 Pearce Dolan 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.
Laer then defeated Arthur Libaud 6-4, 7-6, but he and Moreno fell in third round. Moreno dropped his match against top-seeded Gusau Hansson 6-2, 6-3.
Hansson later advanced to the semi-finals, where he fell to eventual singles champion Nuno Borges of Mississippi State.
In doubles play, Troy only advanced one duo to the second round.
Ndayishiriye and Jiaqi Duan defeated LSU’s team 8-3 before losing to Mississippi State by the same score.
Troy Tennis will next compete at the UNCC Fall Invitational in Charlotte, North Carolina, October 28-30.
