(Photo/Troy Athletics)Scott SheltonSports Editor The men’s tennis team took its first trip outside of Alabama this season and lost two of three matches last weekend in Nashville, Tennessee. The first match took place on Friday against the Belmont Bruins, and the Trojans fell 5-2. Junior Pelayo Antuna suffered the first loss of the day at the hands of Felix Rauch, who took the match 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Senior Oskar Michalek put the Trojans on the board with a 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 victory over Hendrik Inno. Sophomore Manuel Bernard took Belmont’s Arthur Toledo to the wire but lost by a tally of 6-3, 4-6, 5-4. In doubles play, Jorge Paytos and Andy Romero fell to Inno and Marko Ilic 6-2, and Michalek and Christopher Tasker fell 6-2 as well to Rauch and Tasei Miyamoto. Troy nabbed a doubles win with the duo of Antuna and Carles Anton, who defeated Grant Kelly and Vincent Sterkens 5-3. On Saturday, the Trojans faced a similar fate as they did on Friday with a 5-2 loss at the hands ofLipscomb. In singles play, Antuna picked up a win against Victor Chaw 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. Anton also earned a singles win after a dominant third set against Jorge Orgeton 6-4, 6-7, 6-0. After winning the first set, Michalek suffered a loss to Pablo Caffarena 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Tasker and Javier Llinares took their matches to three sets before ultimately falling to Pedro Uribe and Gonzalo Garcia-Nieto, respectively. Antonio Selma fell to Maksim Bogdanovich in two sets: 6-3, 6-2. In doubles play, Antuna and Anton picked up another doubles win, defeating Garcia-Nieto and Penny 6-3. Romero and Michalek and Poyatos and Tasker both suffered doubles losses to the Bison. After suffering two losses on the weekend, the Trojans closed with a victory over the Tennessee State Tigers in a shutout victory. Antuna, Anton, Michalek, Bernard, Llinares and Tasker all picked up singles victories with none of the matches going to three sets. In doubles play, Llinares and Tasker picked up a 6-1 victory, and Michalek and Romero picked up a 6-2 victory. Anton and Antuna were on the way to their third doubles victory in three days before the match was ended early due to Troy winning the doubles point. Next, the team will play in its home opener at the Lunsford Tennis Complex, where the Trojans will play Alabama A&M on Friday at 2 p.m. Alabama A&M opened its 2020 season with a 7-0 loss at Auburn Last season, the Trojansdefeated the Bulldogs at home by a score of 7-0.
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