BOLIVAR, Mo. – The McKendree men's tennis team opened its 2022 fall campaign here Friday with a strong start on the first day of the Southwest Baptist Invitational held at both SBU's John A. Bryant Tennis Center and Bolivar Middle School.
The Bearcats have 10 players competing in the three-day and on Friday's first day, the 10 Bearcat players went a combined 12-1, including an 11-1 mark in singles and 1-0 mark in doubles action.
In the Men's 'A' Singles Draw, junior
Leonardo Frederico (Tijucas-Santa Cantrina, Brazil/UniCesumar), who is the No. 1 seed in the draw, opened with a 4-0, 4-1 win over UMSL's Tanin Ramnath.
Sophomore
David Leon Mantilla (Lima, Peru/Colegio Parroquial Santa Rose de Lima) picked up a 4-1, 4-0 win over UMSL's Jose Mayorga.
Freshman
Benedek Szombathelyi (Budapest, Hungary/Hunfalvy Janos Bilingual Vocational School) picked a 4-0, 4-0 win over SBU's Ilyes Khelifi, while sophomore
Tomas Leston (Buenos Aires, Argentina/San Jose Hermanas Nuestra Senora del Rosario).
In the Men's Singles 'B' Draw, the Bearcats went 7-1 with the lone loss coming in second round as
Ian Ramiro Perez Rodriguez (Los Cabos, Mexico/SEJV) as he fell 4-0, 1-4, 7-10 to SBU's Fabian Neff, who is the No. 1 seeded play. Perez Rodriguez opened with a 4-1, 4-1 first round win over Harding's Lukas Rambo.
Four Bearcats went 1-0 in the 'B' Draw as they had first round byes and won their second-round matches to advance to the quarterfinals, while sophomore
Charlie Sanzo (Bristol, England/Fullerton College) went 2-0 with first and second round victories.
The Bearcats that won their round of 16 matches were senior
Lorenzo del Biondo (Pescara, Italy/Abraham Baldwin College) defeated Harding's Ricard Jove (4-1, 4-0), while junior Nanese Ebisu (Osaka, Japan/Hawaii Pacific) won 4-1, 4-2 over SBU's Alex Crawford, sophomore
Jose Antonio Velasco (Lima, Peru) won 4-1, 5-3 over SBU's Bryson Crowell and senior
Ryan Fung (Miami, Fla./Miami Palmetto Senior) won 4-2, 4-0 over Harding's Jayson Van Vreden.
In the quarterfinal round on Saturday morning, four of the Bearcats will face each other as Sanzo meets Ebisu and Velasco meets Fung.
Meanwhile, in the Men's Doubles 'B' Draw, Sanzo and Perez Rodriguez paired up together and picked up an 8-3 win in the first round over SBU's Crowell and Crawford. The Bearcat duo will face the top-seeded team of Harding's Cas de Ruiter and Bryce Walker at 9 a.m. on Saturday.
In the Men's Doubles 'A' Draw, Frederico and Szombathelyi have a first-round bye and will play in the semifinals on Saturday at 3 p.m. The other 'A' Draw doubles match will feature Ebisu and Del Biondo playing a quarterfinal match at 12 p.m.
The Southwest Baptist Invitational continues through Sunday, Sept. 11.
