SAN ANTONIO -- Slava Gulin (Moscow, Russia), Sebastian Rodriguez (Trujillo, Peru) and Javier Gonzalez (San Fernando, Chile) each earned key wins in singles to highlight UTSA men's tennis during a pair of opening-weekend tournaments.
"Overall, this weekend was a very successful start," UTSA head coach Sergey Avdyev said. "We worked very hard in the last three weeks to get back into shape and prepare for a productive fall season. It's never easy to in a first tournament, dealing with nerves and getting into a competition rhythm. We're looking forward to improving the next few weeks and getting ready for our next tournament, which will be the Roadrunner Invitational at home."
UTSA opened its fall tournament schedule with a pair of events last weekend, including the Islander Invitational, hosted by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and the Midland Invite, in Midland, Texas.
In Midland, Gulin earned a first-round win over Baylor's Pablo Mazzuchi, the No. 1 seed in the tournament to open the tournament, 6-3, 6-1. He then fell vs. Texas Tech's Ilgiz Valiev, the nation's No. 121 ranked singles player, 6-2, 2-6, 1-6.
Gonzalez also competed in Midland and bounced back from a 6-4, 7-6 (6) loss to No. 3 seeded Olle Wallin, a Texas Tech standout ranked No. 57 in the preseason in singles. He rallied to make the semifinals in the back draw with a pair of third-set tiebreaker wins, topping Louisville's Alex Wesbrooks, 2-6, 7-5, 11-9, then taking down Abilene Christian's Daniel Morozov, 7-6, 5-7, 10-6. He fell in the semifinals of the back draw to the top seed, Mazzuchi, 6-3, 6-4.
Rodriguez, the 2019-20 Conference USA Freshman of the Year, fell in a close battle to Abilene Christian's Dario Kmet, 6-4, 5-7, 2-6 but made it to the finals of the back draw with three consecutive wins, topping Oklahoma's Mason Beiler, the nation's No. 46 player, 6-4, 6-2, grinding out a win over Utah State's Felipe Acosta, 6-3, 6-7, 10-8 and a 6-4, 6-4 win over UT Arlington's Miguel Cabrera. He fell in the finals vs. Mazzuchi, 6-3, 6-4.
Gulin and Rodriguez also teamed up in doubles, splitting a pair, including a win over a squad from Texas A&M before falling vs. a doubles pair from the Sooners.
In Corpus-Christi, UTSA played four different draws, with Joao Ceolin (Palotina, Brazila) and Miguel Alonso (Veracruz, Mexico) winning their draws. Maxime Groysman (Bellevue, Wash.) fell in a final of his draw and Garrett Skelly (The Woodlands, Texas) won his back draw.
UTSA will return to fall action with the UTSA Roadrunner Invitational, hosted at the UTSA Tennis Center on Sept. 24-26.
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