Cavaliers, Past and Present, Compete at Charlottesville Challenger

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Oct. 29, 2012

CHARLOTTESVILLE – Past and present members of the Virginia men’s tennis team are competing this week at the Charlottesville Men’s Pro Challenger, a $75,000 event on the ATP Challenger Circuit at the Boar’s Head Sports Club. Qualifying began Saturday and main draw play began Monday.

First-year Mac Styslinger (Birmingham, Ala.) advanced to the main draw with three wins in qualifying. On Monday, he downed Jeff Dadamo in the final round, 6-1, 1-6, 7-6(2). That result followed a 6-3, 7-6(2) win over No. 8 seed Carsten Ball of Australia, the world No. 441, in the second round. In the first round he posted a 0-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) win over Dragos Dima of Romania. He plays former Old Dominion All-American Izan van der Merwe in the first round of the main draw.

Six current Cavaliers and two alumni were in action Saturday to start qualifying. In addition to Styslinger, the five current Cavaliers in the draw, Jarmere Jenkins (College Park, Ga.), Harrison Richmond (Pawleys Island, S.C.), Justin Shane (Falls Church, Va.), Ryan Shane (Falls Church, Va.) and Julen Uriguen(Guatemala City, Guatemala), fell in the first round.

Sanam Singh (Class of 2011), the No. 3 seed in qualifying, opened play with a 6-4, 6-4 win over former UCLA standout Nick Meister, but fell to former Texas All-American Ed Corrie in the second round. Singh’s classmate Michael Shabaz (Class of 2011) fell in the first round to former Kentucky All-American Eric Quigley.

Main draw action began on Monday and junior Alex Domijan (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) fell to world No. 158 Tim Smyczek 7-5, 6-4. Later in the week three Cavalier alumni will be in action with two-time NCAA Champion Somdev Devvarman (Class of 2008) in singles, and Treat Huey (Class of 2008) and Drew Courtney (Class of 2012) in action in doubles.