Two Cavaliers Advance in Singles at ITA Atlantic Regional
Oct. 21, 2017
LYNCHBURG, Va. – Two members of the Virginia men’s tennis team picked up singles victories while a doubles team advanced to the quarterfinals in Saturday’s action at the ITA Atlantic Regional, being held at the Cook Tennis Center and Hershey-Esbenshade Tennis Courts at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
Junior Aswin Lizen (Douglas, Isle of Man) and redshirt freshman Ammar Alhaqbani (Alexandria, Va.) both won their singles matches on Saturday to advance in the championship. Lizen picked up a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Penn State’s Gabriel Nemeth while Alhaqbani defeated Virginia Tech’s George Cartledge 6-3, 7-6 (5). Both players will compete on Sunday in the Round of 32 with Lizen facing Virginia Tech’s Feliksas Sakalauskas and Alhaqbani taking on Liberty’s Chase Burton.
In doubles, Lizen and freshman Matthew Lord (Bloomfield, Conn.), the No. 5 seed in the draw, picked up a pair of victories to advance to Sunday’s quarterfinals, edging George Mason’s Daniel Gutierrez and Pally Ray 8-7 (6) and then defeating James Madison’s Theophile Lauthiez and Paul Mendoza 8-4. Lizen and Lord will face top-seeded Constant de la Basseteire and Christian Lakoseljac of Penn State on Sunday at 9 a.m. in the quarterfinals.
Alhaqbani and freshmen Jefferson Dockter (Atlanta, Ga.) started the day with an 8-6 victory over Delaware’s Dustin Britton and Curran Verma, but fell to Richmond’s George Lovitt and Brice Polender 8-5 in the Round of 16.
Dockter and Lord also played singles Round of 64 matches on Saturday with Dockter falling 6-3, 6-2 to Temple’s Juan Araoz and Lord falling 6-3, 7-6 (0) to George Mason’s Edward Ayers.
Sunday’s action will feature doubles quarterfinals followed by the rounds of 32 and 16 in singles.
Live results from the matches will periodically be updated on Liberty’s website throughout the tournament. Those links will be posted on the schedule page of VirginiaSports.com.
The singles and doubles champions will automatically earn a spot at next month’s Oracle ITA National Fall Championships at Indian Wells.
The Cavaliers have won the singles title at the regional eight times, including J.C. Aragone, who won the title last year. Other Cavaliers winning the singles championship include Huntley Montgomery (2000), Dominic Inglot (2007-08), Jarmere Jenkins (2009-10), Harrison Richmond (2012) and Ryan Shane (2014).