Tulsa Men's Tennis Earns Two Consolation Wins at Saint Francis All American
10/7/2016 5:30:00 PM | Men's Tennis
TULSA, Okla. – The University of Tulsa Men's Tennis team wrapped up play at the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All American on Friday afternoon against high-level competition, competing in two singles matches and one doubles match on the day.
No. 25 Or Ram-Harel battled Ohio State's No. 33 Hugo Di Feo in the Round of 32 of the Main Draw in the morning, falling in three sets 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Ram-Harel looked to respond in the first set after having his serve broken early by forcing deuce in the seventh game of the set, but could not convert on the game deciding point. The senior would convert on multiple chances to break Di Feo's serve in the second set, breaking his final two serves to take the set 6-4. Both players held serve through the first six games of the match-deciding third before Di Feo took advantage by breaking Ram-Harel's serve in the seventh game. In the 10th, Ram-Harel had two break points before Di Feo forced a deuce and eventually took the set and match.
After dropping his opening match against a top-20 opponent in the main draw on Thursday, No. 112 Majed Kilani responded with a strong performance against Alex Keyser of Columbia, taking the match in straight sets 6-3, 6-1. Kilani will continue his play through the consolation bracket tomorrow when he takes on California's Andre Goransson at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow morning.
Dominic Bechard and Francois Kellerman battled a ranked doubles squad for the second straight match on Friday afternoon, defeating South Carolina's No. 16-ranked duo of Gabriel Friedrich and Harrison O'Keefe 6-7 (5), 6-3, 1-0 (3). The Tulsa due saw break point in the second game of the first set, but fell at deuce before fighting off two USC break points in the following game to stay ahead 2-1. Bechard and Kellerman rallied from down 40-15 in the to force a tiebreak, but would drop the set 7-6 (5).
Both squads broke their opponent's serve to open the second set before Bechard and Kellerman broke the final two USC serves to take the set 6-3. With the match-deciding tiebreak knotted at 1-1, Bechard returned a serve that was out of the reach of O'Keefe, painting the left sideline to go ahead and start a 4-0 run that found TU ahead 5-1. The Hurricane pair went on to win the tiebreak in dominant fashion, 10-3.
Bechard and Kellerman will take on Stanford's Tom Fawcett and David Wilcyznski tomorrow after 4 p.m.
Players Mentioned
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