Mohaned Alhouni won his first round match at the USTA/ITA National Small College Championships this morning. (Photo courtesy of the ITA)
SUMTER, S.C. – Gustavus Adolphus men’s tennis player Mohaned Alhouni (So., Tripoli, Libya) earned a victory in his first round matchup at the 2015 USTA/ITA National Small College Championships at the Palmetto Tennis Center on Thursday morning. Alhouni defeated Carnegie Mellon’s Abhishek Alla, the tournament’s No. 3 seed 6-1, 7-5 to advance to Friday’s semifinal round. There, Alhouni will take on Noah Farrell of Middlebury College.
“Winning my match today really helped me build confidence in my game and made me believe that I can hang with the top players in the nation,” said Alhouni. “I have been playing great tennis lately, and hopefully I can keep it up. Preparing for the match was definitely different, both mentally and physically. But when the time came, I think Coach Valentini had prepared me really well with different patterns and had me ready to play against Abhishek’s unique style of play. I had to make major adjustments throughout the match by mixing it up with both slice and topspin, and doing that helped me stay in control and come out on top.”
“This is a great step for Mo,” said Coach Tommy Valentini. “Obviously at this step, everyone you face is elite, so for Mo to come through in the result column today is a great accomplishment. More importantly though, the match represents him being able to be calm and positive as he came down the stretch in a tough second set. It’s also a really wonderfully performance in terms of him adjusting his strategy to deal with a really difficult set of questions and problems that Abhishek presents to anyone he plays. Abhishek is a fantastic player whose resume speaks for itself, so for Mo to trust himself and his adjustments is big for him.”
Farrell also defeated a seed to advance to the semifinals, as he defeated No. 2 seed Nicolas Chua of the University of Chicago 6-2, 6-2. Alhouni and Farrell will compete at 10:30 a.m. Friday, with the winner advancing to Saturday’s championship round and loser heading to the third place match.
For more information on the USTA/ITA National Small College Championships, follow the link to the tournament website.