ST. PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s tennis doubles pair of Mohanad Alhouni (Sr., Tripoli, Libya) and Patrick Whaling (Jr., Manikob Sabot, Va.) defeated Brady Anderson and Nate Ackert of Coe College 6-4, 6-4 to claim the ITA Midwest Regional Doubles Title on Sunday at Swanson Tennis Center.
Day three of the ITA Midwest Regional Championships and Midwest Open completed on Sunday inside the Swanson Tennis Center bubble due to unfavorable weather. Both the singles and doubles draws were completed in the Midwest Open, while the ITA singles quarterfinal and semifinal rounds were finished.
After falling in the semifinals against St. Thomas last year, Alhouni and Whaling came back to claim the ITA doubles title. The Gusties’ top duo first defeated conference foes Leo Vithoontien and Jordon O’Kelly of Carleton prior to taking down Anderson and Ackert of Coe in the finals. Alhouni and Whaling will receive All-America doubles honors for the second-straight year.
“We’re certainly grateful that Alhouni and Whaling won the title and will advance to the Oracle Cup, but the weekend was really about our entire group,” said Head Coach Tommy Valentini. “To have six doubles teams through to the round of 16 and five singles quarter finalists is a great showing from our guys. Both Yassine Derbani (So., Casablanca, Morocco) and Chase Johnson (Jr., Golden Valley, Minn.) played strong singles matches against Alhouni today and Whaling competed with great toughness and came within a few points of giving us four singles semifinalists. Zach Ekstein (Sr., Eagan, Minn.) was also phenomenal and extremely poised in both rounds today.”
After the quarterfinal round of ITA singles play, the semifinal round was set with three of four Gusties. Alhouni defeated teammate Chase Johnson 1-6, 6-1, 6-1, while Zach Ekstein outmatched Anderson of Coe 6-4, 4-2 to set up the set up the All-Gustie singles final for the second year in a row.
“The guys stuck together and embraced a lot of tough moments today and every member of our team made great progress this weekend. We look forward to a great singles final tomorrow with Mohanad and Zach, and to build trust as a team based on our ITA weekend,” Valentini commented.
The Alhouni and Whaling pair moves on to compete in the ITA Oracle Cup Oct. 11-15 at Rome Tennis Center at Berry College in Rome, Ga.
“Mohanad and Patrick played excellent doubles today. They needed a high level in order to advance in both rounds. The Carleton team played very well and is extremely talented. The Coe pair truly was outstanding all tournament, and played a great final. We were fortunate to win in both matches,” said Valentini.
Alhouni and Ekstein will face off for the ITA Midwest Regional singles final tomorrow at 11:30 a.m.
Tommy and team: another extraordinary weekend of watching great tennis! Congratulations to all the Gusties – as a team and individually, you are amazing and superb representatives of your college and your sport. Well done!
Good luck in Rome!