John Kauss and Mike Burdakin, members of the Gustavus men’s tennis team, had a strong showing at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Small College Championships on Thursday. Kauss moved on to the semifinal round in singles play, while Kauss teamed up with Burdakin to advance to the finals in doubles. Kauss enters the singles draw seeded fourth, while Burdakin and Kauss are unseeded in doubles. The tournament is being held at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center in Mobile, Alabama.
In singles play, John Kauss advanced to the semifinal round by virtue of a walkover against Matt Solomon of Whitman. Kauss will face John Watts of Washington University (MO) in a semifinal match on Friday at 10:30 am EDT. Watts defeated Max Liberty-Point of UC-Santa Cruz earlier in the day 6-2, 6-2.
In doubles play, Mike Burdakin and Kauss defeated the fourth-seed team of Ilya Gendeliman and Max Liberty-Point of UC-Santa Cruz in the quarterfinals 6-3, 6-1. The duo then knocked off top-seed Charlie Cutler and Chris Hoeland of Washington University (MO) 5-7, 7-6 (5), 1-0 (10-5) in the semifinal round later in the afternoon. Burdakin and Kauss will now face Chris Goodwin and Michael Goodwin of Emory in the Division III championship on Friday at 4:30 pm EDT.