DRAWS
ROME, Ga. – Indraneel Raut became the newest All-American in the storied history of Gustavus men’s tennis on Thursday. Raut, the Midwest Region runner up, won his first round singles match at the newly expanded ITA Cup, advancing to the round of eight and earning All-America honors.
Raut defeated Matthew Michibata of The College of New Jersey 6-2, 6-3. He then was paired with defending national champion Boris Sorkin of Tufts and lost 6-0, 6-3. Raut continues play at 8 a.m. Friday against Jake Zalenski of Kenyon.
The Gustavus doubles team of Michael O’Neil and Daniel Fouchier, who won the Midwest Region title, drew the No. 2 seed from Redlands, Bradley Cummins and Brysi Libao, and lost in three sets 6-4, 4-6, 10-4. O’Neil and Fouchier will play Josh Belandres and Sorkin of Tufts at 12:15 p.m. Friday.
”Indraneel played an excellent opening match today,” Head Coach Tommy Valentini said. “He was poised and composed, and stayed very positive throughout some tense moments in each set to beat a quality opponent. He executed his game plan very well and handled the moment well. For him to earn All-American honors by virtue of the win is special for him and for our program. He ran into a very strong opponent from Tufts in the quarters. Despite the loss he played better and better as the match went on and did well to get himself a look late in the second set. Overall, he continues to make great progress in all facets of his game, and he’ll look to take advantage of another match against top level national competition tomorrow.
”In the doubles, Michael and Daniel came up just short in the result column against a very good Redlands pair. Despite the tough loss, I couldn’t be more pleased with how well they fought back after at every challenging turn in the match. They returned beautifully all day, and did a lot of really good things tactically while playing with good energy. They learned a lot in this one, and will have two more fun opportunities tomorrow. It was a successful first day at the ITA Cup, and we look forward to getting back at it again tomorrow.”
