Guillermo Gomez had to prove Thursday that he deserved to be in the singles Main Draw at the Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Region V Men's Regional Championships. He did so by winning two matches in the Qualifying Draw of the tournament, held at the University of Tulsa, advancing to Main Draw singles play on Friday.
Gomez, the No. 4 seed in the Qualifying Draw, faced a Missouri Valley Conference opponent in the Round of 32.
Gomez defeated Marcos Queiroz of Southwest Missouri State in straight sets 6-3, 6-1. Later, in the Round of 16, Gomez faced another Valley opponent with the chance to advance to the Main Draw on Friday. Gomez played well once again, defeating Bojan Ilieuski of Southern Illinois 6-3, 6-0.
Head coach Greg Kennett said Gomezs determination is what made him play so well today.
He is playing inspired tennis, said Kennett. He has worked so hard in the last few months to get to this point and he showed the results today. Guillermo is playing well enough right now to win the whole tournament and hopefully that will rub off on his teammates for play tomorrow.
In other Qualifying Draw action, former Bloomington High School star Oscar Beich won his Round of 32 match to advance to the Round of 16, where he faced the No. 2 seed Nenad Curcic of SMS. After losing the first set 6-4, Beich fought back to take the second set 6-3. However, in the tiebreak, Beich just did not have enough and Curcic won 10-8, eliminating Beich from the tournament. Coach Kennett was also impressed with the play of his freshman recruit.
Oscar lost a tough match to a good player today, he said. He played extremely well and continues to improve, but just did not have enough at the end to pull out the win.
Tim Link and Yohann Nograbat were also in action in the Qualifying Draw. However, both were defeated in their Round of 32 matches and were eliminated from the tournament.
Gomez now moves on to Main Draw singles play where he will join teammates Djordje Uskokovic, Alban Renard and Alfredo Lagarda, beginning at 9 a.m. Friday with the Round of 64 matches. A second round of singles will follow and doubles play will get under way at approximately 4:30 at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
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ITA Regional Results Qualifying Draw
Round of 32
Karl Jones (NEB) d. Tim Link (ISU) 6-3, 6-3
No. 4 Guillermo Gomez (ISU) d. Marcos Queiroz (SMS) 6-3, 6-1
Paul Feder (SLU) d. No. 5 Yohann Nograbat (ISU) 7-5, 6-3
Oscar Beich (ISU) d. Omir Qayyan (ORU) 7-6, 6-2
Round of 16
Guillermo Gomez (ISU) d. Bojan Ilieuski (SIU) 6-3, 6-0
No. 2 Nenad Curcic (SMS) def. Oscar Beich (ISU) 6-4, 3-6 (10-8)
