Oct. 13, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio -
Muddappa Appanervanda and Jusso Ojanen advance to the final qualifying round of the ITA Regional Tournament at the Stickney Tennis Center on Thursday. They both won 2-of-2 singles matches.
Appanervanda defeated Harry Jadun of Michigan State, 6-3, 7-6, 7-4. He continued on to beat Youngstown State's Dawoud Kabli, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.
Ojanen won his first match against University of Chicago's Alan Reifer, 6-2, 6-4. He beat Jack Larsen of Wisconsin, 7-6, 7-3, 4-6, 6-1 in the second qualifying round.
Skip Span started out strong, defeating David Streeter of Detroit, 6-2, 6-4. He lost to Northern Illinois' Axel Lagerlof, 7-5, 6-1.
Willi Peter and Jacob Wilson lost in the first qualifying round. Peter was beat by Toledo's Byrant Dudzik, 7-5, 6-1 and Detroit's Alex Latosinsky defeated Wilson, 7-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Head Coach Cris James was impressed with the improvement in consistency of his players.
"We were much more consistent in our matches Thursday than we were in our tournament last weekend," said James. "Skip and Jacob lost to good players and played competitively. Overall, I was happy with how we did. Jusso and Muddappa played very well. Some of our newer guys need to play to their strengths and play away from their weaknesses more effectively."
Appanervanda and Ojanen will compete in the final qualifying round Friday at 8 a.m. Alexander Pelaez and Tuomas Manner will compete in the first round of the main draw Friday at 12 p.m. before teaming up to compete in doubles play that afternoon.
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