BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Led by Christoffer Greve and Egehan Sertkaya who both were 3-0 on the day, the Illinois State men's tennis team began their final tournament of the season on a strong note, collecting 13 wins at the second annual Redbird Invitational on Friday.
The Redbirds jumped to an impressive start at the Bloomington Tennis Center, winning each of their doubles contents. The Cameron Petersen-Brandon Lew duo topped its Eastern Illinois' foes, Kaisei Kuroki and Grant Reiman, in dominating 8-0 fashion, while Andreas Boers and Sertkaya gave up only a single game to Marquette's Brandon Shaklin and Alexander Warstler, 8-1. Greve and Manuel Bernhard rounded out the doubles with an 8-7 victory over EIU's Gage Kingsmith and Jared Woodson.
After a perfect 3-0 record in doubles, the Illinois State transitioned seamlessly to singles play, collecting 10 more wins on the first day of the Redbird Invitational.
Greve's success continued into singles play, picking up a 6-0, 6-0 victory over the Panthers' Kuroki. Lew mirrored his teammate with commanding 6-1, 6-3 scores over Kingsmith from Eastern Illinois. Sertkaya tabbed his second win of the day by coming from behind to defeat Julian Robinson of Marquette, 3-6, 6-0, 10-6. Petersen outlasted Eastern's Woodson, despite a first set loss, to win the contest, 4-6, 6-1, 10-5. Bernhard topped Marquette's Eddie Griesedieck in the first set, 6-1, but ultimately came up short in the final two, 7-5, 10-4.
In the afternoon session of singles, Greve maintained his winning ways with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Griesedieck. Lew added another dominant singles victory, 6-0, 6-2, to defeat Logan Charbonneau from Eastern Illinois. Boers logged his first singles win of the day, outlasting Robinson for the three-set win, 6-1, 4-6, 12-10. Bernhard did the same, topping Grant Reiman, 7-6, 6-4 for his first singles victory of the Redbird Invitational. Peterson and Sertkaya rounded out the Redbirds completion, collecting the final two wins, 6-4, 6-2, and, 6-4, 7-5, respectively.
The Redbirds wrap up their fall schedule with the final day of the Redbird Invitational, beginning 10 a.m. Saturday at the Bloomington Tennis Center in Bloomington, Illinois.
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