CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The first day of a very busy ITA Midwest Regional hosted by the University of Illinois is in the books and several Redbirds were in action looking to advance to main draw play on Friday.
The Redbirds would see split court action as three of the 'Birds (Hjalte, Gonzales, Isaksson) would compete inside the Atkins Tennis Center while Dibildox and Cuchran would be playing at the Dodds Tennis Center in Urbana-Champaign.
"Today was a good day overall as we picked up some really great wins," ISU head coach Mark Klysner said. "Arvid has been playing extremely well this fall and kept it up today winning a tough opening round match followed by taking down the number five seed in straight sets thereafter."
After two rounds of singles qualifying, senior Arvid Hjalte lives to fight another day to lead the charge on Thursday. First, the Sweden native faced Jason Hsiang Lee of Northern Illinois. With a clean 6-3, 6-1 victory, Hjalte secured a spot in the round of 32 as he would face Notre Dame's Braeden Ho later in the afternoon.
Against Ho, Hjalte would start off strong once again, winning the first set 6-4. Then, in a true thriller, it was the 'Birds taking a nail-biting 7-6 decision in set two to move onto the next round of competition. After a 2-0 day to start the ITA Midwest Regionals, Hjlate will now Adam Kovac (TOL) in the round of 16 Friday morning.
Meanwhile, junior Emiliano Gonzales would fare just as well as Hjalte after taking home a 7-6, 6-2 victory in the round of 64 against Thomas Wallace of EIU. This set up Gonzales to face off against Krzystof Wetoszka of Toledo in the second round.
Wetoskza would get off to a dominant start against Gonzales, taking the first set 6-0 before wrapping things up with a 6-2 result in the second set to take the match.
"It was awesome to see new members, Adrian and Emiliano pick up some big wins this morning before losing this afternoon in tight matches," Klysner said. "Hopefully we can continue playing this way for the rest of the weekend."
As the 'Birds were split between the two facilities, the final athlete for ISU inside Atkins would be Melker Isaksson against Armin Koschtojan of NIU. Thursday saw a straight set defeat for the Sweden native, falling 6-4, 6-0 to Koschtojan.
Meanwhile, both Adrian Dibildox and Dominick Cuchran would be competing at the Dodds Tennis Center. Dibildox faced EIU's Pau Riera while Cuchran went up against Kade Mindry of Cleveland State.
It would be Dibildox taking a 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 win in the morning over Riera before falling 7-5, 1-6, 1-6 to Jameson Corsillo of Notre Dame in the afternoon session. For Cuchran, it would be a 6-3, 6-4 result in favor of Mindry.
Qualifying singles action continues Friday morning at 8 a.m., followed by the doubles main draw beginning at 10:30 a.m. Links to live stats and live video are available at fightingillini.com.
Singles Round 1 Results:
Nam Pham (ISU), Bye
Arvid Hjalte (ISU) def. Jason Hsiang Lee (NIU) 6-3, 6-1
Emiliano Gonzales (ISU) def. Thomas Wallace (EIU) 7-6, 6-2
Armin Koschtojan (NIU) def. Melker Isaksson (ISU) 6-4, 6-0
Adrian Dibildox (ISU) def. Pau Riera (EIU) 4-6, 6-0, 6-2
Kade Mindry (CSU) def. Dominick Cuchran (ISU) 6-3, 6-4
Singles Round 2 Results:
Arvid Hjalte (ISU) def. Braeden Ho (ND) 6-4, 7-6
Krzystof Wetoszka (TOL) def. Emiliano Gonzales (ISU) 6-0, 6-2
Jameson Corsillo (ND) def. Adrian Dibildox (ISU) 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.
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