Redbirds Wrap Up Play At River Forest Collegiate Tennis Invitational

RIVER FOREST, Ill. – It was a busy weekend of action at the River Forest Collegiate Tennis Invitational for the Illinois State men's tennis team, as the Redbirds came away with several big wins and flight championships at the two-day clay court tournament held at the River Forest Tennis Club and the Oak Park Tennis Center.

"I couldn't be happier with how we performed this weekend," ISU head coach Mark Klysner said. "Entering a tournament, you always just hope to compete hard and try and play some quality tennis, but the guys completely exceeded my expectations. We won several flights and picked up a ton of wins over the two days. Our new additions played great and learned a lot about what college tennis is all about. I'm very excited to see what this team can do this year."

In the first day of action on Friday, the Redbirds went 3-2 in doubles matches and a combined 14-6 in singles matches to set up several championship matches on the final day of action on Saturday.

In singles flight No. 3, a pair of Redbirds faced off for the championship as both Arvid Hjalte and newcomer Emiliano Gonzales advanced to the championship with two wins each on Friday. In the championship match, it was the veteran Hjalte who came out on top 6-3, 6-3 over his new teammate to take home the title.

Newcomer Adrian Dibildox also took home a title in his first tournament as a Redbird, as he defeated Colin Scruggs of Washington University by a score of 1-6, 6-4, 10-5 to win the singles flight No. 4 crown. Another newcomer, Tin Ostro, won the third-place match in flight No. 5 over UIC's Artem Iermolov 3-6, 6-1, 10-6 to round out his solid debut for the Redbirds. 

In flight No. 6, newcomer Dominic Anderson came up just short in the championship match, falling to Jai Vallurupalli of UIC 6-4, 7-6 (2) to come in second. Also in flight No. 6, Tomás Valencia defeated Sansh Kumar of Saint Louis, 6-1, 6-0, to take home third-place. Then in flight No. 7, both Caden Scarlett and Ming Chieh Chiu both went 3-0 on the weekend for the Redbirds.

In the doubles flights, the duo of Nam Pham and Valencia took down the team of Cameron and Dinkov from Eastern Illinois by a score of 6-4 to win the flight No. 3 title. In flight No. 2, the duo of Adrian Dibildox and Ostro came up short in their championship match to Northern Illinois' Valentinsso and Kostchojan. Rounding out the great final day, the duo of Scarlett and Chiu took down Fakouri and Ouyang of Washington University, 6-2, to finish 3-0 as a pair on the weekend.

The Redbirds are back in action October 1-4 at the ITA All-Americans Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Final Results

Singles
No. 1 -     Phuc Huynh (WU) def. Nam Pham (ISU) 7-6 (5), 6-3
                Sven Moser (DPU) def. Nam Pham (ISU) 6-7 (5), 6-3, (6)
                Nam Pham (ISU) def. Cameron Slabbert (EIU) 6-2, 6-4
No. 2 -     Leon Huck (DPU) def. Melker Isaksson (ISU) 6-4, 6-4
               Mikael Vollbach (NIU) def. Melker Isaksson (ISU) 6-0, 7-5
               Melker Isaksson (ISU) def. Tyler Carlin (EIU) 4-6, 6-2, 10-6
No. 3 -     Arvid Hjalte (ISU) def. Ammar Wazir (UIC) 6-1, 6-1
                Arvid Hjalte (ISU) def. Armin Kostchojan (NIU) 6-1, 6-4
               Emiliano Gonzales (ISU) def. Eliott Ekindi (SLU) 6-3, 6-2
               Emiliano Gonzales (ISU) def. Jona Gitchel (DPU) 7-6, 6-4
                Arvid Hjalte (ISU) def. Emiliano Gonzales (ISU) 6-3, 6-3 (Championship Match)
No. 4 -     Adrian Dibildox (ISU) def. Chris Norlin (NIU) 4-6, 6-2, (9)
                Adrian Dibildox (ISU) def. Pau Riera (EIU) 6-0, 6-7, (4)
                Adrian Dibildox (ISU) def. Colin Scruggs (WU) 1-6, 6-4, 10-5 (Championship Match)
No. 5 -     Tin Ostro (ISU) def. John Fakouri (WU) 6-4, 4-6, (3)
                Iker Gambitze (NIU) def. Tin Ostro (ISU) 6-0, 6-0
                Tin Ostro (ISU) def. Artem Iermolov (UIC) 3-6, 6-1, 10-6 (3rd Place Match)
No. 6 -     Dominic Anderson (ISU) def. Luiz Dos Santos (UIC) 6-1, 4-6, (4)
                Dominic Anderson (ISU) def. Sansh Kumar (SLU) 6-3, 2-6, (4)
                Jai Vallurupalli (UIC) def. Dominic Anderson (ISU) 6-4, 7-6 (2) (Championship Match)
                Tomás Valencia (ISU) def. Scott Yamamoto (WU) 7-6 (6), 6-2
                Jai Vallurupalli (UIC) def. Tomás Valencia (ISU) 6-4, 3-6, (5)
                Tomás Valencia (ISU) def. Sansh Kumar (SLU) 6-1, 6-0 (3rd Place Match)
No. 7 -     Caden Scarlett (ISU) def. Max Pilipovic-Kljajic (EIU) 6-7 (3), 6-1 (5)
                Caden Scarlett (ISU) def. Jeremy Ouyang (WU) 6-3, 6-1
                Caden Scarlett (ISU) vs. Matias Maule (WU) 5-7, 6-4, 10-5
                Ming Chieh Chiu (ISU) def. Kyle Burton (EIU) 7-6, 6-3
                Ming Chieh Chiu (ISU) def. Jonathan Sadowski (SLU) 8-6
                Ming Chieh Chiu (ISU) vs. Elliott Dam (UIC) 6-4, 6-0

Doubles
No. 1 -     Tsai/Vollbach (NIU) def. Hjalte/Gonzalez (ISU) 7-5
                Hjalte/Gonzalez (ISU) def. Carlin/Wallace (EIU) 6-2
                Hjalte/Gonzalez (ISU) def. Deleu/Ekindi (SLU) 6-4 (5th Place Match)
                Cvjetan/Strandberg (UIC) def. Isaksson/Anderson (ISU) 7-6 (5)
                Deleu/Ekindi (SLU) def. Isaksson/Anderson (ISU) 6-4
                Carlin/Wallace (EIU) def. Isaksson/Anderson (ISU) 6-2
No. 2 -     Dibildox/Ostro (ISU) def. Ortis/Behun (SLU) 7-6 (5)
                Dibildox/Ostro (ISU) def. Knutson/Norlin (NIU) 6-4
                Valentinsso/Kostchojan (NIU) def. Dibildox/Ostro (ISU) 6-1 (Championship Match)
No. 3 -     Pham/Valencia (ISU) def. Sadowski/Munoz (SLU) 6-3
                Pham/Valencia (ISU) def. Kruzel/Wazir (UIC) 6-1
                Pham/Valencia (ISU) def. Cameron/Dinkov (EIU) 6-4 (Championship Match)
No. 4 -     Scarlett/Chiu (ISU) def. Kodali/Kumar (SLU) 7-6 (3)
                Scarlett/Chiu (ISU) def. Hays/Burton (EIU) 6-2
                Scarlett/Chiu (ISU) def. Fakouri/Ouyang (WU) 6-2

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