TULSA, Okla. – Illinois State senior Nam Pham played some of the best tennis of his career on Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as he picked up a pair of qualifying wins to advance to the round of 64 on Sunday at the ITA Men's All-American Championships at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center on the Tulsa campus.
Pham began the day by cruising to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Tulane's Billy Suarez and then came back in the afternoon to pick up a win over Tiago Torres of Texas-San Antonio after dropping the first set 4-6, and the rebounding to take the final two sets 6-0, 6-1 to move on in the winner's bracket. He will face LSU's Rudy Ceccon LSU Sunday in the qualifying round of 64 at 9:45 a.m. looking to move on.
"Nam had a fantastic day opening up with a win against a really good player from Tulane who has plenty of wins over nationally ranked guys," ISU head coach Mark Klysner said. "Then, he followed it up with what I would say is arguably the best match I have seen him play since becoming a Redbird. He took down the number one player from UTSA who is highly decorated as a player and Nam played unreal."
Hjalte battled in his qualifier taking the match to three sets against UC Irvine's Ali Amiri, but ultimately fell by a score of 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. He will play in the consolation round on Sunday at noon against Vasil Dimitrov of Louisiana-Monroe at noon.
"I couldn't be prouder of how Arvid and Nam played today," Klysner said. "Arvid gave it his all against a tough opponent from UC Irvine and honestly could have won the almost three-hour marathon, but I feel like he didn't have anything left in the tank towards the end of the third set. I'm looking forward to tomorrow and see if we keep this tournament going."
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