Oct. 27, 2002

Sophomore Jesse Witten advanced to the semifinals of the 2002 Omni Hotels Region III Indoor Championships Sunday at the Hilary J. Boone Indoor Tennis Center in Lexington, Ky. He will face Auburn’s Rameez Junaid, seeded 4th in the tournament and ranked 18th in the country. Witten and junior Rahim Esmail fell in their round of 16 doubles match.

Witten faced Tennessee’s Mark Dietrich in Sunday’s quarterfinal match. Witten controlled the whole match, getting the victory, 6-0, 6-2. Dietrich was seeded 10th in the draw and is ranked 48th.

The Naples, Fla., native faced Junaid twice last season. In the first matchup, Witten, ranked 8th at the time, fell to the 24th-ranked sophomore 6-4, 7-5, clinching the 4-1 Auburn victory. They next met up in the SEC Tournament. Witten was up a set and leading in the second when the match was suspended because Auburn had clinched the fourth point on another court.

Esmail and Witten advanced to the round of 16 in the doubles draw Saturday night with a win over the No. 1 seed, Georgia’s Bo Hodge and Nicolas Boeker, ranked 8th in the country. In Sunday’s match, they fell down two breaks early and trailed Alabama’s Maxim Belski and Bradley Friedman, 7-2. They then held serve and broke Alabama’s serve to cut the lead to 7-4. Alabama closed out the match in the next game, eliminating Esmail and Witten.

Witten will play his semifinal match at 9 am ET at the Hilary J. Boone Indoor Tennis Center. The other semifinal match features Tennessee’s Simon Rea, unseeded in the tournament, against Vanderbilt’s Bobby Reynolds, the No. 2 seed. The finals will take place at 1 pm.

The winning doubles team, singles player and the singles finalist qualify for the Omni Hotels National Indoor Championships being held November 7-10 in Dallas, Texas.

Draws and results are posted HERE.

Saturday’s Results

Singles Main Draw – Quarterfinals

#1 Jesse Witten def. #10 Mark Dietrich (Tenn.) – 6-0, 6-2

Doubles – Round of 16

Maxim Belski/Bradley Friedman (Ala.) def. Esmail/Witten – 8-4