Oct. 5, 2008
TULSA, Okla. – University of Kentucky men’s tennis freshman Eric Quigley won his first three matches as a Wildcat at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-American Championships Pre-Qualifying Tournament, hosted by the University of Tulsa, at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center this weekend.
Quigley, seeded 20th, was scheduled to open second round play Saturday morning after receiving a first-round bye, but instead the Pewee Valley, Ky., native won by default over Blaze Schwartz of Central Florida. The Wildcat finally got to serve in his third-round match against Utah’s Phillip Eilers, displaying no signs rustiness and defeating the Ute in straight sets 6-2, 6-3. In the fourth round Quigley bounced Matt Brewer of Tennessee 6-1, 6-3 to advance from the pre-qualifying portion of the Championships into the qualifying tournament.
Quigley moves on to face Jay Goldman of Arizona at 1:00 p.m. ET Monday. Quigley joins UK sophomore Brad Cox as a member of the singles qualifying draw. Cox volleys against Bradley Klahn of Stanford at Noon ET Monday. Should the Wildcats win, a second-round match would follow on Tuesday.
The Championships tourney lasts 10 days consisting of three inter-linked singles draws and two dependent doubles draws. The pre-qualifying singles tournament began Friday. Athletes must advance three rounds to make one of the 16 slots that move on to the subsequent qualifying draw of 64. The final 16 of the singles qualifying draw advance to play in the concluding 64-man main draw.
Four other Wildcats battled opponents in the pre-qualifier on Saturday. Freshman Patrick Bandy continued his momentum after a first-round win on Friday with a 6-1, 6-0 decision over Alex McCann of Middle Tennessee. In the third round, Bandy faced Texas A&M’s Kayvon Karimi but fell to the Aggie 6-4, 6-3.
Sophomore Alberto Gonzalez, the No.6 seed, defeated Wichita State’s Adrian Chermaci 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the second round to advance. Gonzalez battled Jordi Ballester of Jacksonville in the third round. After winning the first set 6-4, Gonzalez mustered just two games in a second-set loss to set up the decisive third set, but Ballester edged Gonzalez in the third, 6-4, to move on.
UK freshman Alex Musialek defeated Geza Bazula of Loyola Marymount cruising in two sets 6-2, 6-4 to punch his ticket to the third round. No. 16 seed Joey Burkhardt of Florida was Musialek’s opponent in the fourth round and the Gator proved to be too much for the young Wildcat, winning 6-2, 6-4.
Sophomore Will Beck battled Arizona’s Ravid Hazi in the second round but came up short in the battle of Wildcats 6-1, 6-3.
UK senior Bruno Agostinelli will play later this week in the singles main draw. He is ranked 19th in the ITA pre-season top-125 singles rankings.
Agostinelli and doubles partner Cox will also open play in a few days as part of the doubles main draw. The duo stands 15th nationally in the ITA pre-season top 50 doubles rankings. The pair kicked off 2008 in fine fashion winning the Southern Intercollegiate Doubles Championship last month.
Stay tuned to UKathletics.com for recaps of all Wildcat performances.
