Friday, 11/09/2012

LOS ANGELES – The Pepperdine men’s tennis team, with players competing at both the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship in Queens, N.Y. and the Southern California Intercollegiate Championship in nearby Los Angeles, was successful on both coasts today. Sebastian Fanselow represented the Waves on the East Coast, while David Sofaer was triumphant on the West Coast.

Fanselow (Essen, Germany/Kaplan College Prep), who hasn’t seen action since the Olympia Fields Clay Court Classic in September, jumped head first back into competition and faced #10-ranked KU Singh of Georgia. The two were well matched and battled one another all the way to a 6-6 tie in the first set.

In the tiebreaker, Fanselow rallied from behind and saved three set points to win 8-6 and take the advantage into the second frame.

The second set was a close replay of the first, but Fanselow was able to break Singh’s serve late to win 6-4 and advance to the second round.

Fanselow will face Julian Lenze of Baylor in tomorrow’s round of 16 match.

Meanwhile at the Southern California Intercollegiate Championship, Sofaer (Bellevue Hills, Australia/Sydney Distance Educational HS) was dominant in the qualifying rounds on Wednesday. He gave up just two games in his two matches played to gain entry into the main draw.

Sofaer won his third-straight in the opening round of the main draw on Thursday. The junior gritted out a close 7-6, 6-4 victory over Azusa Pacific’s Jochem Hoefnagels, the tournament’s No. 4 seed.

Damian Gryzelko (London, England/Saddlebrook Preparatory School) fell to Romain Kalydijian of San Diego, 6-3, 6-1.

Although more matches were scheduled for today, rain in the area postponed the action. Mousheg Hovhannisyan (North Hollywood, Calif./Continental Academy) plays his first-round match tomorrow versus Francis Sargeant of BYU to get the day started.

For complete coverage of the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship, visit the ITA Website or follow @PeppTennis and @ITATennis on Twitter. Draws and results for the Southern California Championships can be found here.

USTA/ITA National Indoor Championship
Nov. 8-11, 2012 at Flushing, N.Y. (USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center)
R32  #3 Fanselow (Pepperdine) def. #10 Singh (Georgia) 7-6 (8-6), 6-4

Southern California Intercollegiate Championship
Nov. 7-11, 2012 at Los Angeles, Calif. (Los Angeles Tennis Center)
Singles
Q-R1 David Sofaer (Pepperdine) def. Ganesh Alagappan (UC San Diego) 6-0, 6-0
Q-R2 David Sofaer (Pepperdine) def. Andrew Carlisle (San Diego) 6-1, 6-1
MD-R32 Romain Kalaydijian (San Diego) def. Damian Gryzelko (Pepperdine) 6-3, 6-1
MD-R32 David Sofaer (Pepperdine) def. Jochem Hoefnagels (Azusa Pacific) 7-6 (7-2), 6-4