College Tennis News - Johnny Grimal Advances to ITA Qualifying Third Round

Senior Johnny Grimal used a straight set 6-4, 6-4 win over Mississippi's William Kallberg, the No. 15 seed in the bracket, to advance to the third round of the ITA Qualifying Draw, Tuesday afternoon. He will face North Carolina's Ronnie Schneider at 12:30 p.m., Wednesday.

The third round appearance in the Qualifying Singles bracket matches Grimal's career-best effort from last year, when he used a pair of wins over ranked opponents to advance to the third round, where he fell to another North Carolina player, Esben Hess-Olesen, missing the main draw by just one round.

In all, three Tigers were facing seeded players in the qualifying singles draw on Tuesday, but junior Connor Glennon and senior Joe Salisbury were not able to get past their seeded opponents. Glennon lost to Wake Forest's Adam Lee, the No. 31 seed in the bracket, 6-4, 6-4, while Salisbury lost to UCLA's Clay Thompson, the No. 21 seed, 6-4, 6-4.

Glennon's run at the ITA All-Americans also came to an end in doubles, as he and teammate Cedric De Zutter lost their first round Qualifying doubles match, 8-6, to the team of Brady Bohrnstedt and Sebastian Sachs from Oklahoma State.

Memphis' other doubles entry also fell short of advancing on Tuesday afternoon, as the No. 59 ranked duo of Grimal and David O'Leary lost 8-5 to the team of Diogo Casa and Yannick Junger from UT San Antonio.

In addition to Grimal's qualifying round singles match, the Tigers still have one entry left in the national tournament, with the doubles tandem of Salisbury and David O'Hare on slate to play in the main draw doubles, which begin Thursday.

The remainder of the team will begin preparation for another ITA event, this one the ITA Ohio Valley Regionals, hosted by the University of Tennessee, Oct. 11-15th.

ITA Qualifying DrawJohnny Grimal (Memphis) def. No. 15 seed William Kallberg (Ole Miss), 6-4, 6-4
No. 31 seed Adam Lee (Wake Forest) def. Connor Glennon (Memphis), 6-4, 6-4
No. 21 seed Clay Thompson (UCLA) def. Joe Salisbury (Memphis), 6-4, 6-4
ITA Doubles Qualifying Draw
First Round
Brady Bohrnstedt/Sebastian Sachs (Oklahoma State) def. Cedric De Zutter/Connor Glennon (Memphis), 8-6
Second Round
Diogo Casa/Yannick Junger (UTSA) def. No. 15 seed Johnny Grimal/David O'Leary (Memphis), 8-5