Malibu, Calif. - UCLA freshman men's tennis player Mackenzie McDonald posted a straight-set victory in the quarterfinals of the men's singles draw at the 2013 USTA/ITA Southwest Regional Championships at Pepperdine University on Sunday.
McDonald, a 9-16 seed, downed USC's Eric Johnson, 7-6, 6-4 to earn a spot in Monday's quarterfinals. McDonald will meet third-seeded Alex Sarkissian of Pepperdine and the winner of that match will take on either UC Santa Barbara's Tobias Galskov or USC's Yannick Hanfmann in Tuesday'[s final.
Two other Bruin players had a chance to join McDonald in the semifinals, although Karue Sell and Dennis Mkrtchian both suffered quarterfinal losses on Sunday. Mkrtchian, the tournament's sixth seed, lost to the second-seeded Hanfmann, 6-4, 6-3. Sell, a 9-16 seed, was downed by the unseeded Galskov, 6-2, 6-4.
Mkrtchian and partner Clay Thompson are still alive in the men's doubles draw and will take on USC's top-seeded Roberto Quiroz and Ray Sarmiento in Monday's semifinals. Mkrtchian and Thompson, a 5-8 seed, beat USC's Robbie Bellamy and Jonny Wang, 8-6 earlier in the day.
Complete results from the tournament can be accessed on Pepperdine's TOURNAMENT CENTRAL page. The most up to the minute results for UCLA throughout the tournament can always be found on the team's twitter page: @uclatennis
