College Tennis News - Zelezny and Chizever Fall in Flight Semifinals

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Sophomores Jan Zelezny and Geoffrey Chizever bid to reach the finals in their respective flights fell short Saturday losing in the semifinals on the second day of the Denver Invitational, a three-day tournament featuring players from 10 schools across the country.

Zelezny defeated Nick Couts of Utah in a tough 7-6, 7-6 in Saturday’s Flight A quarterfinals, however fell to Denver’s Adam Holmstrom, the No. 44 nationally ranked player in the semifinals, 6-4, 6-4.

Chizever, who won his lone Flight B match on Friday advanced to Saturday’s semifinals defeating Ayhan Oray of Nebraska early in the morning 6-4, 6-2, then lost a tough semifinal match to Arizona’s Jason Labrosse, 6-4, 6-4.

In doubles, Zelezny and Marek Dvorak upset the tournament’s No. 3 seed and the nation’s No. 42 ranked tandem of Shannon Buck/Trevor Johnson of Air Force, 9-7 in the Round of 16. The victory was short-lived as Zelezny and Dvorak fell in the quarters to Utah’s Nick Coutts/Jason Yap, 8-4.

Earlier in the day, CU dropped a pair of singles matches to ranked opponents in the quarterfinals. Air Force’s Shannon Buck, ranked No. 28 nationally defeated Dvorak 6-3, 6-2; and Holmstrom edged CU’s Peter Bjork 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

“Jan lost a very close match," said CU head coach Sam Winterbotham. "He competed and worked extremely hard. He also played well with Marek in doubles.”

Saturday’s play was the second of the three days of the DU Invitational. Along with CU and the host Pioneers, the rest of field is comprised from Air Force, Arizona, Baylor, Nebraska, New Mexico, Minnesota, Pepperdine, and Utah. The field features six players who carry preseason singles rankings and four doubles teams, as determined by the ITA.