Oct. 7, 2006
Santa Clara, Calif. - The Santa Clara men's tennis team continued its fine play during the season's opening weekend at the Bronco Classic. Sophomore Tommy Hicks, freshman Jay Wong and junior Blane Shields all won two matches on Saturday to advance to the semifinals of their brackets. Overall, the Broncos won eight singles matches in a long day at the Degheri Tennis Center.
Coming off his amazing win on Friday night, Hicks continued to impress as he won his Flight B Round of 16 match 6-4; 6-2 over Cal's Valclav Burger before grinding out a three-hour win over Anton Stryhas of Sacramento State 6-4; 5-7; 6-3. After winning the first set, Hicks moved out to a 5-3 lead in second set. Serving for the set, Hicks was broken and then battling cramps in both legs lost the final three games of the set to fall 7-5. Hicks recovered and found his stride again in the third set and pulled it out 6-3 to move on to the semifinals where he will play Stanford's Chris Rasmussen.
Also in the Flight B semifinals is freshman Jay Wong, who knocked out the draw's No. 1 seed David Chu (Washington) 6-2; 7-5. Wong has combined excellent movement with aggressive play to earn his spot in the semis.
Shields, a highly-touted doubles player, is showing that his singles play is also strong as he pulled out two wins in Flight C to move into the semifinals. His quarterfinal win over Ramon Perez of Sacramento State went the distance as he won 2-6; 7-6 (7-5); 6-0.
In the consolation bracket, sophomore Aneal Vallurupalli recovered from a close loss on Friday to beat UC Santa Cruz's Kian Fattahi 7-6 (7-2); 7-6 (7-4) in Saturday's final match.
All of the Broncos results from Saturday are listed below:
Flight A Singles Round of 16
(5) USF Matt Berry d. SCU (9) SCU Brian Brogan 7-5; 7-5
Flight B Singles Round of 16
(2) SCU Tommy Hicks d. CAL Valclav Burger 6-4; 6-2
(5) SCU Jay Wong d. CAL (9) Nicolai Horgen 6-3; 6-2
Flight B Singles Quarterfinals
(2) SCU Tommy Hicks d. SAC Anton Stryhas 6-4; 5-7; 6-3
(5) SCU Jay Wong d. WASH (1) David Chu 6-2; 7-5
Flight C Singles Round of 16
(1) SCU Blane Shields d. GON Marco Pineda 6-4; 6-2
(8) SCU Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong d. UCSD Ramesh Thondapu 6-3; 3-6; 6-4
Flight C Singles Quaterfinals
(1) SCU Blane Shields d. SAC (5) Ramon Perez 2-6; 7-6 (7-5); 6-0
(3) FP Marco Foelz d. (8) SCU Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong 6-4; 6-3
Flight A Doubles Round of 16
UCSB Hui - Therp d. SCU McQuaid - Shields 8-2
Flight B Doubles
CAL Horgen - Thorstensen d. SCU Hirakawa-Wong - Vallurupalli 8-4
Flight A Singles Consolation
Gon Roman Dojcak d. SCU Bobby Rasmussen 6-2; 4-6; 1-0 (7)
SCU Kevin McQuaid (withdrew, inj.)
Flight B Singles Consolation
SCU Steven Benvenuto (withdrew, inj.)
Flight C Singles Consolation
STAN Dave Ryan d. SCU Joe Galbraith 6-3; 6-2
SCU Aneal Vallurupalli d. UC SC Kian Fattahi 7-6 (7-2); 7-6 (7-4)
The Bronco Classic continues on Sunday at Degheri Tennis Center. For all the results from Friday's action, click here.
