TAMPA- The No. 66 University of South Florida men's tennis team competed in its first day at the Blue-Gray Invitational on Thursday. The Invitational is taking place at the Lagoon Park Tennis Center in Montgomery, Alabama and the Bulls took on No. 73 Virginia Commonwealth, falling to the Rams 4-0.
USF freshman Peter Frank and junior Romain Deridder started things out for the Bulls in their No. 3 doubles match against Max Wennakoski and Filip Svensson. Frank and Deridder fell to Wennakoski and Svensson 8-3.
Sophomore Wael Kilani and sophomore Yannick Yoshizawa competed in the No. 2 doubles position for USF against VCU's Krisztian Krocsko and Camill Salomon. After going up 6-4, Kilani and Yoshizawa would let Krocsko and Salomon come back and tie the match 6-6. Kilani and Yoshizawa went on to win the next two games, though, which gave them the 8-6 victory over Krocsko and Salomon.
With both teams having won one doubles match, it would all come down to the No. 1 doubles match to see who would have the 1-0 advantage heading into singles competition.
Senior Thomas Estrada and junior Jamal Adderley took on Thibaut Charron and Tim Johannsen in the No. 1 doubles position. The match was tied 4-4 before Charron and Johannsen would go on to win the next two games to make it 6-4. In the end Estrada and Adderley would fall to Charron and Johannsen, 8-5 which gave the Rams the 1-0 lead heading into singles competition.
No. 104 Kilani started singles competition for USF, competing against No. 55 Charron in the No. 1 singles position. In the first set Kilani fell behind 5-4 and Charron went on to win the next game which gave him the 6-4 first set win. In the second set Charron would beat Kilani 6-2 and with the win the Rams earned their second point of the day.
Deridder competed in the No. 4 singles position for USF against Wennakoski. Deridder fell to Wennakoski in two straight sets 6-1, 6-1. VCU now led 3-0 over the Bulls.
Freshman Juan Carlos Acuna Gerard took on Svensson in the No. 6 singles position. In the first set Svensson would down Gerard 6-2. In the second set Gerard was down 5-4 and would end up losing 6-4. With the win, the Rams earned the fourth and final point they needed to pick up the win over the Bulls.
Oljaca competed in the No. 5 singles spot for USF against Salomon. After being down 3-4 in the first set, Oljaca would fight back and win the first set 6-4. In the second set things were tied 3-3 before the match was stopped.
Adderley competed against Krocsko in the No. 2 singles spot. Adderley beat Krocsko 6-3 in the first set. Adderley was down 5-4 in the second set when the match was stopped.
Frank also competed in singles action for the Bulls in the No. 3 singles spot against Johannsen. Frank lost the first set to Johannsen 6-4 and was down 1-0 in the second set when the match was ended.
The Bulls will be back in action on Friday when they compete in their second day at the Blue-Gray Invitational. USF will play at 8:30 a.m. on Friday and the results of today's matches will determine who the Bulls will play tomorrow.
To keep up to date on the action at the Blue-Gray Invitational you can visit their website at www.bluegraytennis.com. Radio tennis is also doing a live broadcast of all the action at the Blue-Gray Invitational and you can access their live broadcast by visiting their website at www.radiotennis.com.
