Bulls Dominate Eagles, 7-0, in Season Opener
Fort Myers, Fla., Jan. 11, 2020 – USF men's tennis opened the spring season in impressive fashion with a 7-0 win at Florida Gulf Coast University on Saturday.
South Florida started in stride with doubles wins on courts two and three.
Ivan Yatsuk (Minsk, Belarus) and
Sergio Gomez Montesa (Valencia, Spain) cleaned up court three over FGCU's Carter Bradford and Guglielmo Stefanacci, 6-3, while the other courts continued.
Chase Ferguson (Melbourne, Australia) and
Pierre Luquet (Draguignan, France) closed up doubles play with a 6-4 win on court two against Juan Montes and Marcelo Tebet.
Up 1-0, the Bulls focused in on the singles courts ahead. Yatsuk earned the first singles point for USF with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Guglielmo Stefanacci on the fifth court.
In his first regular-season match with USF, recent transfer
Antonio Muniz-Hidalgo (Barcelona, Spain) extended South Florida's lead to 3-0 with a court four win, 6-3, 7-5, against Pedro Maciel.
Luquet secured the win with a 6-1, 6-2, run on court three against Feliksas Sakalauskas. Action continued on the remaining three courts with
Rithvik Bollipalli (Hyderbad, India) taking court six, 6-3, 6-4, against FGCU's Bradford.
With USF holding a 5-0 lead, Ferguson and Wojcik continued work on the top courts. Wojcik fought through on the second court to win, 10-6, over Marcelo Tebet while Ferguson closed the match with a 5-7, 6-1, 12-10 comeback victory against Felipe Ramirez on court No. 1.
Quotable
Head coach Ashley Fisher on today's shutout against FGCU:
"We couldn't be much happier with the performance tonight. It started with some terrific fundamental doubles with a lot of first serves and movement. The mindset across the board was amazingly resilient and optimistic. Singles we competed and executed well for the most part with the guys at the top doing a great job of toughing out some matches. We are taking a big picture mindset into each match early in the season and today our young men invested in the team and themselves."
Up Next
USF travels to Boca Raton, Fla., to challenge East Tennessee State University on Jan. 18 and FAU on Jan. 19. Both matches are set for noon starts.
About Men's Tennis
Be sure to follow USF men's tennis on social media (Twitter / Facebook / Instagram) and visit GoUSFBulls.com for the most up-to-date information. Head coach Ashley Fisher will begin his fourth year at the helm of the program for the 2019 season after leading the Bulls to their fifth American Conference Championship title.
– #GoBulls –
