American Athletic Conference teams went 4-1 in the first round of the NCAA Division I Men's Tennnis Championship Saturday as UCF, Memphis, USF and Tulane all captured wins. Wichita State was eliminated from the tournament after a heartbreaking 4-3 setback in its first-round match.

UCF 4, Monmouth 0
The Knights made short work of the Northeast Conference champion Hawks as Trey Hilderbrand, Gabriel Decamps and Alan Rubio all took straight-set singles wins after UCF had taken the doubles point.

UCF, seeded No. 9 in the tournament, moves on to face Mississippi State Sunday at noon in the round of 32.


Memphis 4, Georgia Tech 2
The 38th-ranked Memphis Tigers earned their first NCAA Tournament win since 2014 with a 4-2 victory over 30th-ranked Georgia Tech in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship Saturday morning in Knoxville, Tenn.
 
The Tigers (10-8) will now face national No. 3 seed Tennessee (25-3) in the second round Sunday at noon CT. The winner advances to the Round of 16 in Orlando, Fla., on May 17. Memphis is playing in its seventh NCAA Tournament in the last nine seasons.
 
The Tigers picked up the doubles point to start off the match. No. 18 Oscar Cutting/David Stevenson won a contest against No. 19 Marcus McDaniel/Andres Martin of Georgia Tech, 6-2, and the Tigers' James Story/Jeremy Taylor defeated Brandon Freestone/Brandon McKinney, 6-3.
 
Two ranked matchups went Georgia Tech's way at the start of singles competition to give the Yellow Jackets (13-10) a 2-1 advantage. No. 28 Marcus McDaniel topped No. 58 James Story, 6-3, 6-2, and No. 46 Andres Martin bettered No. 102 David Stevenson, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2.
 
After that, the Tigers won three-straight courts in straight sets to earn the match victory. Pallares won on court four, 6-4, 7-5, Oscar Cutting followed with a court three win, 6-4, 6-4, and Pau Fanlo took the final point on court six, 6-4, 6-4.


USF 4, Duke 2
The University of South Florida men's tennis team defeated No. 32 Duke to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. After securing the doubles point, No. 31 USF went on to win three singles courts for the 4-2 victory .

Chase Ferguson (Melbourne, Australia) and Ivan Yatsuk (Minsk, Belarus) earned a ranked win over No. 21 Garrett John and Sean Skully, 6-2. New pair Manuel Goncalves (Porto, Portugal) and Alvin Tudorica (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) followed suit on court three versus Luca Keist and Andrew Dale, 6-2, to earn the doubles point. 

With the one point advantage, the Bulls carried the momentum into singles to clinch the match. Antonio Muniz-Hidalgo (Barcelona, Spain) earned the second point for the Bulls after his straight-set victory over Edu Guell, 6-4, 6-4. No. 63 Ferguson followed suit to defeat Scully, 6-2, 6-4. After dropping his second set, Pierre Luquet (Draguignan, France) maintained a strong hold against Keist, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 to officially seal a Bulls win. 


Tulane 4, Middle Tennessee 0
OXFORD, Miss. – The Tulane University men's tennis team collected a 4-0 win over Middle Tennessee in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center on the campus of the University of Mississippi.
 
The Green Wave advance to Sunday's round of 32 where they will face host and No. 15 overall seed Ole Miss at noon ET It will be the Wave's third trip to the second round in their last five NCAA Tournament appearances.
 
Tulane (15-7) found itself in an intense battle for the coveted doubles point, as Middle Tennessee (17-8) seized early momentum with a 6-1 victory on court two. The Green Wave used an early break on court three for a 3-1 lead, but the Blue Raiders pulled even at 3-3 and 4-4. Luis Erlenbusch and Fynn Kuenkler took control of the lines however to win the final two games for a 6-4 victory over Andreas Kramer and Francisco Rocha.
 
With all attention on court one, the 21st-ranked duo of Hamish Stewart and Ewan Moore were locked in a seesaw battle for control against 77th-ranked Pavel Motl and Stijn Slump. Trailing, 3-2, Tulane's duo held serve to tie before winning a crucial deuce point to break and take the lead, 4-3. That proved to be exactly what the Wave needed as they went on to win the next two games as well as they won, 6-3, to clinch the doubles point and give Tulane a 1-0 lead heading into singles.
 
The Green Wave kept the pressure on the Blue Raiders early in singles, capturing four first sets. Erlenbusch was quick to extend the lead to 2-0 in the overall match by closing out court three in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, over Tom Moonen. That lead increased to 3-0 a short while later when the 34th-ranked Stewart battled back from an early deficit in the second set to outlast No. 55 Francisco Rocha, 6-4, 7-5, on court one.
 
The win marks Stewart's sixth over a top-100 opponent during the 2021 season.
 
Middle Tennessee gathered a large sum of momentum from that point, forcing third sets on courts two and four, respectively, but Kuenkler and Rafael de Alba bounced back from lost first sets on courts five and six to force a third on their respective courts as well.
 
That's when freshman Billy Suarez took control in the third set on court four after splitting the first two frames, 6-2 and 4-6. Suarez earned two breaks in the first three games to build a 3-0 lead, but Middle Tennessee's Chris Edge countered with the same effort to knot the score, 3-3. Suarez settled in however to win the final three games and clinch the victory for Tulane.
 

Arizona State 4, Wichita State 3
Wichita State men's tennis showed their worth against the Pac-12 runner-up Arizona State, with only a tough break here and there giving the Sun Devils a 4-3 victory at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center during the first round of the NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament.
 
The pair of No. 40 Murkel Dellien and Marius Frosa performed well at the top in what was their last match as Shockers, winning the first court over ASU's Rakotomalala/Ruehl, 6-2. The point went down to a tiebreak on court three. Stefan Latinovic and Nicolas Acevedo couldn't hold onto an early lead in the first-to-seven decision, dropping the court 7-6(5.)
 
With the Shockers needing four courts for a win, Dellien ensured that he would contribute to the cause. The senior added one to his 12-match win streak and got the team on the board with a win over the Sun Devils' No. 84 Nathan Ponwith, 6-2, 6-2.
 
ASU won at No. 5 and 3 to take a 3-1 lead, but the Shockers were well positioned to make the match go the distance. Luka Mrsic was able to make it 3-2 shortly after by beating Christian Lerby at No. 6, 6-3, 7-5
 
Marius Frosa perhaps had the best performance of the day. He dropped a quick first set before battling out a seven game second set to tie the match. Frosa found another gear in the third set and gained the upper hand over Makey Rakotomalala, 1-6, 7-5, 6-2.
 
Nicolas Acevedo was in a dogfight with George Stoupe on No. 4. Acevedo won the first set and he had to fight back to force a tiebreak in the second set. Stoupe won the tiebreak and the two advanced to a third set. The third set went back-and forth, but Acevedo found himself up 5-4 and had three serves to clinch the match for the Shockers. Stoupe was able to break Acevedo three times and tie the third set at five all.
 
The pair ended up going to a tiebreak to decide the match. Stoupe went up two, and Nicolas responded with two straight points of his own. Acevedo won another two in a row, and Stoupe answered this run to tie it at four. Stoupe won the next two, giving him match point. Acevedo seemed like he was going to find a similar response after he won the next point, but Stoupe advanced to challenge Acevedo's return, forcing him to send the next one around Stoupe, where it drifted no more than an inch wide, clinching the match for Arizona State.