ORLANDO, Fla. – In a tournament that features seven nationally ranked teams, two of the three lower-seeded squads came away with first-round wins on the opening day of the American Athletic Conference Men’s Tennis Championship Thursday at the USTA National Campus.
No. 5-seeded Wichita State, No. 7-seeded SMU and No. 3-seeded USF were the Thursday winners as those three join top-seeded UCF in Friday’s semifinal round.
Complete coverage of The American Tennis Championships, including live scoring of each match, can be found on the conference’s
Championship Central site. Live coverage of the women’s and men’s finals will be available on ESPN+.
Wichita State 4, Memphis 3
Records: Wichita State (15-7), Memphis (9-8)
Luka Mrsic won a third-set tiebreaker to cap Wichita State’s 4-3 win against Memphis Thursday morning, ending a three-hour, 35-minute match and sending the Shockers to the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference Championship.
The teams came into the match about as close to evenly matched as possible. Memphis was the No. 3 seed in the tournament and ranked No. 32 nationally, while Wichita State was the No. 4 seed and ranked No. 33.
Memphis had claimed the doubles point and built a 3-2 lead after Jeremy Taylor’s straight-set win at No. 5 singles. That left Wichita State in need of both remaining courts as Mrsic and Nicolas Acevedo were battling in third sets.
Acevedo did his part as he finished a 7-6 (1), 2-6, 6-2 victory at No. 4 singles, turning all eyes to Court 6, where Mrsic edged Pau Fanlo for a 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (5) victory.
Wichita State’s Murkel Dellien, who is No. 35 in the ITA singles rankings, won a battle of ranked players at the No. 1 spot as the No. 1 position as he took a 6-2, 6-3 win against No. 60 James Story of Memphis. The Tigers’ top doubles tandem of Oscar Cutting/David Stevenson, which is ranked No. 18, scored a 7-5 decision against the 39th-ranked tandem of Dellien/Marius Frosa.
The Shockers will face top-seeded UCF in Friday’s semifinals.
USF 4, Tulsa 2
Records: USF (14-9), Tulsa (11-12)
USF, the No. 3 seed in this year’s American Championship, improved to 18-1 all-time in the tournament with a 4-2 win against USF Thursday afternoon.
The Bulls advance to the semifinal round for the seventh time in seven years of American tournament play. Ranked No. 29 nationally, USF will face SMU Friday at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Chase Ferguson led the way for the Bulls as the nation’s No. 62-ranked player rolled to a 6-1, 6-0 victory at No. 2 singles and paired with Ivan Yatsuk for a 6-3 doubles win.
USF had built a 3-1 lead after the doubles round and singles wins by Ferguson and Antonio Muniz-Hidalgo. Tulsa, which scored its first team point when USF’s Jakub Wojcik retired from the No. 1 singles match due to injury, closed to within one on Callum Gale’s three-set win at No. 6.
The Golden Hurricane, ranked No. 43, forced third sets on the two final courts, but Yatsuk ended the match for the Bulls with a 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 decision at No. 3.
SMU 4, Tulane 1
Records: SMU (17-13), Tulane (14-7)
Seeded No. 7 in the seven-team tournament, No. 50-ranked SMU stunned No. 2-seeded and 19th-ranked Tulane 4-1 Thursday to advance to the American Championship semifinals for the first time since 2016.
The Mustangs won the doubles point, took the first completed singles match in straight sets and closed the match with a pair of three-set victories to improve to 17-13 on the year.
Tomas Vaise picked up the clinching point with an impressive three-set win against No. 23-ranked Hamish Stewart at No. 1 singles. Vaise dropped the first set, but bounced back to claim a 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory to start the Mustangs’ celebration.
Julian Steinhausen was a winner in both singles and doubles for SMU as he joined Jan-Simon Vrbsky for a 6-4 victory at No. 2 doubles before scoring a 6-1, 6-4 win at No. 6 singles.
Tulane saw its lone team point come from Rafael de Alba, who won in straight sets at No. 5 singles. The Green Wave fell to 14-7 on the year.
2021 AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN’S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
April 22-24 | USTA National Campus | Orlando, Florida
| First Round | Thursday, April 22 |
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| No. 5 Wichita State 4, No. 4 Memphis 3 |
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| No. 3 USF 4, No. 6 Tulsa 2 |
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| No. 7 SMU 4, No. 2 Tulane 1 |
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| |
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| Semifinals | Friday, April 23 |
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| Wichita State (15-7) vs. No. 1 UCF (19-3) |
3:30 p.m. |
| USF (14-9) vs. SMU (17-13) |
4 p.m. |
| |
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| Final | Saturday, April 24 | ESPN+ |
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| Semifinal winners |
3 p.m. |
all times Eastern