On the opening weekend of the ITA All-American Championships, the Vanderbilt University men's tennis Hugo Coquelin and Henry Ruger overcame a match in the second round of the pre-qualifying round to advance to the qualifiers today, Monday, September 23: Coquelin and Ruger continue their run at the tournament against Luca Staeheli and Martin Borisiouk of North Carolina State at 4:30 p.m. CT.
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Coquelin and Ruger took to the court on Saturday against Calum Jestin and Will Pellegrini of Tulsa, earning a 6-2, 6-3 victory in the first round. They faced Aadarsh Tripathi and Rudy Quan of UCLA in the second round on Sunday. After a quick 6-1 opening set win for the Dores, the Bruins leveled the match with a competitive 7-6 (4) set victory. Coquelin and Ruger broke away in a grueling tiebreaker, downing their UCLA opponents 14-12.
In singles, Coquelin suffered a first-round loss to LSUs Julien Penzlin, 6-3, 7-5. Ruger earned a 6-3, 6-3 win over Cals Hiroki Sakagawa, but lost to TCUs Duncan Chan, 1-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the next round. Seniors Michael Ross and Nathan Cox, fresh from SEC Challenge championship wins, rounded out the singles lineup for Vanderbilt in the pre-qualifier.
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Both picked up opening-round wins but failed to advance beyond the second round. Ross defeated Oklahoma State's Alessio Basile 6-4, 6-2 before falling to Ohio State's Christopher Li 6-4, 6-3. Cox topped Georgia's Niels Ratiu 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in the first round. The next round was a showdown against Ole Miss's Noah Schlagenhauf, with the two going to straight tiebreaker sets. Schlagenhauf picked up the win over Cox 7-6 (8), 7-6 (4).
Cox will now joinsophomore Danil Panarin in doubles, as the pair begin the qualifying round tomorrow. They will face South Carolina's Lucas Andrade Da Silva and Jelani Sarr at 3 p.m. CT.
