Sept. 30, 2017
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The ITA All-America tournament began today with the pre-qualifying rounds for the Penn State men's tennis team. The Nittany Lions had four players overall travel to Tulsa, Okla. for the second tournament of the fall season.
Alp Sentay (Izmar, Turkey) and Christos Antonopoulos (Athens, Greece) were the first two players to compete for the blue and white this weekend. The tournament began with singles in the morning.
Antonopoulos found success in the first round defeating Western Michigan's Eric Olivarez 6-1, 6-3. In the second round of pre-qualifying singles, Antonopoulos was defeated 6-3, 6-4 by Chema Carranza of Wisconsin. Sentay took the court in the first round against Troy's Pelayo Antuna Meana, but was defeated 7-5, 6-2.
"I'm disappointed that Alp and Christos didn't go deeper in the draw," said associate head coach Paul Tobin. "Christos had a good first round match. His second round match was more competitive against the No. 4 player from Wisconsin. Despite Alp's success last weekend in Princeton, he struggled today. Hopefully he'll come back stronger tomorrow and go deep in the back draw. Both guys are still in the doubles qualifying which starts Monday."
Later in the tournament, Christian Lakoseljac (King City, Ontario) will represent the blue and white in the singles qualifying round and doubles main draw. The No. 118 ranked Constant De La Bassetiere (Reims, France) will represent the Nittany Lions in the main draw in both singles and doubles [with Lakoseljac].
The ITA All-Americans play will resume tomorrow and conclude Monday, October 9. Follow GoPSUsports and our social media pages for tournament updates throughout the weekend.
Keep up with the Penn State men's tennis team at GoPSUsports.com. For continued updates throughout the year, make sure to `like' our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pennstatemten and follow our twitter @pennstateMTEN!