Over the weekend, Vanderbilt Men’s Tennis hosted the Black & Gold Invitational at the Lummis Family Tennis Center. The event, which was played in a round-robin format, included four teams that played each other in both doubles and singles: Vanderbilt, Memphis, MTSU and Georgia Tech. A few players from Belmont also participated. Four Vanderbilt duos participated in the doubles matches, while eight individuals played singles.
On Friday, Oct. 27, the Commodores faced Georgia Tech. Vanderbilt picked up two doubles wins before winning on just one of eight singles courts. Fifth-year senior Juan Lopez dropped his first set of singles 3-6 before winning the next two to avoid the sweep. The full results from Friday were as follows:
Doubles
Joubert Klopper/Michael Ross (Vanderbilt) def. Gabriele Brancatelli/Richard Biagiotti (Georgia Tech) 8-6
Rohan Sachdev/Robert Bauer (Georgia Tech) def. Lopez/Alexandre Hillhouse (Vanderbilt) 8-7 (2)
Mitchell Deames/Paul Wang (Vanderbilt) def. Alfred Wallin/Diego Castro (Belmont) 8-3
Elias Shokry/Owen DeMuth (Georgia Tech) def. Callum Rendle/Oscar Jensen (Vanderbilt) 8-5
Singles
Brancatelli (Georgia Tech) def. Klopper (Vanderbilt) 6-3, 6-4
Biagiotti (Georgia Tech) def. Ross (Vanderbilt) 6-4, 6-3
Lopez (Vanderbilt) def. Krish Arora (Georgia Tech) 3-6, 6-1, 7-5
Wallin (Belmont) def. Hillhouse (Vanderbilt) 6-4, 7-6 (3)
Shokry (Georgia Tech) def. Rendle (Vanderbilt) 6-7 (0), 7-5, 6-3
Castro (Belmont) def. Deames (Vanderbilt) 7-6 (6), 1-6, 6-3
Robert Bauer (Georgia Tech) def. Wang (Vanderbilt) 6-4, 6-1
DeMuth (Georgia Tech) def. Jensen (Vanderbilt) 7-5, 6-2
On Saturday, the Commodores faced Memphis. Vanderbilt was defeated on all four doubles courts against the Tigers and earned just one singles win, which came from Jensen, as he got the win over a Belmont player who was forced to retire during the second set. The overall results on Saturday were:
Doubles
Pablo Alemany/Charlie Barry (Memphis) def. Klopper/Ross (Vanderbilt) 8-6
Conor Gannon/Harry Rock (Memphis) def. Lopez/Hillhouse (Vanderbilt) 8-2
Moritz Kudernatsch/Mika Berghaus (Memphis) def. Deames/Wang (Vanderbilt) 8-7 (4)
Pau Fanlo/Sam Reeve (Memphis) def. Rendle/Jensen (Vanderbilt) 8-1
Singles
No. 35 Alemany (Memphis) def. Klopper (Vanderbilt) 6-1, 6-4
Gannon (Memphis) def. Lopez (Vanderbilt) 6-4, 6-3
Berghaus (Memphis) def. Ross (Vanderbilt) 6-1, 6-2
Fanlo (Memphis) def. Hillhouse (Vanderbilt) 6-2, 6-2
Juan Zabala (Memphis) def. Deames (Vanderbilt) 6-3, 6-3
Kudernatsch (Memphis) def. Rendle (Vanderbilt) 6-3, 6-2
Jensen (Vanderbilt) def. Niklas von Hellens (Belmont) 1-6, 5-3 retired
Ruben Busch (Belmont) def. Wang (Vanderbilt) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
Vanderbilt’s best performance came Sunday against MTSU, which was headlined by Klopper and Ross, who secured their second doubles win of the season.Vanderbilt also changed its doubles pairings for the final day of competition, swapping Rendle and Hillhouse to have Rendle play with Lopez on court 2, and Hillhouse with Jensen on court 4. Both teams lost, but Brown cited the need to mix up doubles teams while still in the fall season.
“I didn’t want to keep all the same teams together too much because I don’t know what we have for January,” head coach Scott Brown said of that decision. “I just wanted to see Juan [Lopez] and Callum [Rendle] together just to see how that dynamic works.”
Vanderbilt also changed its singles lineup, with Klopper sitting out of singles competition. The Commodores won on the top two of the seven singles courts.
“[Sunday] was the best day of the three days as far as taking care of the details and going about things the right way,” Brown said. “This is our first taste to see how it’s going to look in a dual match and I think we got on the right track today.”
Doubles
Klopper/Ross (Vanderbilt) def. Javier Cueto Ramos/Ondrej Horak (MTSU) 8-4
Shu Matsuoka/Karim Al-Amin (MTSU) def. Lopez/Rendle (Vanderbilt) 8-5
Leo Raquin/Igor Mandou Berranger (MTSU) def. Deames/Wang (Vanderbilt) 8-4
Demis Taramonlis/Kristian Thomas (MTSU) def. Hillhouse/Jensen (Vanderbilt) 8-0
Singles
Lopez (Vanderbilt) def. Horak (MTSU) 6-1, 6-4
Ross (Vanderbilt) def. Matsuoka (MTSU) 6-4, 6-4
Cueto Ramos (MTSU) def. Deames (Vanderbilt) 7-5, 6-3
Taramonlis (MTSU) def. Rendle (Vanderbilt) 6-2, 6-4
Mandou Berranger (MTSU) def. Hillhouse (Vanderbilt) 6-2, 2-6, 6-1
Al-Amin (MTSU) def. Wang (Vanderbilt) 6-4, 3-6, 7-5
Thomas (MTSU) def. Jensen (Vanderbilt) 6-4, 6-4
Vanderbilt will next compete in the ITA National Fall Championship in San Diego, Calif. The Commodores’ doubles team that qualified for the event at the ITA Regionals ― Jeremie Casabon and Nathan Cox ― did not play over the weekend in either doubles or singles. The event begins on Wednesday, Nov. 1.
“They’re not just happy to be there,” Brown said of that team. “They’re motivated, they’re taking care of the details, they’re doing a great job of getting prepared.”