Vanderbilt Men’s Tennis participated in the ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championship from Oct. 9-14, hosted by Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Multiple Commodores advanced through the rounds, but Pablo Martinez Gomez was the highlight for the team. Gomez won four straight matches in the tournament to make it to the championship round before he and his opponent — Indiana’s No. 71 ranked Sam Landau — mutually agreed to end the match and be named co-champions. Both earned a spot at the NCAA Singles Championship scheduled for Nov. 18-23 in Orlando, Florida.
Day 1
While six of Vanderbilt’s players already qualified for the first-round of the tournament, Tighe Brunetti, Donghyun Hwang and Cayden Wang all fought to qualify. Hwang survived the qualifiers and secured a berth to the first round, defeating Indiana’s Aidan Atwood 6-2, 6-3, before besting Chattanooga’s Martin Delnido 6-4, 7-5, 10-8. Brunetti also won his first match, handling Ball State’s Broc Fletcher 6-0, 6-3, before losing his second match to East Tennessee State’s Arenui Luethi 6-4, 7-6 (4). Meanwhile, Wang lost his first match, 6-4, 6-4, against Butler’s Riccardo Baldi.
Day 2
Three Commodores made it past the first round, beginning with No. 84 Gomez, who secured a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Eastern Kentucky’s Nuno Pinheiro. Hugo Coquelin downed Lipscomb’s Henrique Ushizima 6-2, 6-3, and No. 46 Danil Panarin advanced to the round of 32 after defeating Baldi 7-5, 6-2. However, four other Vanderbilt players — Jack Satterfield, Nathan Cox, Callum Markowitz and Hwang — all lost in the first round.
In doubles, Coquelin and Satterfield defeated Belmont’s Eli Mizerski and Morgan Woodson 8-3, and Brunetti and Wang defeated Ball State’s Zachary Kimelman and Jeremy Milette 8-6 to advance to the next round. Two other Vanderbilt doubles teams were downed and did not advance past the first round.
Day 3
On Day 3, both Gomez and Coquelin won two matches to advance to the quarterfinals, while No. 46 Panarin fell to Indiana’s Michael Andre 6-3, 6-3 in the round of 32. Gomez comfortably won his first match against Purdue’s Juan David Velasquez 6-2, 6-3, before winning a thriller against Middle Tennessee’s Ondrej Horak 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4). Coquelin easily defeated Nick Herdoiza of Xavier 6-2, 6-1, followed by a close match against Purdue’s Aleksa Krivokapic that ended with Krivokapic retiring with the score at 6-6 to send Coquelin to the quarterfinals.
Vanderbilt’s doubles teams split their matches in the round of 32, with Brunetti and Wang falling to Chattanooga’s Cortland Grove and Jakub Jupa in a close 8-7 (5) loss. However, Coquelin and Satterfield secured a round of 16 berth in a highly contested 8-7 (5) victory over Louisville’s No. 51 Walid Ahouda and Hamza El Amine.
Days 4 and 5
Gomez defeated Louisville’s Ahouda 6-3, 6-1 in singles to secure a semifinal berth. However, Coquelin’s tournament run ended in the quarterfinals, with a 6-4, 6-1 loss to Purdue’s Nour Fathalla.
Vanderbilt’s last remaining doubles team, Coquelin and Satterfield, were also defeated by Purdue with Krivokapic and Maj Premzl emerging victorious in an 8-4 match.
In Vanderbilt’s final match of the tournament, Gomez defeated Purdue’s Fathalla 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, to secure a finals appearance. Gomez and his opponent Landau then agreed to end the final and were crowned co-champions with both securing berths in the NCAA Singles Championship.
Vanderbilt will look to carry its momentum into the SEC-ACC Fall Challenge from Oct. 24-26 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
