The University of Nevada men’s tennis team notched eight victories on the first day of the ITA Mountain Regionals on Wednesday.
Starting a six-win singles day for the Wolf Pack was Fernando Sunago, as he defeated Alex Lineberry of Air Force Academy in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.
“Fernando came out strong with a solid first set, but the he got down 4-1 in the second and decided to restart his engines,” Nevada head coach Erik Burton said. “He cruised in the next five games to win the set and match.”
The second win came from Moez Echargui, who has been suffering from a pulled muscle. He was able to fight through his injury after losing the first set to come from behind and win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 against Kester Black of Northern Arizona University.
“In Moez’s situation he really has to grab onto all the mental stability he can with his situation, but he had a strong finish today,” Burton said.
In his first match of the season, Quentin Mege earned a victory for the Wolf Pack. He overcame Preben Bjorne of Denver University 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the next round.
“This was his first match of the season off of injury, but his timing was there and he has an all-around game that he can rely on, and it works,” Burton said.
Ryan Andrada contributed a victory of his own, coming from behind to defeat Semion Branzburg of the University of Montana 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.
In the singles consolations, Philip Hinojosa defeated Zeno Kastelic of Utah State University 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the second round.
After dropping his first match of the day, Andrew Poustie rebounded to defeat Caio Pointena of Weber State University in his consolation first round match 4-6, 6-0, 6-0.
“Andrew did not have a good start in singles today,” Burton said. “As a freshman, he will learn about consistency at this level. You have to be reliable day after day, or it will be tough to have more good days than bad.”
In doubles, Ouvrard and Sunago cruised into the next round with a 8-2 win over Kastelic and his partner Curran Wearmouth of Utah State.
Echargui and Poustie also scored a doubles victory with a win over Eduardo Cabrita and Strahinja Trecakov of New Mexico State 8-5.
Play continues on Thursday morning with two rounds of singles play.
