Cerundolo Tops Ranked Foes in Gamecock Debut
Sept. 22, 2017
COLUMBIA, S.C. – In his first competition representing South Carolina, freshman Francisco Cerundolo picked up two wins against ranked opponents to lead Gamecock men’s tennis in its first weekend of competition. With the team spread across a pair of tournaments for the weekend, #28 Gabriel Friedrich picked up a pair of single wins and teamed with Cerundolo for a doubles victory at the Gator Ranked +1, while Thomas Mayronne notched a singles win for the Gamecocks at the Ivy Plus.
South Carolina shined at the Gator Ranked +1 in Gainesville, Fla., with Friedrich and Cerundolo starting the day off with an 8-3 doubles win from over Illinois’ Noe Khliff and Aleks Kovacevic. The two continued their success in the first two rounds of singles, with Cerundolo defeating #80 Kovacevis of Illinois (6-3, 6-3) then #17 Timo Stodder of Tennessee (3-6, 6-3, 7-6). Friedrich, seeded second in his bracket, started strong with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Kentucky’s Jake Stefanik before defeating Tulsa’s Tyler Schick (6-4, 6-4).Sophomore Paul Jubb also competed in the Gator Ranked +1 singles tournament, but fell after a tough battle to #74 Chris Morin-Kougoucheff of Louisville, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (2).
The Gamecocks competing at the Ivy Plus in Princeton, N.J., also started the day with doubles, as Yancy Dennis and Thomas Brown took on Kenny Tao and Lucas Koelle from Harvard, falling 8-5. Mayronne rallied for South Carolina, recording his first win of the fall season over Jean Thirouin from Harvard (6-0, 6-3). Wood Benton, Dennis and Brown also competed in singles, but fell in the first round. Benton lost to Damian Rodriguez of Princeton (6-4, 6-4), Dennis to Ryan Seggerman of Princeton (7-6, 6-3) and Brown to Max Fliegner of Dartmouth (6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-5).
Singles and doubles action in both tournaments resumes on Saturday. At the Gator Ranked +1, Cerundolo and Friedrich will play Florida’s McClain Kessler and Chase Perez-Blanco at 9 a.m. to open two rounds of doubles play. In the singles competition, Cerundolo will play Johannes Ingildsen (Florida) at 1:30 p.m. and Friedrich will play Giovanni Oradini (Mississippi State) at 1:30 p.m. At the Ivy Plus, Mayronne will play Luca Wiedenmann (Tennessee) at 8:30 a.m.
