Sept. 25, 2005
Athens, Ga. – The South Carolina men’s tennis team’s four representatives fared much better on day two of the Southern Intercollegiate Championships than they did on day one in Athens, Ga. The Gamecocks put up their first singles wins of the two day old season on Saturday, with sophomore transfer Yevgeny Supeko (Texas A&M) picking up two victories to advance to the quarterfinals of the top singles draw, while senior Geraldo Knorr advanced to the second round of the singles consolation bracket.
Knorr, who led the Gamecocks in singles victories two seasons ago, put up at 7-5, 6-3 win over seventh-seeded and 34th-ranked Oscar Posada of East Tennessee State, and advanced to the second round of the consolation bracket, where he will face James Eason of The Citadel, who fell to Martin Stiegwardt of Georgia Southern on straight sets on Friday. That match is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on Sunday.
Supeko, who is one of eight 9-16 seeds in the tournament, opened his USC career with a pair of singles wins, defeating David North of Georgia Tech 7-6, 6-1, and getting by Andy Mack of Vanderbilt in straight sets, 7-6, 6-4 to earn his way into Sunday’s quarterfinals. Supeko will take on Bram ten Berge of Ole Miss, who defeated Knorr in Friday’s opening round and upset 9-16 seed and 59th-ranked Matic Omerzel of host Georgia to get to the quarters. That match will take place at 10 a.m. Sunday, and the winner will face the winner of the match-up between sixth-seeded Jonathan Stokke of Duke and second-seeded and fourth-ranked John Isner of Georgia in the semifinals on Sunday afternoon, not to begin before 1 p.m.
No doubles matches were played on Saturday, and play will resume on Sunday, when USC seniors Adam Adler and Kazuya Otani will face Drew Bailey and Maciek Sykut of Florida State, not starting before 2 p.m. Adler and Otani both exited the singles portion of the tournament on Saturday, going down to Jordan Magarik of Vanderbilt and Mario Gil of Winthrop, respectively, in the consolation bracket.
The Gamecocks return to action as a team when they host the USC Fall Invitational October 14-16, on the courts of the Sam Daniel Tennis Center (Carolina’s home court) and several other facilities in the campus area. USC senior Tom Eklund will hit the courts for his first competitive match of 2005-06 when he travels to Tulsa, Okla. for the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Championships. Eklund qualified for the main draw via his current national ranking of 15, and his performance in 2005, when he helped lead the Gamecocks to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen and appeared in the NCAA Singles Championships.
