FLUSHING, NY – A record-setting opening day was the theme for both St. Thomas Aquinas College men’s and women’s tennis teams, as four men’s singles players and one women’s singles player advanced through qualifiers to the main draw.
Sofia Shutko ’21 (Kiev, Ukraine) proved her worth as the number one seeded qualifier and advanced with an 8-2 victory to put four total players in the women’s main draw. On the men’s side, Mitch Harrison ’22 (Brisbane, Australia) ripped off an 8-1 opening round win before running into some trouble in the second match. Down 7-4, the prickly Aussie came back to force a tie break at 8-8, which he then won 7-1 to advance.
Tim Fleerkamp ’20 (Waalre, Netherlands) defeated his opponent from Dominican College 8-3 to advance to the main draw for the second consecutive year. Freshman Tony Khamassi ’23 (Cannes la Boca, France) burst onto the scene with an 8-5 opening round win, and continued his red hot play with an 8-2 second round triumph. Senior captain Enej Hasicevic ’20 (Palma de Mallorca, Spain) defeated his opponent 9-7 after both players received a first round bye.
In doubles action, all four women’s pairings advanced to the second round. Carla Mentrup ’21 (Munich, Germany) and Ayesha Burnett ’23 (Wellington, New Zealand) won 8-1, while Katarina Lopez ’20 (New City, NY) and Anna Ristova ’20 (Gothenberg, Sweden) won 8-3. Cassandra Rohr ’21 (Mallorca, Spain) and Maya O’Brien ’22 (Orangeburg, NY) had a walkover win, and Eliza Mulder ’23 (Schoonhoven, Netherlands) paired with Shutko for an 8-2 victory.
Men’s doubles saw Marcel Volz ’22 (Iffezheim, Germany) and Alvaro Barranco ’21 (Lleida, Spain) pair for an 8-2 win, while Harrison and Luke Taplin ’20 (Auckland, New Zealand) won 8-1 to make it three teams playing in the second round.
The eight men’s singles and four women’s singles main draw players breaks the previous records of four and two, respectively. In doubles, the four women’s teams breaks the previous high water mark of two, while the three remaining men’s teams bests the prior best of two.
Saturday’s slate will start off with women’s doubles at 8 AM, followed by men’s doubles immediately after.