TULSA, Okla. — Doubles duo Hugo Coquelin and Henry Ruger highlighted the opening weekend of the ITA All-American Championships for the Vanderbilt men’s tennis team. The pair survived a back-and-forth match in round two of the prequalifying round to advance into the qualifiers on Monday.
Coquelin and Ruger took the court Saturday matched up against Calum Jestin and Will Pellegrini of Tulsa, grabbing a 6-2, 6-3 round one victory. They faced Aadarsh Tripathi and Rudy Quan of UCLA in round two on Sunday. After a quick 6-1 victory in the initial set for the Dores, the Bruins evened the match with a competitive 7-6 (4) set win. Coquelin and Ruger pulled away in a grueling match tiebreaker, downing their UCLA opponents 14-12.
The two did not see the same success in singles. Coqeulin suffered an opening round loss to LSU’s Julien Penzlin 6-3, 7-5. Ruger did notch a 6-3, 6-3 win over Hiroki Sakagawa of Cal, but lost to TCU’s Duncan Chan 1-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the next round. Seniors Michael Ross and Nathan Cox, coming off an SEC Challenge championship win, rounded out the singles roster for Vanderbilt in prequalifying. Like Ruger, both picked up opening match wins but could not advance past the second round. Ross defeated Alessio Basile of Oklahoma State 6-4, 6-2 before falling to Ohio State’s Christopher Li 6-4, 6-3. Cox outlasted Georgia’s Niels Ratiu 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in round one. The next round was a clash against Noah Schlagenhauf of Ole Miss, with the two going to consecutive tiebreaking sets. Schlagenhauf pulled out the victory over Cox 7-6 (8), 7-6 (4).
Despite the singles loss, Cox’s tournament is not over yet. He joins sophomore Danil Panarin in doubles as the pair begin in the qualifying round tomorrow. They take on South Carolina’s Lucas Andrade Da Silva and Jelani Sarr at 3:00 p.m. CT. Coquelin and Ruger continue their tournament run against Luca Staeheli and Martin Borisiouk of North Carolina State at 4:30 p.m. CT.
