Oct. 8, 2015
TULSA, Okla. – The Vanderbilt men’s tennis team suffered two hard losses during the opening rounds of main draw play at the 2015 Saint Francis Health System ITA Men’s All-American Championships.
Sophomore No. 49 Daniel Valent began his tournament journey in Tulsa, taking on Georgia Tech’s No. 21 Christopher Eubanks. A close match all three sets, Valent started off the competition securing the one set lead after defeating the Yellow Jacket 6-4. But after a few costly decisions, Eubanks would take the next two sets 7-6(5) and 6-4 to move on to the second round.
“Danny played a pretty good match today,” said head coach Ian Duvenhage, “one that he should have won, and he knows it. He made a couple of strategic mistakes late in the second set that cost him, and he got a little down because I think he knew that he had sort of blown an opportunity. And he got down early in the third set, but he will learn from it. Eubanks is a good player. This is the first match he’s played in four months, and under the circumstances I thought it was a pretty good match and he will learn from his mistakes.”
Valent, a native of Zurich, Switzerland will try his hand in tomorrow’s first round of back draw competition, where he takes on Virginia Tech’s No. 28 Andreas Bjerrehus at 1:30 pm CT.
In their first match as a tandem, No. 21 Rhys Johnson and Valent fell in the first round of main draw doubles to a tough Florida Gator team in No. 12 Maxx Lipman and Elliot Orkin.
“In doubles we just got outplayed. We didn’t play well enough to win, but most importantly we didn’t return well enough. So hopefully we can improve on that tomorrow.”
But the ‘Dores still have a chance to make an impact at this prestigious event, as they now begin doubles consolation play against some of the most talented teams in the nation. Friday evening Johnson and Valent will battle California’s 25th-ranked Andre Goransson Florian Lakat at 4:30 pm CT.
