September 17, 2011

TTU doubles pairings advance to finals of Tennessee Fall Tournament

Day two of the Tennessee Fall Invitational saw Tennessee Tech’s doubles team take center stage as the pairings of James Crawford and Vasily Eremeev, along with Alex Chen and Syrym Abdukhailikov, advanced to the finals of their respective draws

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Day two of the Tennessee Fall Invitational saw Tennessee Tech’s doubles team take center stage as the pairings of James Crawford and Vasily Eremeev, along with Alex Chen and Syrym Abdukhailikov, advanced to the finals of their respective draws.

Chen and Abdukhailikov opened the day with an 8-4 win over the Tennessee pairing of Peter Nagovnak and Taylor Patrick. With their win, Chen and Abdukhailikov will square off with the Xavier team of Richard Canelas and Marc Pretorius in the Goodfriend Doubles Finals Sunday.

Crawford and Eremeev kept things flowing for the Golden Eagles as defeated the UT Chattanooga pairing of Jordan Faith and Orlando Lourenco 8-2. Crawford and Eremeev are set to face the Eastern Kentucky pairing of Mesa Mei and Michael Moe in the Barksdale Doubles Finals.

In the doubles consolation, the TTU pairing of Ezequiel Gils and Justin Kirstein fell to the East Tennessee State team of Robin Asker and Rogerio Ribeiro 8-2.

In singles action, Abdukhailikov advanced to the finals of the Orange Consolation Draw. He earned a forfeit victory against Adam Lee from Wake Forest, to move on to a semi-final match against Davidson’s Ethan Kalik, whom he defeated in straight sets 6-4, 6-3. Abdukhailikob will now take on Wake Forest’s Daniel Kreyman in the consolation finals.

Eremeev fell in three sets to Davidson’s Kevin Moore. Eremeev dropped the first set 6-3, but responded quickly with a 6-0 second set victory. Moore recovered and took the deciding set 6-1.

In the Orange Singles Consolation Draw, Chen fell to Kreyman in straight sets 6-4 and 7-6.

In the Volunteer Singles Consolation Draw Crawford took the loss to Phil Diaz of Xavier in straight sets 6-2 and 6-1.

In independent matches, Justin Kirstein defeated Lipscomb’s Colby Shaw via a 6-0 first set victory, followed by a forfeit, while Gils took a three-set loss to Winthrop’s Chase Altieri 6-3, 2-6, 10-4.