Gojo, Koepfer, King Advance In Winston-Salem Qualies; Vukic Into Finals In Poland; ACI Field Announced; Arizona State Releases Non-Conference Schedule

Tagged with: Aleks Vukic, American Collegiate Invitational, Arizona State Men's Tennis, Borna Gojo, Dominik Koepfer, Kevin King, WinstonSalem Open

Wake Forest rising sophomore Borna Gojo is one match away from qualifying for the main draw at the ATP 250 Winston-Salem Open after he picked up his first-ever top 100 win on Saturday. Gojo, who entered the weekend with an ATP ranking of 808, held off Belgium’s Ruben Bemelmans (ATP #100) 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-6(6) in 2 hours and 29 minutes. Gojo fell behind 2-0 in the opening set before winning three straight and he’d eventually take the set in a tiebreak. Bemelmans forced a third set after earning the only break in the second at 5-3 and then he’d go up a break in the third at 2-1. Gojo broke back for 3-3 and a few games later he’d have a pair of match points but Bemelmans held for 5-5. After a pair of holds, Gojo went up an early mini-break in the tiebreak and he’d extend his lead to 6-3. Bemelmans evened it up at 6-6 but Gojo won the last two points to close it out.

Gojo will face Australia’s Alex Bolt (ATP #299) on Sunday with the winner moving into the main draw. 

 

Borna Gojo isn’t the only player with college ties closing in on a spot in the main draw because Dominik Koepfer (Tulane ’16) and Kevin King (Georgia Tech ’12) also won their matches on Saturday. Koepfer fought off three match points in the second set to defeat Franko Skugor (ATP 304) 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-3 while King routed Alex De Minaur (ATP 186) 6-1, 6-2. King will face Marton Fucsovic (ATP 123) on Sunday while Koepfer meets Rogerio Dutra Silva (ATP 66). Koepfer has never made the main draw at an ATP event while King has on a few occasions – most recently in Bogota in 2014. 

Wake Forest rising junior Petros Chrysochos was awarded a main draw wild card in Winston-Salem with his first round match against Dusan Lajovic (ATP 82) scheduled for Sunday evening around 6 p.m. ET. Wake Forest rising seniors Skander Mansouri and Christian Seraphim were awarded main draw wild cards into the doubles draw and they’ll also be on court around 6 p.m. ET on Sunday as they play their first round match against Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos. 

Illinois rising senior Aleks Vukic won his ninth straight match on Saturday with a 6-4, 6-4 win over the No. 2 seed Hubert Hurkacz (ATP #408) at the $25K Poland F9 Futures in Bydgoszcz. Vukic will try to make it 10 in a row on Sunday when he faces the top seed Mats Moraing (ATP 321) in the final.

 

The field for the fourth annual American College Invitational was announced on Wednesday with both NCAA singles champions, Thai Kwiatkowsi and Brienne Minor, among the 16 selections. The event takes place during the US Open from September 7-9 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York, with the winners earning no worse than a qualifying wild card in the following year’s US Open. For full details check out the US Open’s release.

 

 

Arizona State has announced its non-conference schedule for the upcoming season which will be the Sun Devils first dual-match action since the program was dropped after the 2007-08 season. Arizona State opens up at home against Duke and Texas A&M on January 13 & 14 with TCU coming in a week later. Arizona State will participate in the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic in late February in Montgomery, Alabama, and then in March it’ll head over to Indian Wells to play in the Oracle Collegiate Tennis Challenge.