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Former Drake women’s coach Sadhaf Pervez was named as the new men’s head coach at Southern Utah. Pervez was the head coach of the women’s team at Drake for two and a half seasons but left abruptly in between the fall and spring semesters this past season.  Southern Utah started it’s men’s program in the fall of 2012 but it’s been tough sleeding so far with the Thunderbirds a combined 0-58 with 52 of those losses being shutouts.  Click here or on the tweet for the full release.

There were four guys with SEC ties in the quarterfinals of the Winston-Salem USA F18 Futures (Hard) but by the end of the day just one would remain. The top seed Sekou Bangoura (Florida ’11) ended the tremendous run by Emil Reinberg as the Georgia rising sophomore saw his five match winning steak get snapped in a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 defeat. Reinberg had never made it to the final round of qualies before this week but he managed to win five matches in six days to pick up his first three ATP points.  Both Rhyne Williams and Eric Quigley managed to get a set to a tiebreak but neither was able to force a third set.

Friday Results:
[1] Sekou Bangoura (Florida ’11) def. [Q] Emil Reinberg (Georgia Rising Soph) 2-6, 6-3, 6-2
[7] Alex Kuznetsov def. [Q] Rhyne Williams (Tennessee ’11) 6-1, 7-6(5)
[2] Darian King def. [5] Eric Quigley (Kentucky ’12) 7-6(3), 6-1

Saturday Schedule
[1] Sekou Bangoura (Florida ’11) vs. [7] Alex Kuznetsov

While both Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia Rising Sr) and Jared Hiltzik (Illinois ’16) went out earlier than they had hoped in the singles draw they were able to pick up a doubles title today with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Austin Smith (Georgia ’16)/Dennis Uspensky (Wake Rising Soph).

They are down to the final four at the Buffalo USA F19 Futures (Clay) with both Mikael Torpegaard and Evan King carrying the college and Big Ten banner. Torpegaard beat former Illini Farris Gosea while King overwhelmed former Columbia Lion Winston Lin.

Friday Results
[1] Gavin Van Peperzeel def. [7] Hans Hach (Abilene Christian ’13) 6-2, 6-3
Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio State Rising Jr) def. Farris Gosea (Illinois ’15) 6-2, 6-4
[4] Tigre Hank def. [8] Nathan Pasha (Georgia ’15) 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
[2] Evan King (Michigan ’13) def. [5] Winston Lin (Columbia ’15) 6-4, 6-1

Saturday Schedule
Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio State Rising Jr) vs. [1] Gavin Van Peperzeel
[2] Evan King (Michigan ’13) vs. [4] Tigre Hank

Steve Johnson (USC ’12) did his best to get back to an ATP semifinal but he came up just short against #13 Marin Cilic at the ATP 500 Aegon Championships (Grass) in London. Johnson took the opening set 7-6(3) but Cilic earned the split by taking the second set 6-3. Johnson held to start the third set and then went up 0-40 on Cilic’s serve but Cilic won the next five points to hold for 1-1. After a love hold, Johnson he went up 0-30 on Cilic’s serve but Cilc took the next four points to hold for 2-2. Both guys held comfortably on the next four service games until Cilic broke Johnson from 15-40 to go up 5-4. Cilic served it out from 40-15 to get the win.

Blaz Rola (Ohio State ’13) earned a spot in his first semifinal since the Fairfield Challenger last October after defeating #82 Rogerio Dutra Silva 7-6(4), 6-2 at the Blue Panorama Airlines Tennis Cup $42K Challenger (Clay) in Perugia, Italy. Next up is #293 Juan Ignacio Londero. 

Peter Nagy (Texas A&M Corpus Christi ’15) advanced to his fifth career Futures final with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 win over #736 Grzegorz Panfil at the Warsaw, Poland, F4 Futures (Clay). Nagy is 1-3 in his four previous finals appearances and will meet #565 Marcin Gawron. Gawron, who was the runner-up at the 2006 Wimbledon Juniors, has won nine career Futures singles titles but none since 2012.

Remi Boutillier (Fresno State ’12) advanced to the semifinals at the Martos, Spain, F17 Futures (Hard) with a 6-1, 7-6(4) win over the top seed Pablo Vivero Gonzalez. Next up #511 Mario Vilella Martinez.

Arthur Rinderknech (Texas A&M Rising Jr) booked his first-ever spot in a Futures semifinals with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over #1353 Benjamin Dhoe. at the Binche, Belgium, F1 Futures (Clay). Next up #574 Enzo Couacaud in the semifinals.

Tucker Vorster (Ole Miss ’11) advanced to the semifinals at the Maputo, Mozambique F2 Futures (Hard) after defeating Aziz Dougaz (Florida State Rising Jr) 6-3, 7-6(2). Both of the other former collegians in action lost as Mitchell Frank (Virginia ’15) fell to #696 Marc Polmans 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-2 and John Lamble (Santa Clara ’14) went down to the top seed Lloyd Harris 6-3, 6-3. Vorster will meet Polmans in the semis. The Lock Brothers, Benjamin and Courtney, won the doubles title with a 6-4, 6-3 win over John Lamble and Bernardo Saravia (San Fran ’15)

Alejandro Gomez (Kentucky ’14) has made it to this second career final after picking up a 7-5, 7-6(3) win over #455 Christopher Diaz-Figueroa at the Cartagena, Columbia, F1 Futures (Hard). Gomez dropped his other finals appearance last July in Cali, Colombia to Facunda Mena. Roberto Cid (South Florida ’16) ended up on the wrong end of a 6-4, 7-6(4) decision against the No. 4 seed Juan Gomez but Cid did manage to pick up six points for the semifinal finish.

Connor Smith (Ohio State ’13) was attempting to make a semifinal for the first time since last December but he went down 6-4, 6-1 to #346 Yann Marti at the Alkmaar, Netherland F1 Futures (Clay).

Mikelis Libietis (Tennessee ’15) came up short in the quarterfinals at the Hong Kong F2 Futures (Hard) with the former Vol falling to #522 Yecong He 7-6(3), 6-2.