Men's Tennis Hosts Annual Invitational

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon University men's tennis team hosted its annual tennis invite with Duquesne University and St. Francis (Pa.) University September 12-14. Juniors Abhishek Alla (Hyderabad, India / IMG Pendleton School), Kiril Kirkov (Tampa, Fla./C. Leon King) and Kenny Zheng (Pennington, N.J./Hopewell Valley Central) each won three singles matches over the weekend while two double tandems went 2-0.

All singles play matches were pro-sets to 8 while doubles on Friday and Saturday were pro-sets and Sunday's doubles were played as regular sets to 6.

Kirkov posted a 3-0 mark while Alla and Zheng went 3-2.  Kirkov recorded victories over Alex Aleman of Duquesne (9-8 (10-8)) and Eli Cerdan (8-3) and Washi Gervais (8-6) of St. Francis University.  Alla started the invitational with an 8-6 victory over Gervais before topping Aleman and Adam Blasinsky of Duquesne by the scores of 8-5 and 8-3, respectively.  Zheng began play against Chris Jimenez of St. Francis and turned in an 8-6 victory.  His two other wins also came against opponents from St. Francis winning 8-1 over Sergio Carvajal and 8-4 over Plamen Avuski.

Senior Bryce Beisswanger (Los Angeles, Calif./Viewpoint School) picked up two victories during singles play.  He started by downing Juan Pardo of St. Francis 8-1, before winning 9-7 over Tim Kane of Duquesne.

In doubles play, the tandem of sophomore Kunal Wadwani (Saratoga, Calif./Ballarmine College Prep) and freshman Matt Seifert (Mercer Island, Wash.) went 2-0 as a doubles pair as did the freshmen duo of Jeffrey Chen (Carmel, Ind.) and Connor O'Kelly (Lake Forest, Ill.).  

Wadwani and Seifert defeated Mehdi Mekaoui and Andrew Ong of Duquesne, 7-6 (7-4) and Lawson Barter and Eli Cerdan of St. Francis University 6-4.  Chen and O'Kelley won 6-2 over Mekaoui and Ong before topping Plamen Avuski and Lawson Barter of St. Francis University 8-6 to end the invitational.  Chen recorded a third doubles victory when he teamed with senior Will Duncan (Newbury Park, Calif./Newbury Park), as the tandem downed Jimenez and Carvajal of St. Francis 6-4.

Carnegie Mellon returns to action the weekend of Saturday, September 27 when they travel to Fredericksburg, Va. for the ITA Regional Tournament at the University of Mary Washington.