Florida Gators
ITA All-American
Men's Tennis Advances Three In ITA All-American Qualifying
Tuesday, October 7, 2008 | Men's Tennis
The University of Florida men's tennis team saw three players advance with wins in the opening round of the qualifying draw Monday at the D'Novo ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla.
Freshman Carlos Cueto (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain) made his first appearance at the event and defeated UCLA's Amit Inbar in straight sets (7-6 (3), 6-1). Cueto moved on to play Oklahoma's Ionut Beleleu on Tuesday. Classmate Joey Burkhardt (St. Augustine), who made it to the draw through the pre-qualifying rounds, continued his winning ways by outlasting Baylor's Atilla Bucko (7-6, 6-7 (4), 7-5). Burkhardt will play Lafayette's Piotr Banas in the next round.
Sophomore Tyler Hochwalt (Scottsdale, Ariz.), who also got into the draw through pre-qualifying, rounded out the list of UF winners as he defeated Florida State's Maciek Sykut, 6-3, 6-3. Hochwalt's victory set up a meeting with Virginia's Houston Barrick.
The D'Novo All-American Tennis Championships entails five days of qualifying events, which began with a 256-player pre-qualifying singles tournament (Oct. 3-5). The pre-qualifying fed into the 128-player and 64-doubles team qualifying tournaments on Oct. 6-8, which then feeds into the 64-player, 32-doubles team main draws on Oct. 9-12.
The ITA All-America Championships are the first of three national championship events during the 2008-09 collegiate tennis season. The other two are the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in November and the season-ending NCAA Championships in May.
2008 D'Novo/ITA Men's All-American Championships Qualifying Event
Singles Main Draw First Round
Carlos Cueto (UF) def. Amit Inbar (UCLA), 7-6 (3), 6-1
Marc Spicijaric (Illinois) def. Jeff Dadamo (UF), 6-3, 2-6, 7-5
Tyler Hochwalt (UF) def. Maciek Sykut (FSU), 6-3, 6-3
Maor Zirkin (Drake) def. Dan Cash (UF), 6-3, 6-2
Joey Burkhardt (UF) def. Atilla Bucko (Baylor), 7-5, 6-7 (4), 7-5
