The UC Davis men’s tennis team hosted its first tournament this past weekend to ring in the 2012-13 season and the new era under first-year coach Eric Steidlmayer.
About 70 players from the top-ranked schools in the nation came to compete at the Aggie Invitational. Local foes from Pacific and Sacramento State, as well as players from Cal, Stanford, Santa Clara and Fresno State, among other schools, participated in the event.
Senior Toki Sherbakov fared well against the stiff competition of the tournament. Although he dropped his first-round match, the Mountain View, Calif. native won three straight matches en route to the finals of the consolation draw.
Sherbakov took down Andrew Scholnick from Cal in the first round and then matched up with Stanford’s Denis Lin in a third-set tiebreaker. He then won his semifinal match in straight sets before falling to a player from Nevada in a 10-point tiebreaker for the third set, despite winning the second set 6-1.
Junior Kyle Miller and newcomer Brett Bacharach also played in the Flight A singles draw. Miller dropped his first round match after winning the first set, then fell in the second round of the consolation draw.
Bacharach, Davis’s standout freshman, was the only Aggie in the Flight A singles draw to win his first round match, but then lost in the second round to one of Santa Clara’s top players.
In the second singles flight, senior Hugo Verdi-Fortin won his first two matches in straight sets. In the quarterfinals, Verdi-Fortin went up 4-1 on Stanford’s freshman, top recruit Nolan Paige, before Paige could get much done. Unfortunately for Verdi-Fortin, he lost his fire and Paige put him away in straight sets.
Junior Adam Luba put forth a dominating first round performance, winning by a score of 6-0, 6-2 over a player from USF, but dropped his second round match to another Stanford recruit.
Senior George Horowitz won his first round match in a comeback win after dropping the first set but fell in the second round in straights. Newcomer Mitchell Thorp lost both his matches.
In the Flight A doubles draw, Verdi-Fortin paired with Miller and Sherbakov teamed with freshman Adam Levie, but both lost in their first round matches by identical scores of 8-4.
In the B flight of doubles, Bacharach and Horowitz won their first round match as did Thorp and junior Alec Haley, but neither advanced any further.
— Matthew Yuen
