Top-seeded Bernard Tomic continues his comeback tour in Austin, facing Philip Henning in the first round of the Greenview Development & Majestic Realty Men’s Pro Tennis Open on Wednesday. Tomic, a 30-year-old Australian, is currently ranked No. 513 but was once as high as No. 17 at the beginning at 2016. Henning, a 21-year-old wild card from South Africa, is a fifth-year senior at the University of Georgia who has earned All-SEC honors. The Tomic-Henning match is the second to be played on Court 5 at the Texas Tennis Center.
Another wild card, Texas Tech sophomore Tyler Stewart, will take on Alex Kuperstien, a 23-year-old from Palm Desert, California, in the first match on Court 3 (starting at 10 a.m). Stewart is in his first year at Texas Tech after transferring from Abilene Christian University.
Fifth-seeded Colin Markes, who led Texas to its NCAA title in 2019, faces Gabriel Evans, a 26-year-old from San Antonio.
In the first match on Court 1, No. 3 Alexander Cozbinov, a 27-year-old from Moldova, will play Zsombor Velcz, 19-year-old from Hungary who plays for Baylor. Cozbinov has won two 15K titles, Cancun in Sept. 2022 and Pittsburgh in 2019. Sixth-seeded Andres Andrade, a 23-year-old from Ecuador, will play qualifier Noah Schachter, a Texas A&M senior (pictured above). Andrade played at Florida, where he was the 2021 NCAA singles national champion and SEC champion in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
Micah Braswell, a junior at the University of Texas, will play No. 4 Roberto Cid Subervi. Braswell was selected to the NCAA Championship singles draw in 2021 and 2022 and was the Big 12 freshman of the year in 2021. Cid Subervi, a 29-year-old from the Dominican Republic, played has won nine ITF titles.
What are the odds: two 25-year-old Danes will play the fourth match on Court 1. No. 7 Johannes Ingildsen will face his countryman Chrisitan Sigsgaard. Ingildsen, was part of Florida’s 2021 national championship team and won has four pro singles titles in 2021. Sigsgaard starred at the University of Texas, and in 2019 received Big 12 Co-Player of the Year honors and was selected to the NCAA championship singles and doubles draw.
Kareem Al Allaf, a 24-year-old from Syria, will play Czech Tadeas Paroulek, a junior at Baylor. Al Allaf played for the University of Iowa, where he became the Hawkeye’s wins leader with 164 victories. Paroulek was named the most outstanding performer at the Big 12 tournament in the spring.
Second-seeded Jack Pinnington Jones, a 19-year-old from Great Britain, will face Maciej Rajski, a 31-year-old Pole, in the fourth match on Court 3. Rajski played in the finals of the M15 in Albuquerque in October and has two professional titles. Pinnington Jones, the No. 1 British junior in 2019, has three professional titles.
Baylor freshman Martin Breysach will play American qualifier Pranav Kumar in the first match on Court 2. Breysach, a 20-year-old from France, won 13 juniors titles and has one professional title.
British qualifier Rahul Dhokia will play 30-year-old Darian King from Barbados. Dhokia is a junior at Texas A&M and posted an 11-3 singles record in 2021. As a junior, Dhokia participated in junior Wimbledon in 2018. King represented Barbados in the 2016 Olympics and Davis Cup, and also has three challenger singles titles and 13 futures singles titles.
American wild card Siem Woldeab is set to play British qualifier Hamish Stewart. Woldeab, a junior Texas Longhorn played in the 2022 national championship doubles draw and was named ITA doubles All-American in 2021 and 2022. Stewart, a University of Georgia graduate, was a 2022 ITA All-American and played in the 2022 national championship singles draw.
Eighth-seeded Gabi Adrian Boitan will play qualifier Eric Hadigian. Boitan, a 23-year-old from Romania, played at Baylor, where he was the 2021 Big 12 Tournament’s most outstanding player. Boitan was a finalist at the M25 in Dallas in July and won a M15 doubles title in Constanta. Hadigian, a senior at Pepperdine University, went 21-11 in singles matches in 2021.
Qualifier Marko Mesarovic, 18-year-old senior from nearby Round Rock, will play Demetris Azoides, 22 year-old senior at Texas Tech. Mesarovic qualified for the M25 in Harlingen, Texas, and is part of the Westwood tennis team that has won three of the last five state championships in the Texas 6A division, the state’s highest. Aizoides played in the quarterfinals of M15 in Lubbock and won doubles titles at M15 in Kfar Saba, Israel, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Qualifier Sebastian Gorzny, a TCU freshman, is set to play John Chin, a sophomore at Middle Tennessee State University. Lucas Renard, 30-year-old from Sweden, will play qualifier Ryan Dickerson, a 25-year-old from Marlton, New Jersey, played collegiately at Duke and Baylor.
Story by Lindsey Plotkin/Photo by Kayla Thompson