Photo by Miya Tanner for Texas Student Media
Six of the eight seeds remain contention in Friday’s singles quarterfinals at the Greenview Development & Majestic Realty Men’s Pro Tennis Open at the Texas Tennis Center. Second-seeded Duarte Vale of Portugal, above, will face No. 5 Max Basing of Great Britain in the second match on Court 1. Each won in three sets in the first round before their straight-sets victories on Thursday.
First up on Court 1 will be defending champion and Longhorn senior Pierre-Yves Bailly vs. No. 4 Patrick Maloney, who saved a match point before defeating Tadeas Paroulek, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. Bailly, a 6-2, 6-2 winner over hometown favorite Marko Mesarovic, downplayed a foot injury timeout he took after an awkward slide on the court. On the other hand, Maloney said after his match: “I wasn’t feeling great. I didn’t feel like I played my best. Thought it could’ve gone either way. I thought I had some moments in there where I could’ve just let it go and faulted, but I stayed tough, played a good return game, stayed solid, and then kept attacking.”
On Court 5 at 10 a.m., No. 6 Stefan Dostanic faces Evan Burnett, a Longhorn redshirt freshman who upset No. 1 Toby Kodat. Then No. 3 Alastair Gray, a Brit who said he was “serving pretty well at the end” of his second-round victory, faces Romain Gales, a Frenchman and a Clemson Tiger who defeated injured No. 7 Nathan Ponwith.
In Thursday’s doubles quarterfinals, the top-seeded but unrelated pair of Cleeve Harper and Patrick Harper defeated Evan Burnett and Maxwell Smith, 6-4, 3-6, 10-3 in the championship tiebreak. In Friday’s semifinals, Harper and Harper will face No. 3 Ty Gentry and Ilgiz Valiev, 6-3, 7-6(2) winners over Curzio Manucci and Tomas Tischner. Their semifinal is scheduled for Court 5, not before 1 p.m. Pierre-Yves Bailly and Stefan Dostanic, two players still in the singles’ draw, defeated Romain Gales and Viktor Markov, 3-6, 6-3, 10-4, on Thursday. They will face Rohan Belday and Austin high schooler James Quattro, who advanced on a walkover by Luke Casper and Giulio Perego. That semifinal, scheduled for Court 1, won’t start before 1 p.m. – Cailee Gomez