Amidst unseasonably warm temperatures on Tuesday, it’s either the first round of the singles’ main draw or the last chance to qualify for it as the Greenview Development & Majestic Realty Men’s Pro Tennis Open picks up steam at the Texas Tennis Center.
After the eight final qualifying matches conclude, the draw will be inked with 32 names by the afternoon – when the temperature is expected to reach 84 to 85 degrees, about 10 degrees warmer than usual in Austin. Hoping to reach the main draw for the second straight year is Marko Mesarovic, pictured above, the Westwood graduate who is now playing for Clemson. Seeded 16th in qualifying, Mesarovic defeated Alan Magadan, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 10-3, in a final-set championship tiebreak. Also advancing in championship tiebreaks were Evan Burnett and Azuma Visaya.
Three UT-Austin players – top-seeded qualifier Cleeve Harper, No. 10 Siem Woldeab and Rahul Sachdev – each won on Monday on their home courts. They now have the chance to join fellow Longhorns who are already in the main draw: Eliot Spizzirri and brothers Jonah and Micah Braswell. The older sibling, Micah, won last year’s singles title here. Christian Sigsgaard and Colin Markes, two former Longhorns and 2022 singles semifinalists, are also in the main draw. In Tuesday’s third match on Court 5, Jonah Braswell faces fifth-seeded Edward Winter of Australia, who plays for Pepperdine. Sigsgaard and Markes team up against Micah Braswell and Lucas Brown in a first-round doubles match on Court 5, not before 3:30 p.m. [The complete order of play is on the back on this sheet.]
Top-seeded Federico Agustin Gomez of Argentina plays in the fourth match on Court 5, facing Sebastian Gorzny, a 19-year-old Californian and former junior Wimbledon doubles champion. No. 2 Blaise Bicknell of Jamaica faces Rafael Tosetto of Brazil in the third match on Court 2.
Photo and article by Bevo Video Productions, a division of Texas Student Media at UT-Austin