Senior Gabriel Carvajal (Pembroke Pines, Fla. / Broward Virtual School [Florida Atlantic]) extended his winning streak on Friday by capturing his third straight ITA Midwest Regional qualifying draw victory in an event hosted by Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. By virtue of his qualifying-draw success, Carvajal catapulted himself into the singles main draw, which begins on Saturday. Valpo also tallied three doubles wins on Friday.
How It Happened
- After a pair of singles successes on Thursday’s opening day of action, Carvajal knocked off Michigan State’s Anthony Pero on Friday. He got out to a lead in the match by taking the first set 6-2 before dropping the second 3-6. The final set came down to the wire, but the Valpo senior earned a 7-5 victory. The win allowed Carvajal to join automatic qualifiers Brandon Ancona (Belvidere, Ill. / Rockford Christian) and Brian Pecyna (Glen Ellyn, Ill. / Homeschooled) in the singles main draw, giving Valpo hefty representation.
- The first three rounds of doubles main draw play also occurred on Friday. Ancona and Pecyna were victorious in each of the first two rounds. They topped Dragovic/Shanklin of Marquette 8-5 before needing a tiebreak to edge Bancila/Budic of Illinois 8-7(5).
- After back-to-back wins to start the day, the Valpo seniors faced off with Michigan’s Fenty/Siimar, the No. 2 seed in the event, for the right to advance to the quarterfinals of main draw doubles. Ancona and Pecyna came out on the wrong end of an 8-4 score.
- Freshman Andrej Kalenic (Belgrade, Serbia / Kreativno Pero) and senior Franklin Brozovich (Fort Gratiot, Mich. / Port Huron Northern) also secured a first-round win in doubles. They got the best of Youngstown State’s Everett/Virgili 8-4 before falling to the Wisconsin pair of Colton/Sculley 8-3 in Round 2.
- Freshman Oscar Mendoza (Guayaquil, Ecuador / Interamerican Academy) and Carvajal lost 8-3 to a Marquette duo in the opening round, while senior Daniel Langston (Ponca City, Okla. / Ponca City) and freshman Philipp Leithold (Esslingen, Germany / Theodor-Huess Gymnasium) dropped an 8-6 decision to a Green Bay pair.
Up Next
The first round of main draw singles will begin on Saturday at 7 a.m. CT. Carvajal has a first-round date with 11th-seeded Siphosothando Montsi of Illinois, Ancona will meet Michigan’s Connor Johnston and Pecyna will battle Cleveland State’s Matthew Terry.
