By Ben Everett | Sports Writer
Baylor men’s and women’s tennis competed in the UTSA Cup and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Texas Regional Championship over the weekend.
On the men’s side, sophomore Constantin Frantzen and freshman Akos Kotorman were the only players to participate in the UTSA Cup.
The duo took out UTSA’s Gabriel Bugiga and Juri Reckow by a score of 6-2 and defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Carlos Cuevas Pedrosa and Daiki Tanabe 6-3 to end the day undefeated in doubles play.
However, in singles play, Frantzen fell 6-3, 6-4 to Bugiga and Kotorman lost to Reckow 7-6, 4-6, 1-0(8).
On the second day of the event, Frantzen rolled to a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Pedrosa and defeated Tyler Junior College’s Alejandro Hayen 6-2, 7-5.
Meanwhile, Kotorman earned a win over Tanabe 4-6, 6-2, 1-0(9) and defeated Tyler’s Drew Brown 5-0 after Brown retired from the match.
The duo couldn’t hold on for the win in doubles, dropping a 6-3 match to Brown and Hayen.
On the final day, the Bears faced off against St. Mary’s. First, Frantzen and Kotorman took out Alex Gee and Brendan Brown in a 7-6(3) match.
In singles, Frantzen defeated Gee, 6-1, 6-3 to finish the event 3-1 and Kotorman finished off Brown 7-5, 6-1 to also notch a 3-1 mark at the event.
For the women, starting off in the round of 32, sophomore Angelina Shakhraichuk and senior Theresa Van Zyl crushed Texas State’s Rishona Lewis and Sofia Murcia, 8-1 to advance to the round of 16.
Sophomore Jessica Hinojosa, the No. 15 seed in singles, took out UT-Arlington’s Lucia Natal in three sets, 7-5, 6-7(4), 7-5 to move on to the round of 32.
Shakhraichuk beat SMU’s Anzhelika Shapovalova 6-3, 6-0, and Houston’s Constandena Nicolau 6-2, 6-3 to reach the round of 32.
Van Zyl and freshmen Livia Kraus and Kris Sorokolet dropped out of the main draw after losses to Texas Tech’s Sarah Dvorak, Texas’ Bojana Markovic and Texas’ Marta Perez Our, respectively.
Hinojosa and Kraus teamed up for a doubles match to close out day one, but fell to Alexandra Heczey and Haruka Sasaki of North Texas, 8-3.
On the second day, Hinojosa bested Macarena Olivares 7-5, 6-2, to advance to the round of 16 while Shakhraichuk upended No. 10 seeded Lindsey Hodge of Rice to advance.
Van Zyl and Shakhraichuk moved on to the quarterfinal of doubles play with a 8-3 victory over Sian Payne and Darinka Tiboldi of Stephen F. Austin.
In consolation play, Kraus took out Murcia 6-2, 6-1 while Hinojosa and Kraus defeated Chia Ming and Alex Jones of Texas State by a score of 8-4 to close out day two.
The third day saw ups and downs as Hinojosa was bested by Texas’ Bianca Turati 6-2, 6-2 to drop out of the main draw but Hinojosa and Kraus advanced to the quarterfinal of the doubles consolation bracket with a 8-6 win over Texas A&M’s Iulia Ivascu and Macarena Olivares.
Kraus saw success in singles consolation play, defeating the No. 8 seed Michaela Haet of Rice in a comeback win 4-6, 6-4, 11-9 to move on to the semifinal.
Ultimately, the No. 1 seeded pair Maria Kononova and Tamuna Kutubidze of North Texas ended Van Zyl and Shakhraichuk’s doubles run, 8-7.
Kraus advanced to the final on the fourth day with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Matea Zemunik of Incarnate Word, but Kraus and Hinojosa fell to Lana Rush and Alex Valenstein of Texas Tech by a score of 8-7(4) to end the Bears’ doubles run.
The Bears finished the Regional Championship on a high note with Kraus winning the consolation singles title with a 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(10-8) victory over Rice’s Savannah Durkin.
The men’s team heads to their own ITA Texas Regional Championship to compete from Oct. 19 to Oct. 23 in College Station while the women’s team takes a break and then heads the Dick Vitale Intercollegiate Classic to compete from Nov. 3 to Nov. 5 in Lakeland Ranch, Fla.
