Men's tennis serves up wins at Big Ten Singles Championships

The IU men’s tennis team met one of its goals at the Big Ten Singles Championships this past weekend, as every Hoosier advanced past the first round.

Sophomore Lachlan Ferguson paced IU, advancing to the quarterfinals. Ferguson defeated Northwestern’s Pete Rispoli (6-0, 6-7, 7-5) and Alexander Thams (4-6, 6-2, 6-2) en route to the final eight.

In that round, Ferguson faced Minnesota’s Dino Bilankov. Despite winning the first set 7-5, Ferguson dropped the next two 7-6, 6-4 and failed to advance to the semifinals.

IU’s coaching staff wanted to use this fall tournament to gauge the rest of the season. With a young team including six freshmen and only three returning members, the singles championship was the first premier collegiate event.

Freshmen Will Kendall, Jeremy Langer and Maxime Armengaud achieved one of the team’s goals by winning their first-round matches.

Kendall defeated Michigan’s George Navas (6-2, 5-7, 6-3) and Minnesota’s Michael Sicora (6-4, 6-4) before falling to eighth seeded Illinois’ Meedo El Tabakh (6-4, 6-4) in the quarterfinals.

Langer, Armengaud and sophomore Santiago Gruter won their first-round matches, but they failed to advance past the next round.

While half the team competed at the championships in Madison, Wisc., the rest of the squad participated in Western Michigan’s Vredevelt Invitational. Senior Peter Antons defeated DePaul’s Alasdair Graetz (1-6, 6-1, 1-0 (7)) to win the Black Flight bracket.

IU has one more fall tournament on its schedule, the ITA National Indoors, which runs Thursday through Sunday in Charlottesville, Va.