IU players reach third round in tournament

High school and college tennis players competed against each other last weekend at the IU Tennis Center as part of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Summer Circuit Midwest Regional open tournament.

The ITA Summer Circuit was conceived by IU women’s tennis head coach Lin Loring in 1993 and has become an annual affair on a national scale.

Eight regions each hold four open tournaments with the top players advancing to a national championship event hosted by IU.

This year’s IU-hosted regional open featured current and future Hoosiers in both the men’s and women’s fields.

In the women’s singles bracket, rising sophomore Kayla Fujimoto and incoming freshman Katie Klyczek, from Munster, Ind., both advanced to the third round before bowing out of the competition.

After receiving byes in the opening round, Fujimoto defeated Anne Akhimien of Howard University, 6-2, 6-1, while Klyczek dispatched Purdue’s Kirsten Magi after losing the first set, 1-6, 6-4, 1-0(3).

However, neither survived the next round. Fujimoto dropped her match to the Universoty of North Carolina-Greensboro’s Niltooli Wilkins, 6-4, 6-2, and Klyczek was unable to avoid elimination against DePaul University’s Gia McKnight, the eventual tournament runner-up, falling 6-4, 7-5.

The two future teammates also paired up for doubles action, but were ousted in their first match 8-6 against Wilkins and Samford University’s Olivia Lewis.

On the men’s side, incoming freshman Zachary Zwerner ended the tournament with a 1-2 record in singles play.

Zwerner lost his first match against Wright State University’s Evan Neuman in straight sets and moved to the consolation bracket where he defeated Northern Kentucky University’s Cameron Johnson in the opening round, 6-1, 6-1, before falling in the second round to Illinois State University’s Jacob Wilson by a 6-1, 6-0 score.

Purdue University’s Mara Schmidt left as the tournament’s big winner, emerging victorious in both the women’s singles and doubles fields. Dalton Alberton of Ball State won the men’s singles title.

The USTA/ITA National Summer Championships will be held at IU Aug. 13 through 17.