MALIBU, Calif. (UCFKnights.com) – The Knights were in action from coast to coast on Friday, with Gabriel Decamps competing in the Oracle ITA Masters in California while select other Knights were in action in Athens, Ga. at the Southern Intercollegiates.
ORACLE ITA MASTERS – DAY 2
No. 29 Decamps began his day matched up against No. 26 Sumit Sarkar of Rice. Decamps was able to topple Sarkar in the round of 16 by a score of 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the Elite Eight of the Oracle ITA Masters.
Decamps would play in his Elite Eight match shortly after the conclusion of his first of the day. He would square off against the tournament's number two seed Daniel Cukierman of USC, the No. 8 singles player in the country. Decamps would wind up falling to Cukierman by a score of 6-1, 6-4 to put an end to his run at the Oracle ITA Masters.
Southern Intercollegiates – Day 1
The day began with doubles play as two UCF duos were slated to be in action and another interesting pairing involving a Knight.
Mikhail Sokolovskiy was paired with Georgia's Samuel Dromsky for doubles play. Together, the pair posted two wins in as many attempts. In their first match of the day, Sokolovskiy and Dromsky defeated the No. 4 seeded Teodor Giusca and Matteo Vialmin of Clemson by a score of 6-4. Later, the Knight/Bulldog pair toppled Pablo Schelcher and Chris Yun of Georgia Tech in another close match by a score of 7-5.
Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi and Alan Rubio were paired together and were set to face Bar Botzer and Eduardo Nava of Wake Forest. The UCF duo fell to the Demon Deacons by a count of 6-2 to send them to the consolation bracket. There, the Knights duo dropped a close 6-4 decision to LSU's Brian Kozlov and Malik Bhatnagar.
UCF's top duo of Trey Hilderbrand and Bogdan Pavel earned a bye through the first round of the doubles draw but didn't advance via a walkover for their first scheduled match.
As for singles play, four Knights would each play in one match on Friday to begin the solo portion of the tournament.
Grassi Mazzuchi put forth an impressive showing as he defeated the No. 2 seed in the tournament and No. 36 ranked Ewan Moore of Tulane by a score of 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.
Pavel was edged in a close match against Florida's Blaise Bicknell. After Bicknell took the first set 6-3, Pavel returned the favor by winning the second frame 6-3 himself. A tight third set saw Bicknell take the victory after winning the third set 7-6 (8-6).
Another close match involving a member of UCF occurred as Rubio was topped by Florida's Josh Goodger by a count of 7-5, 6-4.
UCF's singles day finished out with Sokolovskiy having to retire against Harnish Stewart of Tulane. Stewart had beaten Sokolovskiy in the first set 7-6 (8-6) before taking a 4-1 lead in the second frame, which is when Sokolovskiy had to call it quits.
Hilderbrand was set to face Texas' Evin McDonald but fell via a walkover.
All three doubles teams have scheduled matches for 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. Singles play will begin after doubles at approximately 11 a.m.
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