ORLANDO – Bogdan Pavel and Mehdi Benchakroun of the UCF men's tennis team were crowned champs of their respective singles draws at the UCF Fall Sizzler on Sunday, marking the conclusion of the first tournament of the fall for the Knights.
"We had a very solid weekend as a team," said director of tennis and men's head coach John Roddick. "Very happy for Boggy and Mehdi winning their brackets. We did a nice job of sticking to our game plans and we were rewarded for that. Every player had bright spots this weekend. It was a good start to the year for us."
Pavel won the first set with ease over Cornell's Nathan Mao, the third seed of the red singles draw. As the top seed, Pavel went back-and-forth with Mao in the second set and ultimately saw Mao take it by a score of 6-4. It was all Pavel in the third set super tiebreaker as Pavel prevailed with a final score of 6-1, 4-6, 10-0 to win the draw.
Benchakroun was matched up with an unseeded Rodrigo Crespo from North Florida in the orange singles draw final. Crespo had knocked off the top seed of the draw in the quarterfinals in his march to the title match. Benchakroun made quick work of Crespo in the first set before winning a tight second frame, but still earning the straight set victory by a score of 6-2, 6-4.
The green back draw saw Quinn Snyder beat Furman's John Rado 6-2, 6-2 in the consolation final. Emilio Sanchez had the same success, winning the orange draw consolation bracket with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Cornell's Bradley Paliska.
UP NEXT
The Knights' next fall tournament will be the ITA All-American Championship, hosted in Tulsa, Okla. The competition runs from Oct. 1-9 and has spots in the ITA Fall National Championships at stake in both singles and doubles.
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