Staff Report
The UNM men's tennis team failed to defend the singles and doubles title at the Balloon Fiesta Invitational this weekend at Lobo Tennis Club.
The College of Santa Fe's Gerald Bremond, seeded No. 1, won the main flight singles competition with a 6-2, 6-4 win over NMSU's Danilo Zivanovic.
Leading the way for UNM was senior Jasmin Hodzic, who made it to the semifinals of the main flight draw before losing to Bremond. Bremond and Hodzic were tied at one set each before Hodzic retired due to injury.
Hodzic had wins over Trevor Johnson from the Air Force Academy, Ben Archer-Clowes from NMSU and Tyler McClung, also from AFA.
UNM's Henry Gers also had an impressive performance in the main flight. Gers won his first match in the main draw over Denver University's Niki Popovic before losing to Zivanovic in the second round. Gers battled his way back through the consolation round to take fourth place, dropping Ananda Sawmynaden from the New Mexico Military Institute, the Falcons' Johnson and Northern Arizona University's Lew DeLeon along the way.
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Christian Halligan stopped Gers' run with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory in the consolation finals.
Also competing in the top-flight singles were Lobos Nick Ames and Hiroud Akhavan.
Ames defeated DeLeon in the first round before losing to DU's Peter Hans Gaber in the second round. He beat AFA's Chris Dong in the first round of consolation, then lost to Halligan. Akhavan also won his first round match 6-2, 7-5 over the University of California-Riverside's Norman Tan. Akhavan defaulted his consolation match with DeLeon due to injury.
In the B flight, the Lobos' Eric Conklin made it to the quarterfinals before being ousted by AFA's Jason Tan, 2-6, 1-6.
Anders Hanisch had two wins for the Lobos with a three-set win over UCR's Jeremy Owens and a 6-2, 6-4 win over Jonas Jegers. Hanisch got two additional wins in the B flight third consolation bracket with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over UCR's Cesar Regaliza and a 6-2, 6-2 win over the Aggies' Spencer Peoples. Robert Grzeskowiak won his first-round match over DU's Steve Flaks. He lost in the second round, but rallied to get two more wins in the consolation rounds.
In doubles, the teams of Gers-Conklin, Akhavan-Hodzic and Ames-Grzeskowiak each made it to the quarterfinals before being knocked out of the tournament.
The Lobos were competing without No. 1 singles player Divan Coetzee. Coetzee was playing in the Icy Hot/ITA All American Championships in Chattanooga, Tenn. He lost his first-round match 7-5, 7-6 to Clemson's Nathan Thompson before rebounding to upset the No. 2-ranked player in the nation, Georgia's Bo Hodge, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of consolation matches. David Kowalski and Ryan Stotland also competed in the Icy Hot championships as a doubles team.
The men's tennis team will travel to Las Vegas, Nev., Oct. 22 for the ITA/Fall Regional tournament.
The Lobos will not play at home again until Jan. 25 when they will play Northern Arizona University.
