WINGATE, N.C.- The Carson-Newman men's tennis team opened up the fall with action for six Eagles in the first day of the Wingate Fall Invitational. It was a pair of freshmen who made the most impact as the Eagles will look to finish action tomorrow in Wingate, North Carolina.
Freshman Marnix Van Dalen (Netherlands) played in the men's "Blue" draw as he advanced all the way to the east final with two straight victories. The freshman from the Netherlands started his C-N career with a victory over Gabriel Constantino in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 before moving on to defeat Marko Sudar 6-3, 2-6 (10-6). Now, Marnix will compete in the east final for the "Blue draw" against Florian Walcher.
Freshman Richard Dulganov (Hungary) made his C-N debut as part of the men's "purple" draw as he will also be part of the east finals in his draw. Dulganov started the season off with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Mitchell Davies before moving on to the finals with a victory over the next opponent. With a 4-6, 7-5 (10-7) result in his favor, the Hungarian defeated Hugo Nossler. Dulganov will now face Matteo Gostoli on Sunday in the east finals of the "purple" draw.
The final Eagle making his on-court debut as part of the CNMT program was Lars Hordijk (Dordrecht, South Holland). As a member of the "orange" draw, the sophomore saw two matches on Saturday. First, against Joseph Phelan, it was straight sets with a 6-0, 6-1 result for Hordijk. He continued his on-court dominance as he had almost similar results in his second contest of the day as he defeated Cohen Sechrist 6-1, 6-0 to end Saturday.
Junior Marc Janse (Zeewolde, Netherlands) started things off for the fall season as part of the "Blue" draw as well. His first round matchup was a straight set victory for him over Alex Turner 6-4, 6-3. Sadly, in his next matchup, it was Walcher who defeated Janse in straight sets as well 6-3, 6-2.
Janse will finish action on Sunday in the 3-4 playoff for the "blue" draw against Marko Sudar.
Fellow junior Ids Waterbolk (Bennekom, Netherlands) was able to win his first match of 2021 as he swept Marco Garofalo 6-1, 6-0 to start action in the "green" draw. Sadly, the Dutch native was handed a tough and hard-fought 6-2, 6-7 (4) (10-8) loss to Federico Spinetta as Spinetta will battle Tolunay Sumer in the east final of the "green" draw.
Waterbolk will now see action to wrap up time in Wingate in the 3-4 playoff for the "green" draw against Nolan Smith.
Senior Rintaro Oka (Narita, Japan) saw a quick singles action day as he was handed a 6-3, 6-3 defeat to Edis Nokic. Nokic is now playing in the east final for the "red" draw. The Japan native moved onto play in the "red" west draw against Thibeault Decaluwe, but was once again defeated by a 6-3, 6-4 result.
He will finish action on Sunday in the "red" draw south finals against Paul Dekester.
The Eagles also saw a trio of doubles pairs in action Saturday. In the men's "blue" doubles draw, Janse and Hordijk teamed up against MacMillian and Winter as they advanced to Sunday's east semifinals against Constantino and Nokic with a 6-1 victory. Constantino and Nokic advanced with a 7-6 (4) win over Can Wijk and Turner.
In the same "blue" doubles draw, Van Dalen and Oka teamed up against Elkin and Dekester and were defeated 7-6 (5). However, the pair stay alive and will now play in the West semifinals against Orozco and Buerkle on Sunday.
The final pair for C-N in action were Waterbolk and Dulganov who faced Zabala and Sudar, with C-N losing 5-7.
The Carson-Newman men's tennis team returns to finish the Wingate Fall Invitational on Sunday, Sept. 12 at 9 a.m. from Wingate, N.C.
Be sure to keep up with all things Carson-Newman men's tennis at cneagles.com and via all social media channels.
