Men’s Tennis | 12/26/2022 11:22:00 AM

EAST GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T men’s tennis will enter the 2023 season on the strength of a successful fall season that saw the program win 25 matches. 

Before the official fall season, Esteban Lopez played in a Universal Tennis Ratings pro tournament. He won his first-round matchup, 2-6, 6-0, 6-3, against Rahul Sachdev before battling Sekou Bangoura. After that, Lopez lost a highly competitive match to Bangoura, who was ranked as high as No. 213 in the ATP rankings, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.  

“That signaled to me that he was in a whole another level,” A&T coach Dejon Bivens said. “He’s been consistently doing well. It started with him winning the tournament in the summertime, the ITA at N.C. State.”

At the Charlotte Amateur Tennis Championship, the Aggies had three singles players and three doubles teams make it to the semifinals. 

A&T’s Vasil Ivanov and Eder Blanco won the doubles draw after a 1-6, 6-3, 1-0 (9) victory against Agustin Aran and Paolo Bompieri. Meanwhile, Lopez fell in the finals to Thomas Brown 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (7).

The fall season started at Elon, where Ethan Baly won the White Singles Draw against teammate Ian Pedersen 6-4, 6-3. Baly opened play in the draw with a 7-6, 7-5 against North Carolina Central’s Shak Cristellotti. Then, he defeated UNC Greensboro’s Wyatt Cannon 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. The first set loss to Cannon was the only time Baly lost a set during the draw. 

Baly turned his focus to Queens’ Lukas Gosselin and won 6-1, 6-4 before defeating Pedersen. Overall, A&T recorded 11 singles and two doubles wins during the Elon tournament. Unfortunately, Lopez and Blanco both fell in the semifinals of their respective draws.

The Aggies traveled to Cary, N.C., for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals, where A&T recorded four wins, with three players recording at least one win in the main draw.  

“For me as a coach, it means that what I’m doing is resonating with my players,” Bivens said. “For the team itself, they need to continue doing what they’re doing.”

Lopez made an immediate impact after defeating the 14th-seed in Wake Forest’s Juan Lopez De Azcona 5-7, 7-6, 7-6 (4) in the first round. He continued the hot streak with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Gardner-Webb’s Chrisjan Van Wyk before falling to No. 17-32 in South Carolina’s Casey Hoole, 6-1, 6-2.

Bivens said his favorite moment of the fall was Lopez’s win over Juan Lopez De Azcona. 

“He was down 5-2 in the third set and came back and won that match in front of everybody,” Bivens said. “He was on one of those center courts. They were all lined up and watching him and to see him celebrate. That was one of the matches that signaled the rest of the squad because everybody this year won a match. Remember, last year, we only got one win in the main draw.”

Blanco and Ivanov also won their first-round matches, but both fell to ranked opponents in the second round.

Blanco finished the fall season strong winning the B Singles draw at the Wake Forest Invitational. He defeated James Madison’s Edson Sanchez and Stetson’s Haris Eminefendic to reach the championship match, where he defeated VCU’s Etienne Marty 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.  

After losing in the first round of the A1 Singles Draw, Ivanov won all three matches in the consolation to win the West Draw. After a walk-off in the quarterfinals, Ivanov defeated James Madison’s Youssef Sadek 6-1, 6-4 in the semifinals. He finished with a 6-3, 6-1 victory against Stetson’s Juan Jose Rodriguez Garceran in the championship.

Baly had another strong showing in the D Singles Draw. First, he defeated Stetson’s Bendix Schoeder 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-0. Baly followed by beating Wake Forest’s Ernesto Requena 6-2, 7-5 to advance to the championship, where he lost 6-3, 6-2 against Davidson’s Sebastian Carpio.

A&T recorded 10 wins in the final fall tournament.