Hart Wins a Pair of Titles at Wake Forest M. Tennis Invite

Friday, October 10

Winston Salem, N.C.

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Davidson College Athletics

Wake Forest Invite

Photo by: Tim Cowie - DavidsonPhotos.com

Hart Wins a Pair of Titles at Wake Forest M. Tennis Invite

10/12/2014 8:29:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Gavin McFarlin - Assistant SID

Wake Forest Invite Results (pdf)

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Sophomore Jordan Hart had a strong weekend at the Wake Forest Fall Men's Tennis Invitational by winning both his singles and doubles draws, respectively, and Davidson as a team was well-represented over the three-day tournament.

The Wildcats were one of 20 schools competing over the weekend, with the format having eight flights of singles as well as eight flights of doubles.

Hart took home his singles title in the D1 bracket, while he teamed up with J.B. Gough to win the D doubles draw. Matching the sophomore with his own singles title was freshman Artem Khrapko, who won the B2 singles draw.

"Great tournament this weekend, I'm really proud of Artem and Jordan especially," said head coach Drew Barrett. "It was a great showing with Jordan winning his singles and doubles draws. Overall, all our guys really competed and battled in every match, it was a fun weekend to watch."

Starting his singles title run, Hart rolled to a 6-0, 6-0 first-round win and then continued on with a 6-2, 7-6(4) victory against his Radford opponent in the quarterfinals. He then came back from a set down (1-6) to cruise to in the next two sets, 6-1, 6-0, to win against Chinmay Honda of Georgia State in the semifinals. Hart capped it all off with a 7-5 victory in the finals after his opponent from South Carolina State retired.

Khrapko opened the tournament up Friday with a 6-4, 6-1 victory against Radford's Janken Thoen. The freshman came back in his quarterfinal match, downing Tennessee's Anthony Delcore, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the semis. Khrapko then won again against a big-time school, earning a 6-4, 6-3 triumph vs. Louisville to reach the finals. He highlighted a 4-0 weekend with a three-set victory over Max Andrews of Rice, 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.

Also playing well during the weekend was Gough, who finished fourth in the C2 singles bracket. The sophomore reached the semifinals with 6-0, 6-2 and 6-3, 6-2 victories against S.C. State and Navy. His main draw run ended there, falling in a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 decision to Liberty, before closing out with a fourth place finish.

Alex Howard went 2-1 in his singles matches, coming back from a first round 6-3, 7-5 defeat to win his next two matches with scores of 6-2, 6-0 and 6-4, 6-0 against North Carolina A&T and Liberty.

Evan Watkins, Zack Zapatero, David Hager and Shamael Chaudhry also represented Davidson in singles action. Three of the 'Cats each won one singles match over the weekend.

In doubles play, Hart and Gough earned a bye, reaching the semifinals where they faced a pair from Elon and took an 8-4 decision. The duo earned the D doubles title with another 8-4 triumph against a pair from Liberty.

Howard teamed up with Ricky Saad and won the consolation side of the C1 doubles draw. After falling 8-5 in their first round match, the junior and sophomore earned 8-3 and 8-6 wins against N.C. A&T and Tennessee Tech.

Also earning a doubles win over the weekend was Watkins and Jack Riazzi. The pair of Wildcats regrouped after an 8-3 defeat to the No. 2 seeded team from Wake Forest in the A1 bracket, to net a thrilling 8-7 win against Atlantic 10-foe VCU, scoring a 9-7 win in the tie-breaker.

Davidson wraps up its Fall season with a trip to Chapel Hill, N.C., next week, Oct. 16-19, to play in the ITA Regionals.