Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.
Lukas Palovic lost his first match at the UTR PTT Norfolk. He didn’t lose again.
Palovic dropped two 7-6 sets to Zechariah Hamrouni to open the event. Then he won five straight.
The last of those wins came against someone who knows his game pretty well.
That’d be Gabriel Elicha Navas. He’s a teammate.
Palovic took that one 7-6, 6-4. It’s tough to scout a guy who already shares your practice court.
That all-Arkansas matchup was one small piece of a busy start to the Arkansas men’s tennis fall schedule. The Razorbacks have sent players to Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Norfolk and Europe over the last few weeks.
Some trips went better than others. That’s what the fall is for.
Two Hogs on a roll in Norfolk
Elicha Navas had his own nice run before bumping into Palovic.
He lost his opener to Christopher Thies 6-3, 6-1. Then he won four in a row.
He beat Felix Obermair 6-2, 6-1. He came from a set down to top Szymon Malecki 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Wins over Kasper Kulpa 6-2, 6-1 and Marcin Andrzejczak 6-1, 6-4 followed.
Palovic’s own path included a 6-0, 6-2 win over Ilan Hediger. He also got past Noble Renfrow 6-0, 7-6, Harrison Lee 6-4, 6-2 and Julien Doitteau 6-4, 6-3.
Hediger’s name should ring a bell later in this story. He’s seen plenty of Arkansas this fall.
Vrba makes a final in Champaign
Jakub Vrba didn’t get a free ticket into the ITF M15 Champaign main draw. He had to qualify.
He handled that part just fine. Vrba beat Alex Fuchs 6-4, 6-4 and Nicholas Mekhael 6-2, 6-1.
Then the matches got harder. Vrba kept finding a way.
After a 6-3, 6-4 win over Alexander Frusina, he lost the first set in each of his next three matches. He won all three anyway.
Ryan Colby went down 4-6, 7-6, 7-5 in the round of 16. Ofek Shimanov won the first set 6-0 in the quarterfinals and still lost 0-6, 7-6, 6-2.
Oliver Okonwo was next in the semifinals. Vrba beat him 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.
That made six straight wins in Champaign, Illinois. Bryce Nakashima ended the streak in the final, 6-2, 7-6.
A rough week at All-American Championships
Vrba was the lone Razorback in the main singles draw at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
His stay in the main bracket didn’t last long. Abel Forger beat him 7-5, 6-4.
Vrba bounced back in consolation play. He topped Matic Kriznik 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 and Aryan Shah 6-0, 6-4. He also led Jules Leroux 5-0 when that match ended.
Aidan Kim stopped him from there, 6-1, 6-4.
Brendan Boland and Timothee Andriveau played in singles prequalifying. Boland lost to Noah Johnston 6-1, 7-6 and to Rafael Segado Esteve 7-5, 6-2 in consolation.
Andriveau fell to Jelani Sarr 6-3, 6-2. He picked up a consolation win over Jakub Jedrzejczak 7-5, 6-3.
Boland and Connor Smillie teamed up in doubles prequalifying. They won the first set 6-0 against Patrik Meszaros and Ferdinand Cloisters but lost the third set 12-10.
Midland got things started
Boland, Andriveau, Smillie and Louis Hull made their fall debuts in early September at the Midland Invitational in Midland, Texas. All four played singles and doubles.
Boland and Andriveau each went 2-2 in singles.
Boland beat Kaj Quirijns 6-4, 6-4 and Alejandro Kretzer 3-6, 6-3, 10-6. He lost to Landon Ardila and to Max Pade, who won their third-set tiebreaker 10-5.
Andriveau beat Milan Markovits 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 and Diego Herrera 6-3, 6-4. His losses came against Niels Hoffmann and Niksa Arsic.
Hull went 1-2 with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Amirkhamza Nasridinov. Smillie lost both his singles matches, including an 11-9 tiebreaker against Pade.
In doubles, Boland and Smillie beat Jay Fairlough and Herrera 8-3 before an 8-6 loss to Thiago Guglieri and Arsic. Andriveau and Hull fell 8-7 to Quirijns and Albert Pedrico Kravtsov.
Ceccon and Elicha Navas open in Tulsa
That same weekend, Rudy Ceccon and Elicha Navas were in Tulsa for the HotelPlanner UTR Shootout 20K.
Both made it to the quarterfinals.
Ceccon beat Romain Azais 6-4, 6-0. Then he took down Hediger 7-5, 6-3.
Yep, that Hediger. The Hogs are 2-0 against him this fall.
Alex Santino Nunez Vera ended Ceccon’s run in a third-set tiebreaker, 10-5.
Elicha Navas beat Levi Solomon 6-0, 6-2 and Brett Gloria 7-5, 6-2. Haydar Cem Gokpinar stopped him 6-3, 7-5.
Weintraub starts his fall overseas
Ben Weintraub’s fall didn’t start in Fayetteville. It started in Europe.
He represented his home country of Israel at the Davis Cup in Slovenia. Sebastian Dominko beat him 6-3, 6-3.
Weintraub then headed to Budapest for the ITF Hungary M15. He won three matches to reach the main draw.
He beat Jiang Yi Qing 6-1, 6-1 and Radovan Michalik 6-2, 6-3. His match with Ivan Biletic went to an 11-9 third set before Weintraub pulled it out.
Lilian Marmousez ended his singles stay in the round of 32, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.
Weintraub also teamed with Stijn Paardekooper in doubles in Budapest.
The fall slate isn’t done yet. The Razorbacks now have a stack of results to sort through before the spring gets here.
