Men's Tennis | September 22

TOLEDO, Ohio. – The Northern Illinois University men's tennis team competed at the Toledo Invitational and earned two singles flight titles this weekend (Sept. 20-22). Iker Gaztambide Arrastia (Pamplona, Spain) won four matches without needing a third set to claim the A Draw title.
 
"Coach Cipriani and I are proud of singles champions Iker Arrastia and Sam Klein," NIU head coach René Vidal said. "They played smart, fearless tennis all weekend and deserve the A and B singles titles."
 
Sam Klein (Elm Grove, Wis./Brookfield East) won four matches and was victorious in three sets in the quarterfinal and final.
 
Arrastia won the second round over Rohan Bhat of Case Western Reserve after a first-round bye 6-0, 6-2. In the quarterfinal, Arrastia moved on by taking a 6-4, 6-2 win over Wayne State's Luis Klaus. He then won 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinal against Toledo's Poonthong Komolpisut. Arrastia secured the A Draw title with a dominant 6-2, 6-2 win over Artem Alekseychuk of UIC.
 
Klein controlled his first-round match as the one seed in the B draw, winning 6-4, 6-1 over Justin Prochnow of Case Western Reserve. In the quarterfinal he won 6-7 (5), 6-1, 10-3 against Case Western Reserve's Derek Shiffer. Klein controlled the semifinal 6-4, 6-4 against Wayne State's Benjamin Hill. In the B Draw Final, Klein took down Joshua Mackey of Toledo 2-6, 7-5, 10-4 in a come from behind three-set match.
 
Caho Bu Suo Nan (Taiwan) won a first-round match in the A Draw singles before falling in the quarterfinal round.
 
In the A Draw doubles, Saul Berdullas (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) and Klein advanced to the semifinal while Arrastia and Federico Scotuzzi (Bergamo, Italy) also advanced to the semifinal.
 
Angus Howard (Bath, England/Texas Permian Basin) and Iker Dellien Velasco (Trinidad, Bolivia/UAB) won matches in the A Draw consolation bracket.  
 
"Overall, with our singles championships, doubles finalists' results, and breakthrough individual wins throughout the event, our Huskies program is moving in a great direction," Vidal said. "Thanks to Toledo coaches Al Wermer and Thomas Brennan for hosting a great event. The competition was solid and we got a lot more matches under our belt."
 
The Huskies will return to action at the ITA Regional Championships in East Lansing, Mich., beginning on Thursday, Oct. 10.
 
-- NIU --