Posted 1:16 am Saturday, June 20, 2009
Top Seeds Aim For ET Finals
By SHANE STARK
Staff Writer
Cibolo's Tim Shuler and Spring's Marinos Baghdati, the top seeds, won their opening matches at the East Texas Open and Adult Major Zone on Friday.
Staff Writer
Cibolo's Tim Shuler and Spring's Marinos Baghdati, the top seeds, won their opening matches at the East Texas Open and Adult Major Zone on Friday.
Both players received first-round byes in the annual tennis tournament, and then cruised to victory in the Round of 32.
Shuler, the No. 1 seed, began his possible run to the Men's Open Singles championship with a 6-0, 6-1 win against Terrell's Corey Hale at Hollytree Country Club.
Baghdati, the second seed, posted a 6-3, 6-2 win against Lindale's Michael Parker at Hollytree.
Shuler and Baghdati will return to action at 8 this morning in the round of 16.
Shuler meets Livingston's Christopher Breaux, a 6-1, 6-3 winner against No. 15 seed Aaron Gomez of Arlington in the second round, at Tyler Tennis & Swim Club, which serves as the tournament headquarters. Baghdati will take on No. 11 Travis Rich, a Rockwall resident who advanced to the weekend by downing Jacksonville's John Day, 6-3, 6-2.
Other Men's Open matches slated for this morning in the top draw feature Fort Worth's Colin Foster (No. 6) against Eagle's Pass' Raul Garza, Rockwall's Hugo Hatly (No. 3) against San Antonio's John Haley (No. 13) and Palestine's Ryan Anthony Ybarra against Olive Branch's Daniel Shidler.
The bottom-draw matches consist of Beaumont's Himanshu Bhardwaj (No. 10) versus Dallas' Dawid Kuczer (No. 5), Humble's Vince Casariego (No. 14) versus San Antonio's Rudy Obregon (No. 4) and Allen's Johann Jooste versus Crosby's Dallas Darnell.
The semifinals and final are scheduled for Sunday morning at Tennis & Swim.
Meanwhile, Women's Open Singles begins today at UT Tyler's Summers Tennis Center.
Rowlett's Meaghan Ocanas, the top seed, received an opening-round bye and in the quarterfinals will meet the winner between San Antonio's Iris Rendon and Dallas' Teal Lang, who begin play at 9 a.m.
Austin's Julie Thu, a former Tyler resident and the No. 2 seed, received a first-round bye and will face Tyler's Nicole Conard in the quarterfinals.
The only other first-round match to be played will feature Tyler's Casey Bulls and Beaumont's Jessica Phelps at 9:30 a.m. The winner will meet Wellington's Holly Davis in the quarterfinals.
All quarterfinals matches are set for 12:30 p.m.
