LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. --- Tusculum College senior David Siegle won the B Draw singles championship as the Pioneer men's tennis team competed at the Grizzly Open, hosted this weekend by Georgia Gwinnett College.
Siegle narrowly won his first-round match on Friday, then cruised to four consecutive straight-set victories over the next two days to claim the singles title. Siegle beat Tomas Fernandez of Alabama State 6-1, 6-3 in the finals on Sunday morning.
Siegle opened the tournament with a 11-9 tiebreaker win over Karlo Skvorc of Alabama State after splitting the first two sets 6-7 (7-5) and 6-1. Siegle then beat Zachary Sheeler of Point 6-1, 6-0 in the round of 16 and defeated Alonzo Trevizo of Point 6-0, 6-0 in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinals, Siegle faced teammate Gabriel Bernardi who had advanced with wins over Justine Aganon of Eastern Florida (6-2, 6-1), Steven Tracy of Point (6-2, 6-4) and Nikita Hrynov of Reinhardt via a 10-7 tiebreaker after the first two sets were split by identical 7-6 (7-5) scores. Siegle defeated Bernardi 6-1, 6-0 to move into the finals against Fernandez.
Also in the B Draw, Fabian Paier defeated Peyton Cox of Point 6-0, 6-0 in the Round of 32 and Tamaka Rushwaya of Bluefield 6-0, 6-1 in the Round of 16. Paier downed Brandon Lane of Reinhardt 6-3, 6-4 to give Tusculum three players in the B Draw semifinals, but he fell to Fernandez 6-1, 6-1. Freshman Steven Knowles also competed and lost 10-7 in a tiebreaker in the first round before being eliminated in the first round of consolations.
In the A Draw, Toby de Klerk beat Pablo Munoz of Eastern Florida 6-3, 7-5 in the Round of 64 but was eliminated in the Round of 32 by Alec Josepher of Emory by a score of 6-3, 6-3.
Eduardo Muñoz lost in straight sets in his Round of 64 match, then advanced to the consolation quarterfinals by default before being knocked out. Yago Fernandez and Tashique Kader also lost in straight sets in the Round of 32, with Kader rebounding to beat Harry Shephard of Emory 9-8 (7-5) in the consolation third round before being eliminated in the consolation quarterfinals.
Tusculum had four doubles teams in the tournament, with the team of Fernandez and Kader advancing to the quarterfinals with wins over Jorge Canadas and Guillaume Watteeuw of Emmanuel (8-4) and Rex Serituk and James Spaulding of Emory (8-5). However, the duo was knocked out in the quarterfinals in a 7-4 tiebreaker.
Paier and Siegle also competed in doubles and won their first match 8-3 over Alante Carter and Brandon Lewis of Brewton-Parker, but lost in the quarterfinals 8-6 to the team of Valentin Horvat and Abhin Sharma from Division I Georgia State.
Also competing in doubles for the Pioneers were de Klerk and Muñoz, who lost 7-4 in a tiebreaker in their first-round match, and the team of Bernardi and Knowles who were eliminated by a score of 8-3 in the first round.
Tusculum will return to action in February when the Pioneers open their spring schedule on Saturday, Feb. 11 at Georgia Gwinnett.