

Nov. 9, 2009
Dons advance five to the semifinals, one to the finals
(Moraga, Calif.) - USF men's tennis competed at the 2009 Gael Men's Invitational over the weekend in Moraga, advancing four to the singles semifinals, one to the finals and a doubles team to the semifinals of their respective brackets.
In the Red Singles flight, the Dons' Thai Tu advanced to the semifinals. In the opening round, Tu defeated Brian McPhee from Cal Poly 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 before downing Cal's Bijan Hejazi 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-2) in the round of 16. In the quarterfinals Tu faced off against Nevada's Quassin Derbel, the top seed in the bracket, and earned a straight-set 7-5, 6-4 victory. In the same bracket, Jacob Hartwig won his opening round contest against Chris Aria of UC Davis, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) before falling in the round of 16 to Bo Katsarov, the second seed, from California.
Einar Hart advanced to the Finals of the Red Consolation bracket after defeating teammate William Schumacher in the semifinals,. Hart defeated Cal Poly's Sebastian Bell in the first round 7-5, 1-6, 1-0 (10-5) before earned a win over Michael Carreno of Saint Mary's 6-3, 5-1 Ret. Inj to advance to the semis. Schumacher earned a bye in the first round, before defeating Grant Fleming of Santa Clara 6-1, 5-7, 1-0(10-8) in the quarterfinals.
In the White Singles flight, San Francisco's Mark DeCastro advanced to the semifinals, before falling to Sherif Hamdy, the third seed, 6-4, 6-4. In the opening round, DeCastro defeated Nick Amaroli of UC Davis 6-4, 6-4, before downing the No. 2 seed, Alex Daruty of Nevada 6-1, 7-5. In the quarterfinals, DeCastro earned a 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-2) win over Cal Poly's Blake Wardman.
In doubles action, the USF duo of Rainer Nachbauer and William Schumacher advanced to the semifinals. In the round of 16, the Dons defeated Hejazi and Tommie Murphy of Cal 8-3, before downing Nevada's Kristian Kuharsky and Quassim Derbi, the third seeded duo 8-5. The Dons fell in the semifinals to Chris Konigsfdt and Pedro Zerbini, the No. 2 seed, 8-4.