TUSCALOOSA, Ala.. -- The weather was the main story on the first day of the Crimson Tide Fall Invitational in Tuscaloosa, Ala. One round of doubles and two rounds of singles were scheduled to be played on Friday, however rain forced all matches indoors thus reducing the courts available from 20 to four. In order to get in as many matches as possible, two rounds of doubles were played followed by a round of singles.
The tournament includes 116 players from 18 schools and is hosted by the University of Alabama. Matches are being played at the University of Alabama Tennis Stadium, the Alabama Recreation Courts and the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility.
The tournament features eight singles draws with 16 competitors in each and two doubles draws of 32 teams each. There will also be a consolation round for both the singles and doubles play. The 18 institutions represented at this year’s Fall Championships are Alabama, Auburn, Chattanooga, Clemson, Georgia Southern, Illinois, Jacksonville State, Jacksonville University, Memphis, Mississippi State, Samford, South Florida, Southern Mississippi, Troy, UAB, , UT-Martin, Vanderbilt and Virginia Tech.
A unique feature of the event is that all of the singles divisions are named in honor of former Alabama football coaches and players. Preston Lemon (Sr., Roanoke, Va.) defeated Vinny Cravelro (Jacksonville Univ.), 6-1, 6-4, in the Bart Starr bracket while Jonathan Pine (Fr., Vienna, Va.) took care of Hunter Mills (Auburn), 6-2, 6-2, in the Gene Stallings division. Elsewhere, Patrick Daciek (Fr., Severna Park, Md.) suffered the lone singles loss of the long day, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3, against Abraham Souza (Illinois) in the Joe Namath draw. Corrado Tocci (Fr., Reggio Emilia, Italy) rushed past Matkus Wessingage (Southern Miss), 6-3, 6-1, in the Steadman Shealy division.
Two Hokies found success in the Bear Bryant bracket as Pedro Graber (Jr., Santiago, Chile) beat 106th-ranked Billy Martz (Alabama), 7-5, 6-4, and Yoann Re (Jr., Verdun, Quebec, Canada) upset No. 4 seed and 91st-ranked Jamal Adderly (South Florida), 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. Zachary Pine (Fr., Vienna, Va.) snaked his way to a bye in the Ken Stabler division and will play his first match on Saturday.
In Red Doubles, Re/Tocci defeated Bastian Maucher/Mario Silva (Troy), 8-3, in their first match then defeated Patricio Alvarado/Felipe Sylvia (Southern Miss), 8-4. Daciek/Graber, the No. 5 seeds, received a bye, in the first round then took care of Kelwin Dewitt/Brian Dushock (Samford), 8-3. Zachary Pine/Lemon were blanked, 8-0, by Michael Jung/Trey Walston (Alabama) in the White Doubles while the mixed team of Jonathan Pine/Oscar Muchuca (Southern Miss) lost, 8-3, to Creighton Blanchard/Houssam Yassina (Alabama).
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