Cougars advance to singles semifinals and doubles quarterfinals at ITA Regional Championships

DENVER – BYU’s Mateo Vereau Melendez and Sean Hill will compete in the singles semifinals and two doubles teams will appear in the quarterfinals at the ITA Mountain Regional Championships Friday.

“We got off to a great start with both our teams advancing in doubles, followed by Sean and Mateo winning two back-to-back singles matches to advance into the semis,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. “It was a big day for the Cougars, especially so for Mateo by defeating a very good Denver player, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, on his home courts.”

Singles

Vereau Melendez and Hill both advanced to the semifinals after back-to-back wins in singles. In the round of 16, No. 12 seed Vereau Melendez defeated Ludvig Hallgren of the University of Montana, 7-6(4), 6-2. In a tough quarterfinal match, Vereau Melendez took down the University of Denver’s No. 2 seed Matt Summers in three sets, 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-2, sealing his spot in the semifinals.

No. 1 seed Hill took the victory in the round of 16 over Montana’s Oisan Shaffrey, 6-1, 6-3, and in the quarterfinals, he topped No. 10 seed Kris Van Wyk of Weber State, 6-2, 6-3.

Sam Tullis and Matheus Ferreira Leite put a fight in their round of 16 matches but came up short. Tullis fell to Denver’s James Davis, 3-6, 4-6, while Ferreira Leite dropped his match, 3-6, 2-6 to Van Wyk of Weber State.

Doubles

No. 1 seed Ben Gajardo and Tullis easily took down their round of 16 opponent, the University of North Dakota’s Edmond Aynedjian and Jake Kuhlam, 8-4. No. 3 seed Hill and Vereau Melendez topped Raul Dobai and Jake Trondson of the University of New Mexico 8-6.

“This is a long tournament, and a lot of matches have already been played,” Pearce continued. “Tomorrow is what our guys have been training so hard for. They will be ready to go.”

On Friday, the two Cougar pairs will represent BYU in the quarterfinals along with Hill and Vereau Melendez in the singles semifinals. Live scoring can be found here.