FGCU M. TEN: Bedford Cup Recap

The FGCU Men's Tennis team kicked off their fall season with a bang this weekend at the Bedford Cup, winning championships at #2 singles and #1 doubles while also bringing home the Sportsmanship Award courtesy of senior Felipe Escobar.

"This tournament was a great way for us to start the season." Head coach CJ Weber said. "We were challenged in a variety of ways. In some ways, we were successful; in other ways, we were not. But I love coaching these guys, and we're ready to start this journey. I'm really excited we are able to take home two championships and the sportsmanship award in our first effort of the season."

Escobar took the court for the Eagles at Flight 1. In his first match of the weekend, he dropped a tough 6-3, 7-5 decision to Jason Legall of FAU, but bounced back in the consolation bracket with a 7-6 (1), 6-4 victory over Richard Thongoana of Florida State to finish on a positive note. At the conclusion of the tournament, Escobar was honored with the Sportsmanship Award for his class throughout the weekend.

The Eagles sent three to the court in the Flight 2 draw. Junior Feliksas Sakalauskas was the first to see action, putting together a solid 6-2, 6-2 win over Dennis Moses of Stetson in the first round to advance to the quarters.

Senior Mateo Ruiz was the next to take the court as he took the first set 6-3 over Joe Ellis of North Florida, but was unable to build on the momentum as he dropped the second 6-3 and the third 6-2 to send him to the consolation bracket.

Junior Marcelo Tebet also saw action in the draw, falling in a hard-fought  7-5, 6-3 decision to Jose Plazas of Bethune-Cookman to push him to the consolations as well.

Sakalauskas continued to roll in the quarters, picking up a 6-4, 7-6 (7) upset win over top seeded Vasyl Kiselyov of UCF before steamrolling Ellis in the semis 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the title match.  In the finals, Sakalauskas squared off against another North Florida Osprey, this time Nile Duarte, but the result was the same as the semis as Sakalauskas grinded out a 7-5, 7-6 (0) win to clinch the championship in his first tournament as an Eagle.


"Feli and Mateo played a great level with the right attitudes throughout the whole tournament. Feliksas...I mean, what a debut for him in an FGCU uniform! He played with an incredible amount of discipline all weekend, and was rewarded with a title! For the sportsmanship award, this was awarded by a vote from all the coaches. Felipe is just a remarkable young man, and I'm happy our competitors saw that in him, and he was recognized for a value that means a lot to him and everybody here in the FGCU family!"

In Flight 3, sophomore Nicolas Tibaudin represented the Eagles. Tibaudin got off to a slow start, falling 6-0, 6-1 to Luis Espinosa Bares of Florida A&M in his opener and couldn't find his groove in the consolations, dropping a 6-1, 7-6 (6) decision to Phillip Lynch of Bethune-Cookman to end his tournament.

In the top flight of doubles action, the Eagles soared. Escobar and Ruiz represented the Eagles in three nail-biting pro sets to make their way to the finals. In the opening round, they snuck past Burnette/Yatsuk of USF 8-7 followed by an 8-5 win over 3rd seeded Hilderbrand/Rubio of UCF to push on to the semis. In the semis they took down the top seeded and former top 20 ranked juniors pair of Decamps/Mazzuchi in another 8-7 thriller and finished off the weekend in style with a decisive 8-3 victory over Guy/Horta of FAU to claim the title.

At Flight 2 doubles it was Sakalauskas and Tebet teaming up for the Eagles. The duo dropped their first match 8-4 against Aycart/Shimamoto of Miami, but bounced back for a 6-0 blanking of Florida State's Le Seguillon/Nahrung in the consolations to take home the back draw title.

The Eagles return to action on October 17-21 in Athens, Georgia where they will compete in the ITA Southeast Regional Championships.