The Nevada Men’s Tennis team had a busy weekend in Davis, winning 28 of their 45 matches and seeing four finalists across six draws in both singles and doubles.
Two of the Pack’s returners made runs to their respective draw’s championship matches, including senior Youssef Kadiri and sophomore Rémy Trégourès.
Kadiri’s run in the white draw opened with a three-set victory over Cal Poly’s Bastiaan Weststrate. Kadiri dropped the opening set in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (4), but then reversed the momentum, winning 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-0. He went on to win back-to-back tiebreakers against California’s Alexander Aney, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4), clinching a spot in the semifinals. Kadiri won his semifinal match against Carlos Ramos of Saint Mary’s, 6-4, 6-4. Ultimately, his run was ended by UC Davis’s star, Ryan Torres, with a 6-2, 6-2 loss.
In the gold draw, the Wolf Pack won all three round of 16 matches, with Trégourès advancing to the final. Trégourès’s tournament began with a tight 6-4, 7-6 (5) victory over Cal Poly’s John Cross. Freshmen Axel Huysmans and Max Contet won their opening matches against Christoff Schaertlin Coffey (Pacific) and Sean Ferguson (Cal Poly), respectively. Huysmans defeated Schaertlin Coffey, 6-4, 7-6, while Contet beat Ferguson, 6-1, 6-4.
Trégourès continued his run by defeating Niv Zuckerman of Pacific, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, in the quarterfinals, and then beating Cal Poly Mustang Jack McGary, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (1). Perry Di Giulio, who had eliminated Contet 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals, defeated Trégourès to win the gold draw championship.
Rayen Hermassi won his opening match in thrilling fashion, defeating UC Davis’s Kurt Miller, 7-5, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (6).
The Pack also had a doubles team reach both doubles finals hosted at the tournament. In the blue draw, Kadiri and Hermassi defeated a mismatched duo, Aidan Watt of Saint Mary’s and Alex Aney of California, 8-4. The North African duo continued their run with a win over UC Davis’s Rithvik Katpelly and Ryan Torres, 8-3. A semifinal tiebreaker victory over Cal Poly’s Weststrate and Cross, 8-7 (6), earned them a spot in the final. However, Gonzaga’s Giovanni Branchetti and Jay Fairclaw defeated Kadiri and Hermassi, 8-5, to win the draw.
Paul Théate and Greg Valente also made a strong showing in the white draw, finishing as runners-up. The French pairing defeated Santa Clara’s Mahir Khurana and Payton Jim On, 8-6, and then took down Schaertlin Coffey and Zuckerman from Pacific, 8-5, to earn a spot in the final. After defeating UC Davis’s Di Giulio and Ivan Savkin, 8-6, Théate and Valente faced another UC Davis duo in the final. Ultimately, De Vries and Miller won the white draw in a long match that ended in a tiebreaker, defeating Théate and Valente, 8-7 (6).
Nevada played 13 total singles consolation matches, winning 11 of them. Notable consolation victories included Théate going 2-0 with wins over Schaertlin Coffey, 6-3, 6-2, and John Kim of Santa Clara, 6-2, 6-3. Valente turned his singles weekend around after dropping his first-round match to Clayton Anderson (Cal Poly). Valente won three consolation matches, finishing the weekend 3-1. Five of the six Pack members who played in consolation matches won two or more of their extra matches.
The Pack will make a quick turnaround to the Mountain West Fall Qualifier, starting Wednesday, October 2. The winner of the Mountain West Fall Qualifier will earn a spot in the ITA Conference Masters tournament, a pathway to the NCAA Individual Championships.
Nevada Athletics contributed to this report.
