Sophomore Kristian Marquart won both of his matches today at the first annual Penn Invitational.
He defeated Alex Frakes of St. Peter’s in the first round 6-3, 6-0. He then went on to triumph over St. Francis’s Sergio Carvajai 7-5, 6-1. Marquart said that his first set was hampered by an injury.
“At the beginning, I had some problems with my arm,” Marquart said.
Head coach Steve Mauro said that his injury probably resulted from his conditioning.
“[The injury] will probably bother him throughout the whole fall until he gets into playing shape,” Mauro said. “We’re not concerned about it at all.”
In the first set, Carvajai held a lead of 4-1. At that point, Marquart called a trainer to help him with his arm.
“The trainer came,” Marquart said. “She gave me a little bit of a massage and it was much better after that.”
After the massage, Marquart won 12 of the remaining 14 sets. He will play tomorrow in the semifinal of the second flight consolation bracket. His opponent will be Penn’s Blaine Willenborg.
“He (Marquart) was very strategic today,” Mauro said. “I think that the game plan that we had for him paid off.”
Senior Kacper Rams could not build on the momentum of Friday’s victory, falling to Will Spector of Brown 2-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-5).
“With tiebreakers, you never know,” Mauro said. “He played well. It could have gone either way.”
Freshman Maros Januvka won his first match of the day, beating St. Francis’s Kevin Pijper 6-3, 7-5. In his second match of the day, he lost to Jack Felich of NJIT 6-4, 6-1. The victory was his first collegiate win.
“We were happy that he got his first college win,” Mauro said.
In his first match of the day, sophomore Hernan Vasconez defeated Lawson Barter of St. Francis 6-2, 6-4.
“I played pretty solid,” Vasconez said. “[Barter] was good. He was serving… really well, but I figured out how to play him and win pretty easily.
He lost to Norfolk’s Daniel Grauel in his second match of the day. The score was unreported.
“I think he was just tired because it was his second match of the day,” Mauro said. “He just wasn’t as fresh as he normally is. He’s had a good fall, and we’re hoping he continues to progress.”
“We’ve been working really hard,” Vasconez said. “Weights and conditioning every day. This was my sixth or seventh match of the weekend, so I’m kind of tired.”
Freshman Nicholas Paulus lost his only match of the day, falling to Iowa’s Andres Estensorro 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8). Mauro was very impressed with his performance despite the loss.
“He had a great match,” Mauro said. “[Estensorro] is one of Iowa’s top players, so Nicholas really had a strong performance today.”
Freshman Hicham Belkssir did not play today due to an injured ankle.
“It’s still tender,” Mauro said. “He’s been trying to play with it, but his type of game involves a lot of movement, and it’s difficult for him to perform well when he’s not moving well.”
Marquart is the only player scheduled to play tomorrow, but Mauro said that Paulus may get to play a consolation match.
Evan Cross can be reached at evan.cross@temple.edu or on Twitter @EvanCross.
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