University of San Francisco Athletics

FORT WORTH, Texas – After falling to No. 35 TCU in the morning matches, the San Francisco men's tennis team rebounded with a decisive 5-1 victory over South Carolina-Upstate Saturday at the TCU Spring Invitational.

The Dons move to 4-4 on the season after Saturday competition, while TCU stands at 5-2 and USC-Upstate falls to 3-7.

Due to a later than expected start to the match the teams agreed to forgo doubles play, and USF dominated singles competition against the Spartans. Germain Bahri led the charge with a straight-set victory over freshman Rajanvir Dharni, 6-3, 6-2. Bahri, a senior from Gosselies, Belguim, set the tone for the match as Thomas Takemoto, Timothy Tan and James Tallman also notched straight-set victories.

Nils Skajaa was able to pull out a victory against Gonzalo Blanco, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, to account for USF's fifth and final point in the USF victory. Bernardo Saraiva, after a grueling morning match was forced to retire in his dual with Ramon Simonetti to give South Carolina-Upstate its only point against the Dons.

USF opened play Saturday against the weekend hosts from TCU, and the 35th-ranked team in the nation pulled away for a 6-1 win over the Dons. No. 1 singles player Saraiva powered through to give USF its lone point in the match, defeating Facundo Lugones, ranked No. 60 by ITA Tennis, 7-6, 3-6, 10-3.

"Bernardo fought like a Don today at No. 1 and won his match in a third-set tiebreaker," head coach Pablo Pires de Almeida said. TCU is a tough, hard-working team and they deserve to do well this season."

USF continues competition in the Lone Star State Sunday, facing off with Lamar at 8 a.m. PT.
 

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No. 35 TCU 6, San Francisco 1
Feb. 22 | Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center | Fort Worth, Texas

Singles | Order of finish: 6, 2, 4*, 3, 5, 1
No. 1 – Bernardo Saraiva (USF) def. #60 Facundo Lugones (TCU); 7-6, 3-6, 10-3
No. 2 – #77 Nick Chappell (TCU) def. Nils Skajaa (USF); 6-0, 6-3
No. 3 – Amau Dachs (TCU) def James Tallman (USF); 6-2, 6-4
No. 4 – Trey Daniel (TCU) def. Germain Bahri (USF); 6-1, 6-4
No. 5 – Rodolfo Bustamante (TCU) def. Thomas Takemoto (USF); 6-1, 7-6(7-2)
No. 6 – Jhonathan Gonzalez (TCU) def. Rich Van Hout (USF); 6-1, 6-2

Doubles | Order of finish: 2, 1
No. 1 – #18 Chappell/Stein (TCU) def. Saraiva/Skajaa (USF); 8-4
No. 2 – Dahs/Daniel (TCU) def. Brockstedt/Van Hout (USF); 8-1
No. 3 –Blake/Lugones (TCU) vs. Bahri/Tan (USF); abandoned
 

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San Francisco 5, South Carolina-Upstate 1
Feb. 22 | Friedman Tennis Courts | Fort Worth, Texas

Singles | Order of finish: 4, 1, 5, 3, 6*, 2
No. 1 – Ramon Simonetti (USCU) def. Bernardo Saraiva (USF); 6-4, 2-0 ret.
No. 2 – Nils Skajaa (USF) def. Gonzalo Blanco (USCU); 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
No. 3 – James Tallman (USF) def. Yvon Haessig (USCU); 7-5, 6-4
No. 4 – Germain Bahri (USF) def. Rajanvir Dharni (USCU); 6-3, 6-2
No. 5 – Thomas Takemoto (USF) def. Carlos Tajes (USCU); 6-2, 6-2
No. 6 – Timothy Tan (USF) def. Pedro Carvalho (USCU); 6-1, 7-5
*Due to time and light constraints, doubles matches were not played