The Emory men’s tennis team began their defense of their 2019 NCAA Division III National Championship at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) South Regional Championships, held at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College (Ga.) between Sept. 20 and Sept. 22. The team returned home with all four titles in both Flight A and B — a pair of doubles championships and a pair of singles titles by sophomore Antonio Mora and freshman Michael Moll.
The Eagles kicked off the 2019-20 season on Friday with nine singles players competing in Flight A and three singles players in Flight B.
Five of the seven Emory players who advanced on Saturday fell in their first matches. Hassan Kenawi had the most notable loss, a heartbreaker to sophomore Jhonny Acosta of North Carolina Wesleyan College (NCWC) with a score of 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (5). Both Esses and Mora cruised through their quarterfinals matches to advance to the semifinals on Sept. 22. Esses won 6-2, 6-2 against NCWC junior Roberto Puig, while Mora beat Acosta 6-2, 6-1.
On Sunday, in the Flight A singles, both Mora and Esses won their semifinals matchups over Sewanee and advanced to play each other in the finals. In the finals, Mora won the ITA South Regional singles title with a victory over Esses, 6-4, 6-1, but both secured spots in the ITA Cup next month.
Head Coach John Browning discussed how the experience from winning last year’s national championship as a team contributed to both Esses’ and Mora’s successful play.
“That experience playing under pressure [last year] helped them in this tournament,” Browning said. “It’s not a surprise that [Mora] won. Antonio’s a very talented kid.”
In Flight B, all three Emory singles were able to place in the semifinals. In that round, the all-Emory match between freshman Samuel Dean and sophomore Pushkar Shinde did not disappoint; in a thrilling tiebreaker, Dean defeated Shinde 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (7). Meanwhile, Moll advanced to the finals after defeating junior Calvin Schneider of Oglethorpe University (Ga.) 6-2, 6-2. The next day, Moll secured his first collegiate title by a score of 6-4, 6-4 over Dean.
Moll noted that playing in the finals against his teammate was different compared to playing against other schools.
“I think we both handled the situation well and competed our hardest,” Moll said.
The doubles matches of Flights A and B also began on Friday, with eight Emory duos competing in Flight A and one freshmen team in Flight B. Junior Will Wanner and Mora won both of their Friday matches with scores of 8-4 over Berry and NCWC. Sverdlov made his collegiate debut with Kenawi, and the duo won their opening matches against Guilford College (N.C.) and Sewanee, 8-4 and 8-3, respectively.
On Saturday, in the quarterfinals of the Flight A doubles, Wanner and Mora breezed by teammates Kenawi and Sverdlov, 8-1. The duo then defeated Acosta and sophomore Juan Vallejo of NCWC 8-4 to advance to the finals on Sunday.
In the finals, Wanner and Mora fought hard from a 6-2 deficit in the tiebreak to defeat Acosta and Vallejo 6-4, 4-6, 10-8 and claim the Flight A doubles title. The duo will play again next month in the ITA Cup. The freshmen doubles team of William Coupe and Moll were the only Emory pair in Flight B. The pair advanced all the way to the finals where they won their first doubles collegiate tournament in Flight B by virtue of a walkover from Sewanee duo senior Hamza Khan and senior Aubrey Davis.
Browning, impressed by the debuts of the first years, discussed how they will contribute to the team heading into conference play.
“[The freshmen] did really well,” Browning said. “The great thing is that they have the right attitude in terms of their work ethic and understanding how important it is to be a part of a team.”
The team next takes the court on Oct. 11 for the three-day Grizzly Open at Georgia Gwinnett College.
