Auburn concluded play at the Georgia Tech Fall Invitational at the Ken Byars Tennis Complex in Atlanta Sunday. The invitational was Auburn's second event of the fall season, where four Tigers competed in both singles and doubles.
Senior Joseph Van Dooren, freshman Max Sivalls, sophomore Edward Nguyen and sophomore Viboosh Chandrasekar represented Auburn after not competing in the Duke Bonk Invitational last weekend.
"I'm sure there will be some nerves. How they handle that and that environment will probably be the biggest obstacle," said head coach Eric Shore.
The tournament consisted of a 64-player singles draw and a 32-team doubles draw with championship matches on Sunday. Competitors included: Arkansas, Auburn, Florida Gulf Coast, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State, Middle Tennessee State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, The Citadel and UNC Wilmington.
Van Dooren advanced in the singles bracket Friday, winning his first singles match 6-3, 6-2 over Kennesaw State's Alejandro Valencia. He was eliminated from the championship bracket Saturday with a three set 6-7, 6-2, 6-3 quarterfinal loss to Jose Salazar of Arkansas. The senior fell in consolation play Sunday after taking South Carolina's Alex Fennell to three sets.
Chandrasekar lost 6-0, 6-1 in singles on Friday but came back Saturday with his first victory of the season in the consolation singles bracket, Gianlucca Massa of UNC Wilmington 6-2, 6-4. He won his consolation singles matchup against Tennessee's Sunay Bhat by default on Sunday.
Van Dooren teamed with Nguyen for a doubles win on Friday, going on to be 8-5 winners Saturday over Gustav Hansson and Ricardo Jorge of Ole Miss. They fell to Casey and Michael Kay of Georgia Tech 8-5 in doubles semifinals.
The two Auburn team members playing their first match for the Tigers, Nguyen and Sivalls, both fell in their singles match ups and fell again in the consolation bracket Saturday.
The Tigers will return to action at the ITA Men's All-American Championships Oct. 3-12 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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