Oct. 2, 2006

TULSA, Okla. (SMU) - In his first match of the fall season, Federico Murgier defeated Anuwat Daladorn of Elon, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, in the opening rounds of the singles qualifying draw of the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Tennis Championships today. Murgier is slated to take on Blake Strode of Arkansas at 8 a.m. Tuesday to advance to the third round of the qualifier bracket. The Championships are being hosted by the University of Tulsa.

Daladorn, Murgier's first opponent, had to work his way through the pre-qualifying rounds, winning three matches to compete in the qualifying rounds and take-on Murgier. Strode, Murgier's morning opponent, defeated Billy Mertz of Alabama, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, in the first of round of play.

Murgier was accepted to compete in the qualifying rounds of the Championship as the pre-qualifying rounds took place last week and the qualifying and main draw rounds began this week. Fellow teammate, Alex Skrypko was accepted into the main draw which begins play on Wednesday.

The Polo All-American Tennis Championships include five days of qualifying events that precede the October 5-8 main draw. A 128-player pre-qualifying tournament took place Sept. 30-Oct. 1. This feeds into 128-player and 64-doubles team qualifying tournaments Oct. 2-5, which then feeds into the 64-player, 32-doubles team main draws.