Oct. 18, 2007

MIDLAND, Texas (SMU)-- The SMU men's tennis team competed at the Midland Invitational last weekend, Oct. 12-14. Three redshirt freshmen took on strong national and international competitors and fared well against them.

In singles action, Adham El-Efendi and Taylor St. Eve each lost in the first round of play, to former junior Wimbledon and junior French Open champion Kellen Damico of Texas and Bruno Alcala of Arizona, respectively, sending both to the consolation bracket.

Darren Walsh beat Vishnu Rajam of Rice in straight sets (6-4, 6-4), but fell to Nick Meister of UCLA, 6-2, 6-2.

El-Efendi and St. Eve each made it as far as the semi-finals in the consolation bracket. El-Efendi defeated Hugo Taracido of UTA (6-4, ret.) before also beating Ahmed Ismail of UCLA (6-3, 7-6). In the semi-finals, El-Efendi fell to Christen Rojmar of Texas Tech (6-2, 6-4). St. Eve bested Dmitry Minkin of UTA (5-7, 7-5, 7-6) and went on to also beat Tyler Tamasky of Arkansas (7-5, 6-2). St. Eve then took on eventual champion Hubert Chodkiewicz of Texas, losing in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1.

In doubles play, St. Eve and Walsh defeated Texas A&M's top pair of Chirlco and Makowski, 6-4, before losing to Damico and Chodkiewicz of Texas.

"We always go to tournaments trying to win them, but I was very, very pleased that against top national competition, our redshirt freshmen competed well," said head coach Carl Neufeld. "I feel like the guys played to their personal bests, which is always a goal of ours. I am very excited about this group of redshirt freshmen."