Oct. 19, 2009

MADISON, Wis.

After the first day of play at the ITA Midwest Regional Championships, second-seeded Moritz Baumann, fifth-seeded Marek Michalicka and 14th-seeded Patrick Pohlmann advanced in the main singles bracket.

In the first round, Baumann easily defeated Sven Burus of Toledo 6-2, 6-3. He later upset Ohio State's Steven Williams in a 6-3, 6-3 match.

Michalicka also advanced two rounds on Friday, defeating Mark Rutherford of Marquette 6-3, 6-1. The junior then battled through two tie-breakers to defeat Michigan's George Navas, 7-6(4), 7-6(6).

Also contributing to the Badger wins was Pohlmann who defeated Matej Zlatkovic of Illinois State 6-4, 6-2 in the opening round. Later that day, he upset Ben Hartman of DePaul, 6-2, 7-5.

Luke Rassow-Kantor beat Chris Cha of Michigan in a tight 6-7(1), 6-4, 7-5 match. He then fell to Stephen Havens of North Dakota 6-1, 6-3 in the second round.

Freshman Billy Bertha overpowered Illinois State's Michael Hobson 6-4, 6-3 before losing in the second round to the No. 8 seed Balazs Novak of Ohio State in a 7-6(4), 6-0 match.

Chris Freeman was pushed to three sets by Matija Palinic of DePaul before winning the 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 match. After the victory, No. 4-ranked Jason Jung of Michigan proved too much to handle as he beat Freeman 6-4, 6-2.

Michael Dierberger lost 6-3, 7-6(7) in the opening round to Connor Roth of Illinois. He will play Skip Span of Illinois State in the first match of the consolation bracket.

On the doubles side, the top-seeded team of Baumann and Michalicka and the No. 12-seeded duo Dierberger and Pohlmann both received first-round byes. Bertha and Freeman teamed up yesterday against Harbo-Robare of UIC in an 8-4 victory.

Check back to UWBadgers.com for further tournament updates.