LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Portland had a strong performance during the qualifying rounds on day one Thursday at the Southern California Intercollegiate Championships. Four Pilots advanced through qualifiers into Friday's main draw in singles, while the doubles tandem of Maxim Groysman and Fabian Gusic also qualified.

Nikola Keremedchiev and Nikolas Tvedt won two matches to earn their spots. Keremedchiev knocked off Goran Zgola of Oklahoma State in straight sets and then defeated USC's Niroop Vallabhaneni in three sets. Tvedt beat Nebraska's Nikolay Sysoev 7-6, 6-4 and then qualified with a 7-5, 6-7 (2), 6-0 victory against Maks Silagy of SMU.

Nicolas Ocana received a bye and then cruised to a 6-1, 6-3 win against Idriss Haddouch of Boise State to advance, while Luka Vukovic pulled out a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 versus Sam De Vries of UC Davis to qualify. Oscar Brown earned automatic entry into the main draw, so the Pilots will have five singles representatives among the field of 32.

Portland will have two doubles teams in the main draw with the tandem of Vukovic and Tvedt earning automatic entry.

"We played a massive amount of tennis today against some really good competition," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "We won some and lost some, but at the end of the day our three Nic's and Luka Vukovic came up big to move on to the main draw tomorrow. Vukovic and Keremedchiev both got three set wins after losing the first, and Tvedt had two battles against solid players that he got through from Nebraska and SMU. Groysman and Gusic played very good doubles to move on as well. A few of our young guys have some stepping up to do, but they will get more opportunities tomorrow and through the weekend."

Main draw action begins tomorrow with doubles starting at 10 a.m., followed by Round of 32 singles action at 11 a.m. Complete draws and results will be updated here throughout the tournament.

66th Annual Southern California Intercollegiate Championships
Los Angeles, Calif. (David X. Marks Tennis Stadium)
October 26-29, 2023

Qualifying Singles
1 Nikola Keremedchiev (POR) def. Goran Zgola (OKST) 6-1, 6-3
1 Nikolas Tvedt (POR) def. Nikolay Sysoev (NEB) 7-6 (5), 6-4
1 Maxim Groysman (POR) def. Logan Thompson (WEST) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3
1 Fabian Gusic (POR) def. Ethan Sherwood (CLU) 6-3, 6-1
1 Blake Kasday (USD) def. Cade Fernando (POR) 6-3, 6-1
1 Mario Aleksic (CUI) def. Stefan Skobelev (POR) 6-4, 6-4
1 Eduardo Gonzalez (UCD) def. Tannor Binder (POR) 6-4, 6-1
2 Keremedchiev (POR) def. Niroop Vallabhaneni (USC) 1-6, 6-3, 6-4
2 Luka Vukovic (POR) def. Sam De Vries (UCD) 4-6, 6-1, 6-2
2 Nicolas Ocana (POR) def. Idriss Haddouch (BSU) 6-1, 6-3
2 Tvedt (POR) def. Maks Silagy (SMU) 7-5, 6-7 (2), 6-0
2 Casper Christensen (ARIZ) def. Gusic (POR) 6-1, 6-1
2 Rudolf Christiansen (NEB) def. Groysman (POR) 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (6)

Qualifying Doubles
1 Gusic/Groysman (POR) def. Sam De Vries/Eduardo Gonzalez (UCD) 6-2
1 Miha Velicki/Elias Walter (APU) def. Binder/Skobelev (POR) 6-2
2 Gusic/Groysman (POR) def. Christian Kuehne/Savriyan Danilov (USD) 6-3
2 Anton Shepp/Nikolay Sysoev (NEB) def. Ocana/Fernando (POR) 6-3

Main Draw Singles
32 Vukovic vs. Han-Chih Lin (WASH) Friday, 11 AM
32 Oscar Brown (POR) vs. Casper Christensen (ARIZ) Friday, 11:30 AM
32 Tvedt (POR) vs. Hiroki Sakagawa (UCI) Friday, 12:45 PM
32 Ocana (POR) vs. Samuel Rubell (USC) Friday, 1 PM
32 Keremedchiev (POR) vs. Inaki Cabrera-Bello (ARIZ) Friday, 2:15 PM

Main Draw Doubles
16 Gusic/Groysman (POR) vs. Arthus de la Bassetiere/Kabeer Kapasi (RICE) Friday, 10 AM
16 Tvedt/Vukovic (POR) vs. Colter Smith/Raz Haviv (CP) Friday, 10 AM
 

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