Sept. 17, 2017
ST HELENA, California – The Texas A&M men's tennis team won all three singles matches on Day Three of the Napa Valley Tennis Classic at the Meadowood Resort in St. Helena, Ca. The Aggies were joined at the Napa Valley showdown by players from Baylor, North Carolina, Southern Cal, Tulsa and host-school Cal along with 8 USTA junior players.
No. 93 Valentin Vacherot rounded out a perfect weekend in the Golden State by defeating Matt Gamble of Notre Dame 6-1, 6-3. No. 108 Catanzariti defeated Axel Nefve of the USTA High Performance Team, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to keep his perfect record this season intact. Freshman Juan Carlos Aguilar joined Catanzariti and Vacherot in Sunday's win column, topping Constantin Franzten of Baylor, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
"I thought we had a very good weekend only losing one singles and doubles match the whole weekend," Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton said. "More importantly the team all played better as the weekend progressed, which is what a coach wants to see early in the season. I was very proud of AJ winning the sportsmanship award. He has made great strides in that area and as a senior, he is setting a good standard for our younger players to follow. All the boys represented Texas A&M very well in the Napa Valley."
Singles play in California consisted of eight groups of four players (three college players and one USTA player) playing a round robin of one match per day that began Friday morning and wrapped up Sunday. Group winners were entered in an eight man tie-breaker shootout draw.
"It was a really good weekend for myself and the team," Vacherot said. "I played a really solid match this morning and was really relaxed. Hopefully I'm on the way for a really good year, it's always good to start like this for the confidence especially because I haven't played on hard courts since May."
Catanzariti and Vacherot advanced to Sunday's shootout draw, both Aggies claimed wins in the quarterfinals before Vacherot advanced to the finals. The Frenchman fell to former teammate and current Oklahoma junior, Alexandre Bakshi, in the final match.
"We had a really good weekend in California," Catanzariti said. "It was kind of unlucky that neither Val nor I was able to win the shoot out, but in a 10-point breaker anything can happen. Hopefully I can build off this weekend and use it in the professional tournament next weekend."
The Napa Valley Classic was founded as a collaborative effort on the part of Cal-Berkeley Head Coach Peter Wright and Meadowood Tennis Pro Doug King to bring exciting, top-rated tennis to the Napa Valley.
2017 Napa Valley Tennis Classic
St. Helena, CA
Day One Results
Jochen Bertsch (OU) def. Juan Carlos Aguilar (TAMU) 6-4, 6-4
No. 108 AJ Catanzariti (TAMU) def. No. 104 Alex Lebedev (ND) 6-4, 6-7(8), 6-1
No. 93 Valentin Vacherot (TAMU) def. Nathan Han (USTA) 4-6, 6-0, 7-6(3)
Catanzariti/Vacherot (TAMU) def. Keenan Mayo/Axel Nefve (USTA) 6-4
Aguilar/Tadiwa Chinamo (TAMU /Pacific) def. Andrew Dale/Andres Martin (USTA) 6-3
Day Two Results
Aguilar (TAMU) def. Dale (USTA) 6-2, 6-2
No. 93 Vacherot (TAMU) def. Jake DeVine (USC) 6-1, 7-6(2)
No. 108 Catanzariti (TAMU) def. Kotorman (Baylor) 6-2, 4-6, 6-3
Catanzariti/Vacherot (TAMU) def. Thibault Forget/Tanner Smith (USC) 6-3
Catanzariti/Vacherot (TAMU) def. DeVine/Mateusz Smolicki (USC) 6-2
Day Three Results
No. 93 Vacherot (TAMU) def. Matt Gamble (ND) 6-1, 6-3
Aguilar (TAMU) def. Constantin Frantzen (Baylor) 2-6, 6-3, 6-2
No. 108 Catanzariti (TAMU) def. Nefve (USTA) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2