Idaho leaves Boise winning two different flights, consolation bracket championship
Showing no signs of his tennis elbow injury that has hampered him since last spring, senior Cristobal Ramos Salazar swept the Flight B singles at the Dar Walters Fall Tennis Classic Friday to Sunday in Boise. Ramos Salazar was one of three Vandals to win a flight or consolation bracket in the tournament.
Ramos Salazar, who was a second-team All-WAC singles honoree last season, came back from a disappointing first tournament and cruised through Flight B to finish 4-0 in the tournament. He defeated Yonas Woldetsadik from Lewis-Clark State College 6-4, 6-3, Peter Jivokov of Whitman College 7-6, 6-3, and Peter Mimnagh-Fleming from Montana 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, before beating fellow Vandal Jackson Varney 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4), in the championship.
Varney, playing in his second tournament for Idaho after transferring from Prairie View A&M, also had a disappointing first tournament plagued by injuries. Fortunately, he was able to recover in Boise this weekend. Varney beat Pierre Garcia from Portland in the opening round 6-4, 6-4, followed by dispersing of Stefan Cooper of Weber State 6-3, 6-3, and Harry James of Montana State 7-5, 6-4,to get to the championship.
It came down to the wire for the all-Vandal championship match. Ramos Salazar took the first set 6-4, before Varney came back and tied it up — after winning the second set 6-3. The back-and-forth match concluded with Ramos Salazar coming away with the 7-6 (4) win.
Idaho coach Art Hoomiratana was pleased with both his players’ performances.
“(Ramos Salazar) did really good actually. He won four matches, had a really tough final against Jackson (Varney),” Hoomiratana said. “Really physical match. It was long, something like three hours. They both competed really well, so that’s good to see.”
Both Varney’s and Ramos Salazar’s past injuries did not appear to bother them in the tournament.
“Jackson looked good. We didn’t talk about (the injury) very much, so that’s probably a good sign,” Hoomiratana said. “(Ramos Salazar) is good. His arm was hurting before, but he’s fine.”
Hoomiratana said both players have recovered from their injuries and no other Vandal is currently experiencing injury concerns.
Ramos Salazar wasn’t the only Vandal coming away with championships over the weekend, as freshman Mark Kovacs also won Flight C singles. Kovacs defeated Eric Fought from Montana State 1-6, 6-1, 6-2, and Justin Archer of Utah 6-4, 6-1. After those matches, Kovacs faced off against Sebastian Schneider from Utah State in an intense semifinal match — winning 7-6(8), 2-6, 6-4. In the championship match, the freshman easily beat Johan Jonhagen of Utah 6-1, 6-2, for his first championship of his career at Idaho.
“Mark played really well. Went 4-0 and got better every match,” Hoomiratana said of Kovacs. “Every match he plays he’s getting better.”
It was the second straight week a freshman won a championship for Idaho, after last weekend’s win by Felipe Fonseca. This Friday’s tournament didn’t go exactly the same for Fonseca, as he lost to Thomasz Soltyka in Flight A of Montana in the first round, sending him to the consolation bracket.
Fellow Vandal Odon Barta, who won the consolation bracket in Flight A last weekend at Eastern Washington, found himself in the consolation bracket again after a first round loss to Santiago Sierra of Utah. Both Barta and Fonseca won their next three games to face off in the consolation championship, where Barta won 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, for his second straight consolation championship.
For the other Vandals, freshman Rhys Richardson won his first two games in Flight D, before losing in the semifinals to Louis-Phillipe Gascon of Utah and Hou-en Chen of Weber State in the third place game.
In doubles play, Ramos Salazar and Fonseca competed as a team, and lost to a pair from Weber State 8-3 in the opening round. Varney and Richardson also competed as a pair in the Blue Draw, winning their first three matches before losing to an Idaho State pair in the semifinals.
Hoomiratana said he was impressed with the team overall.
“I thought it went really well. They fought hard the whole way, competed really well,” Hoomiratana said. “Really big improvement from last week, but still not where we need to be.”
Idaho will have this weekend off, before heading to the ITA Regionals in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 15th-19th.
Ben Evensen can be reached at [email protected]