Brave and bold — Idaho men’s tennis wins three of five main draws at EWU Classic over the weekend

Heading into the EWU Classic from Friday to Sunday, in Cheney, Wash., Vandal men’s tennis coach Jeff Beaman was expecting a lot out of his team. After their performance this weekend, he said he wasn’t disappointed.

Beaman said the men put in a strong showing this weekend against good teams in the region, but they will need to pick it up even more next weekend in the Boise State Fall Classic.

“Boise is always a strong team and there will be a few teams that didn’t travel to Cheney,” Beaman said.

If the weather cooperates this week and allows them to get in some good practice, they should be able to build on their performance this weekend, Beaman said.

Heading into the weekend, Beaman said he hoped to see teammates winning against each other in the semifinals. He got something even better in the first flight when Jose Bendeck — the second seed in the flight — beat Cristobal Ramos Salazar in the Flight 1 finals 6-4, 7-6(2).

“Cristobal had a really good showing,” Beaman said. “He beat a player he lost to last week at Baylor on the way to the final.”

In the Flight 1 consolation bracket, third-seeded Cesar Torres fell 6-7(8); 6-4; 1-0(7) in the consolation final.

In the Flight 2, second-seeded Andrew Zedde won the final over Montana’s Semion Branzburg 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

In Flight 3, third-seeded Filip Fichtel made it to the final before falling to the draw’s No. 1 seed 6-4, 6-4. Sam Laudon, who fell to the first seed in his first match, rallied back to win the consolation round.

In the Red Flight doubles draw, Bendeck and Ramos Salazar teamed up to win the draw. They won over Montana State’s third seeded team 8-7(2) in the final.

In the White Flight doubles, Laudon and Fichtel made it to the semifinals before falling to the top seeded team from Gonzaga.

Beaman said there were a lot of things to like about the team’s performance this week.

“Obviously we had a lot of guys who went deep in their draws, but beyond that I really liked the effort Sam put in to win the consolation,” Beaman said. “And Filip had a good showing even though this was really his first action since dealing with a knee injury.”

Andrew Deskins can be reached at [email protected]

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