Tahirovic Into Final 16 at ITA Regionals

RESULTS

PRINCETON, N.J. – After playing a marathon doubles match earlier in the day, Bucknell senior Amar Tahirovic came back in the afternoon to post a three-set singles win over Penn State's Reiya Hattori to move on to the Round of 16 at the ITA Northeast Regional at Princeton.

Tahirovic and Hattori split the first two sets at 6-4, with Hattori forcing the third and deciding set. Tahirovic prevailed 7-5 in the third, and now he will face Columbia's Aditya Govila in the final 16 on Sunday. Govila was a straight-set winner over Maxime Hankins of NJIT on Saturday.

On Saturday morning, Tahirovic and Brendan McDonald played a barnburner in the doubles Round of 32, but the Bison duo dropped an agonizing 8-7 (10-8) verdict to Milan Markovits and Sawyer Severance of Princeton. Bucknell had two match points in the tiebreaker, but ultimately a couple of unlucky bounces let courts proved costly. Up 7-6, Tahirovic had a shot down the channel covered at the net, but the ball clipped the tape and hopped over his racquet. Then at 7-7, McDonald's second serve hit the tape and popped straight up in the air, only to fall back on his side. The Bison staved off one Princeton match point, but the Tigers won the two in a row at 8-8 to advance.

Adam Stavrakas was also in action on Saturday. He fell 6-3, 6-3 to Markovits in the main draw consolation round.

Tahirovic will be looking to stay alive for an automatic bid to the NCAA Individual Championships. The two singles finalists will secure tickets to NCAAs in Lake Nona, Fla., Nov. 18-23.

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Players Mentioned

Brendan McDonald

Adam Stavrakas

Amar Tahirovic