Luis Flores and Sasa Markovic combined for five singles victories in their SMU debuts, giving the Mustangs an encouraging start to the fall season.
SMU men's tennis got an encouraging first look at two newcomers over the weekend as Luis Flores and Sasa Markovic combined for five singles victories at Harvard's Chowderfest in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Flores made his college debut and immediately showed he could handle the jump in competition. He finished the tournament 3-1 in singles, highlighted by straight-set wins over Virginia Tech's Gevorg Mnatsakanyan and Cornell's Rushil Khosla.
His most impressive comeback came against Illinois' Colson Wells. After dropping the opening set 6-1, Flores responded by taking the next two, 6-3 and 6-4.
Markovic also delivered a productive opening weekend in an SMU uniform, finishing 2-1.
He knocked off a pair of Yale opponents, beating Jim Ji 6-2, 7-5 before handling Dylan Tsoi 6-3, 6-3. Markovic's only singles loss came against Cornell's Felipe Pinzon.
"It was great to see Sasa and Luis get their first wins as Mustangs," assistant coach Bryce Pereira said. "We had a lot of positive takeaways from the weekend."
The doubles results weren't nearly as successful, but they gave SMU an early measuring stick.
Flores and Markovic went 0-3 together, losing to tandems from Dartmouth, Illinois and Cornell. Their closest match came against Cornell's nationally ranked pairing of Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar and Khosla, which defeated the SMU duo 6-4.
Still, the singles performances gave the Mustangs plenty to build on.
SMU is coming off its fourth NCAA Championship appearance in five seasons and reached the second round last spring under head coach Grant Chen. The fall schedule is designed to give the Mustangs several chances to test themselves against national-level competition before dual-match play begins.
"Now we go back to work in Dallas," Pereira said.
That turnaround won't last long.
SMU will send several players to Thousand Oaks, California, for the Sherwood Collegiate Cup from Friday through Sunday, where the field includes programs such as UCLA, USC, California, Pepperdine and BYU.
