All seven first-round singles winners Tuesday at the Claremont Club Pro Classic are current or former college tennis players.
Two Oklahoma State players led the way as qualifier Artur Dubinski of Belarus, a Cowboys senior, and transfer Matej Vocel each posted wins during the first day of main-draw play at the USTA Pro Circuit $15,000 tournament taking place at the Claremont Club for the 23rd straight year.
Dubinski won the closest match on the day and his fifth straight of the tournament as he toppled No. 6-seed Mousheg Hovhannisyan, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-5. The 26-year-old Hovhannisyan played four seasons at Pepperdine, finishing up in 2013. Born in Armenia, Hovhannisyan’s father, Stepan, was a star table tennis player in the Soviet Union.
Vocel, the No. 7 seeded player from the Czech Republic, had the easiest match of the day as he dropped just one game against American Jeremy Sonkin, 6-0, 6-1.
In a matchup of two of Southern California’s top Open pro players, No. 2-seeded Henry Craig of Murrieta defeated tournament wild-card Gage Brymer, 6-3, 6-4. Craig is a former two-time Summit League Player of the Year (2014-15) at the University of Denver and Brymer played No. 1 at UCLA.
Henry Craig
Dominik Kellovsky (currently at Arizona State), Sam Shropshire (formerly of Northwestern University), Paul Oosterbaan (formerly of the University of Georgia), and Sumit Sarkar (Rice University sophomore) each posted victories.
The 6-foot-7 Oosterbaan is 22 years old and the No. 4 seeded player from Kalamazoo, Mich. A member of four SEC championship teams at the University of Georgia, he reached the singles final at an ITF Futures tournament in Calgary in June.
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Tuesday’s First-Round Singles Scores
Paul Oosterbaan (US) [4] def. Conor Berg (US), 6-4, 6-3
Sumit Sarkar (US) [8] def. Milen Ianakiev (GER), 6-3, 6-1
Matej Vocel (CZE) [7] def. Jeremy Sonkin (US), 6-0, 6-1
Dominik Kellovsky (CZE) [5] def. Tyler Mercier (US), 6-1, 6-4
Sam Shropshire (US) def. Joshua Ortlip (US) [wc], 2-6, 6-3, 4-0, retired
Artur Dubinski (BLR) [q] def. Mousheg Hovhannisyan (US) [6], 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-5
Henry Craig (US) [2] def. Gage Brymer (US) [wc], 6-3, 6-4